STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING - BASIC CONCEPTS AND APPLICATIONS IN PERSONALITY-ASSESSMENT RESEARCH

Structural equation modeling (SEM) has become an increasingly used met hodological strategy in psychology. Nevertheless, many psychologists c ontinue to be unclear about how to apply this analytic tool in their r esearch. This article reviews SEM from a conceptual perspective, parti cularly focusing on confirmatory factor analysis. Additionally, the re lation between SEM and other analytic techniques (e.g., exploratory fa ctor analysis) are addressed, A confirmatory factor analytic example i s presented and reviewed in detail. Finally, limitations of SEM and ot her considerations are discussed.