I have conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) before CFA. I am looking for academic justification of doing so. The scales which i have adapted to measure constructs had no reliability issue. I am looking for any justification along with any reference of a paper or book to justify that exploratory factor analysis could be run before confirmatory factor analysis.
Good evening,
I think a justification could be if you use adopted scales, new scales, translated scales and other issues which could have changed the perception of your items.
Another reason could be the discriminant validity issue. Imagine that you introduce a new variable which is very similar to other even established measures. In order to see that there are no cross-loadings an EFA would be plausible.
Best,
Eugene
when the contextual environment is different we should apply EFA even if the scale is already validated.
I think, EFA gives a reduction in dimensions or filtration of items under a single factor through its factor loadings, and CFA authenticate this reduction in that particular context. So, without reducing the dimensions its confirmation does not make sense.
Hi Mazhar Ali,
Always the statiscal proceedings are polemic! And in the science we have many opinios.
There is justified if your scale is "virgin" and yet not supported by theory. (generated by Interviews or only researchers´ opinions) The name exploratory means exploration of data, when us do not have a theoretical factorial model. But we never applied EFA and CFA in same sample!
We usually split the same sample into two random groups. With the first, we do the AFE and with second sample we do the AFC.
EFA "...eventually leads to factors which the investigator then interprets. It tends to be stepwise (datadriven) rather than direct (theory-driven)" (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994, p. 450), i. e., CFA.
See:
Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. [chapter 11: Exploratory and Confirmatory Analysis p, 450 - ] for a very important explanation.
hope this helps.
Dirceu
Thanks Yevgen Bogodistov and Jeevan Jyoti . Could you please provide any references to support your responses?
EFA is necassary to check the uni dimensionality of factors and theory matching. However, CFA is more advance technique to verify the research instrument.
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