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Writing about Factor Analysis

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Writing about Quantitative Research in Applied Linguistics

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Abstract

Factor analysis is a technique that is based on correlations. There are two types of factor analysis: exploratory and confirmatory. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used, as the name suggests, to investigate possible relationships between variables, while Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used to confirm or reject hypothesised relationships between variables. EFA and CFA are similar in their function concerning the reduction of data, but the execution and reporting of the results are very different.

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Further reading

  • Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using SPSS (4th ed.). London: Sage.

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  • Hayton, J. C., Allen, D. G., & Scarpello, V. (2004). Factor retention in exploratory factor analysis. Organizational Research Methods, 7(2), 191–205. doi: 10.1177/1094428104263675.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schumacker, R. E., & Lomax, R. G. (2004). A beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York: Psychology Press.

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  • Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sydney, Australia

    Lindy Woodrow

Authors
  1. Lindy Woodrow
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© 2014 Lindy Woodrow

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Cite this chapter

Woodrow, L. (2014). Writing about Factor Analysis. In: Writing about Quantitative Research in Applied Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230369955_10

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