A technique for path analysis developed by the evolutionary biologist Sewall Wright (1895-1988), the recognized founder of path analysis, and first published in 1921. Its function is to display of a set of linear relationships among measured (manifest) and unmeasured (latent) variables. If the diagrams are drawn in complete form, all structural expectations of the model can be generated using a set of ‘path tracings’ rules. There is a distinction to be made between two sorts of path diagrams. An input path diagram is devised first in order to plan the analysis in order to depict possible connections between according to a particular hypothesis. An output path diagram represents the actual outcomes of the analysis. In the context of discussing path analysis, Everitt and Dunn (1991) offer a cautionary note: “However, convincing, respectable and reasonable a path diagram … may appear, any causal inferences extracted are rarely more than a form of statistical fantasy” (p. 108).
Everitt, B.S., & Dunn, G.G. (1991). Applied multivariate data analysis. London: Edward Arnold.
See Path analysis, Structural equation modelling (SEM)