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On the Use, the Misuse, and the Very Limited Usefulness of Cronbach’s Alpha

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  • Klaas Sijtsma

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  • Klaas Sijtsma, 2009. "On the Use, the Misuse, and the Very Limited Usefulness of Cronbach’s Alpha," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 107-120, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:psycho:v:74:y:2009:i:1:p:107-120
    DOI: 10.1007/s11336-008-9101-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Emily Kistner & Keith Muller, 2004. "Exact distributions of intraclass correlation and Cronbach's alpha with Gaussian data and general covariance," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 69(3), pages 459-474, September.
    2. P. Bentler & J. Woodward, 1980. "Inequalities among lower bounds to reliability: With applications to test construction and factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 45(2), pages 249-267, June.
    3. Cyril Hoyt, 1941. "Test reliability estimated by analysis of variance," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 6(3), pages 153-160, June.
    4. Kentaro Hayashi & Akihito Kamata, 2005. "A note on the estimator of the alpha coefficient for standardized variables under normality," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 70(3), pages 579-586, September.
    5. Lee Cronbach, 1988. "Internal consistency of tests: Analyses old and new," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 53(1), pages 63-70, March.
    6. Jos Berge & Gregor Sočan, 2004. "The greatest lower bound to the reliability of a test and the hypothesis of unidimensionality," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 69(4), pages 613-625, December.
    7. Frederic Lord, 1960. "An empirical study of the normality and independence of errors of measurement in test scores," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 25(1), pages 91-104, March.
    8. Alexander Shapiro & Jos Berge, 2000. "The asymptotic bias of minimum trace factor analysis, with applications to the greatest lower bound to reliability," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 413-425, September.
    9. Melvin Novick & Charles Lewis, 1967. "Coefficient alpha and the reliability of composite measurements," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 32(1), pages 1-13, March.
    10. Brian Woodhouse & Paul Jackson, 1977. "Lower bounds for the reliability of the total score on a test composed of non-homogeneous items: II: A search procedure to locate the greatest lower bound," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 42(4), pages 579-591, December.
    11. Jos Berge & Tom Snijders & Frits Zegers, 1981. "Computational aspects of the greatest lower bound to the reliability and constrained minimum trace factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 46(2), pages 201-213, June.
    12. Jos Berge & Henk Kiers, 1991. "A numerical approach to the approximate and the exact minimum rank of a covariance matrix," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 56(2), pages 309-315, June.
    13. Paul Jackson & Christian Agunwamba, 1977. "Lower bounds for the reliability of the total score on a test composed of non-homogeneous items: I: Algebraic lower bounds," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 42(4), pages 567-578, December.
    14. Yoshio Takane & Jan Leeuw, 1987. "On the relationship between item response theory and factor analysis of discretized variables," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 393-408, September.
    15. Denny Borsboom, 2006. "The attack of the psychometricians," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 71(3), pages 425-440, September.
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