Exploratory Factor Analysis

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) has played a major role in research conducted in the social sciences for more than 100 years, dating back to the pioneering work of Charles Spearman on mental abilities. Since that time, EFA has become one of the most commonly used quantitative methods in many of the social sciences, including psychology, business, sociology, education, political science, and communications. To a lesser extent, it has also been utilized within the physical and biological sciences. Despite its long and widespread usage in many domains, numerous aspects of the underlying theory and application of EFA are poorly understood by researchers. Indeed, perhaps no widely used quantitative method…