Viewing and visualizing the factor loadings

Each fa() results object is actually a list, and each element of the list contains specific information about the analysis, including factor loadings. Factor loadings represent the strength and directionality of the relationship between each item and the underlying factor, and they can range from -1 to 1.

You can also create a diagram of loadings. The fa.diagram() function takes a result object from fa() and creates a path diagram showing the items’ loadings ordered from strongest to weakest. Path diagrams are more common for structural equation modeling than for factor analysis, but this type of visualization can be a helpful way to represent your results.