How to interpret factor analysis? Let's ditch the simple rules
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is one of the core tools of modern psychology, widely used to evaluate how psychological measurement instruments function. Despite its importance, CFA is often applied in an overly mechanical way. A new methodological study by Petr Palíšek and Edita Chvojka (INPSY), together with Anna Literová (IRTIS), warns that blind reliance on “magic” statistical cut-offs used to assess the quality of factor models – such as RMSEA or CFI – can lead to erroneous conclusions. In a clear and accessible tutorial, the authors demonstrate how model evaluation can be approached more thoughtfully and with a deeper understanding of what the data actually convey.
