Differences in estimated factor loadings
The differences between EFAs and CFAs are evident when examining the factor loadings. Not only are the procedures mathematically different, but the number of estimated parameters is also different. By default, EFAs estimate all possible item/factor pairs, while CFAs only estimate specified item/factor relationships. Let's take a look at a few of those estimated loadings and see how they differ.
Which of these loadings represent the EFA and CFA estimates of the relationship between item A1 and the fourth factor (named MR5)?
This exercise is part of the course
Factor Analysis in R
Hands-on interactive exercise
Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.
# View the first five rows of the EFA loadings
EFA_model$___[___,]
# View the first five loadings from the CFA estimated from the EFA results
summary(EFA_CFA)$___[___,]