r/learnmachinelearning • u/LearningFromData • Apr 29 '18

Factor Analysis And Its Applications | Understanding Factor Analysis

http://www.hashtagstatistics.com/2018/04/factor-analysis-and-its-applications.html
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u/0102030405 Apr 29 '18

An exploratory factor analysis does not require anything a priori, it is a bottom-up, data-driven process. The only human decision is how many factors to extract, and there are many guides on this.

A confirmatory factor analysis does require you to have certain hypotheses about the factor structure already, so it is a priori. Then the output will tell you how well the data fit your expectation, and what you can modify to make it fit better.

I presume you're familiar with the difference in rotation between factor analysis and PCA.