| Title |
On the Use, the Misuse, and the Very Limited Usefulness of Cronbach’s Alpha
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Psychometrika, December 2008
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s11336-008-9101-0 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Klaas Sijtsma |
| Abstract |
This discussion paper argues that both the use of Cronbach's alpha as a reliability estimate and as a measure of internal consistency suffer from major problems. First, alpha always has a value, which cannot be equal to the test score's reliability given the interitem covariance matrix and the usual assumptions about measurement error. Second, in practice, alpha is used more often as a measure of the test's internal consistency than as an estimate of reliability. However, it can be shown easily that alpha is unrelated to the internal structure of the test. It is further discussed that statistics based on a single test administration do not convey much information about the accuracy of individuals' test performance. The paper ends with a list of conclusions about the usefulness of alpha. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 32 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 5 | 16% |
| United Kingdom | 3 | 9% |
| Canada | 3 | 9% |
| Ireland | 2 | 6% |
| Bolivia, Plurinational State of | 1 | 3% |
| Netherlands | 1 | 3% |
| Finland | 1 | 3% |
| Philippines | 1 | 3% |
| Uzbekistan | 1 | 3% |
| Other | 3 | 9% |
| Unknown | 11 | 34% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Scientists | 16 | 50% |
| Members of the public | 13 | 41% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 2 | 6% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 3% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 2,012 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 18 | <1% |
| Germany | 11 | <1% |
| United Kingdom | 11 | <1% |
| Spain | 9 | <1% |
| Netherlands | 8 | <1% |
| Brazil | 6 | <1% |
| Malaysia | 5 | <1% |
| Australia | 4 | <1% |
| Italy | 4 | <1% |
| Other | 35 | 2% |
| Unknown | 1901 | 94% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 458 | 23% |
| Student > Master | 279 | 14% |
| Researcher | 249 | 12% |
| Student > Bachelor | 144 | 7% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 137 | 7% |
| Other | 404 | 20% |
| Unknown | 341 | 17% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 547 | 27% |
| Social Sciences | 284 | 14% |
| Business, Management and Accounting | 187 | 9% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 117 | 6% |
| Computer Science | 62 | 3% |
| Other | 385 | 19% |
| Unknown | 430 | 21% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 32. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 15 September 2022.
All research outputs
#1,279,587
of 26,017,215 outputs
Outputs from Psychometrika
#10
of 545 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#4,619
of 184,636 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Psychometrika
#1
of 8 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,017,215 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 545 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 184,636 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 8 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than all of them