Writing about Factor Analysis

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.