methods
Confirmatory factor analysis is a statistical procedure for testing HYPOTHESES about the commonality among VARIABLES. As a MULTIVARIATE procedure, confirmatory factor analysis is used to simultaneously test multiple hypotheses that collectively constitute a measurement model. All such models comprise four components. [Source: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods; Confirmatory Factor Analysis]
confirmatory factor analysis
indicators
latent variables
loadings
maximum likelihood estimation
measurement error
quantitative data analysis
respecification
theory and methodology