Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Alpha is also a function of the number of items, so shorter scales will often have lower reliability estimates yet still be preferable in many situations because they are lower burden. An alternative way of thinking about internal consistency is that it is the extent to which all of the items of a test measure the same latent variable .
Cronbach's alpha (Cronbach's ), also known as tau-equivalent reliability or coefficient alpha (coefficient ), is a reliability coefficient and a measure of the internal consistency of tests and measures. [1] [2] [3] It was named after the American psychologist Lee Cronbach.
However, formal psychometric analysis, called item analysis, is considered the most effective way to increase reliability. This analysis consists of computation of item difficulties and item discrimination indices, the latter index involving computation of correlations between the items and sum of the item scores of the entire test. If items ...
It is a special case of Cronbach's α, computed for dichotomous scores. [2] [3] It is often claimed that a high KR-20 coefficient (e.g., > 0.90) indicates a homogeneous test. However, like Cronbach's α, homogeneity (that is, unidimensionality) is actually an assumption, not a conclusion, of reliability coefficients.
This is a list of statistical procedures which can be used for the analysis of categorical data, also known as data on the nominal scale and as categorical variables. General tests [ edit ]
For the reliability of a two-item test, the formula is more appropriate than Cronbach's alpha (used in this way, the Spearman-Brown formula is also called "standardized Cronbach's alpha", as it is the same as Cronbach's alpha computed using the average item intercorrelation and unit-item variance, rather than the average item covariance and ...
Cronbach's can be shown to provide a lower bound for reliability under rather mild assumptions. [citation needed] Thus, the reliability of test scores in a population is always higher than the value of Cronbach's in that population. Thus, this method is empirically feasible and, as a result, it is very popular among researchers.
Analysis of homogeneity (internal consistency), which gives an indication of the reliability of a measurement instrument. [117] During this analysis, one inspects the variances of the items and the scales, the Cronbach's α of the scales, and the change in the Cronbach's alpha when an item would be deleted from a scale [118]