方法对比

	多项探索性因子分析	验证性因子分析（CFA）
领域	心理测量学	心理测量学
方法族	Latent structure	Latent structure
起源年份	1978	1969
提出者	Bengt Muthén	Karl Gustav Jöreskog
类型	Latent variable / dimension reduction	Hypothesis-testing latent variable model
开创性文献	Flora, D. B., & Curran, P. J. (2004). An empirical evaluation of alternative methods of estimation for confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. Psychological Methods, 9(4), 466–491.	Jöreskog, K. G. (1969). A general approach to confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika, 34(2), 183–202.
别名	EFA for ordered-categorical data, polychoric EFA, ordinal exploratory factor analysis, polytomous factor analysis	CFA, confirmatory FA, measurement model, restricted factor analysis
相关	4	4
摘要	Polytomous exploratory factor analysis extends standard EFA to ordered categorical (Likert-type) response data by replacing the Pearson correlation matrix with a polychoric correlation matrix. It recovers the latent continuous variable that each polytomous item is assumed to reflect, yielding more accurate factor loadings and better-defined factor structures than treating ordinal scores as if they were continuous.	Confirmatory factor analysis tests a researcher-specified factor structure against observed data. Unlike exploratory approaches, the researcher decides in advance which indicators load on which latent factor, and the model is evaluated by how closely the implied covariance matrix reproduces the sample covariance matrix. CFA is central to scale validation, construct validity assessment, and measurement invariance testing.