What Is Cronbach’s Alpha (And What Is It Not)?
Cronbach’s alpha (Cronbach, 1951) is one of the
most widely reported indicators of scale reliability in the social
sciences. It has some conveniences over other measures of reliability,
and it has some drawbacks as well. There are also many misconceptions
about the appropriate use of alpha. In this section we will review
the strengths, weaknesses, uses, and misuses of alpha. However, let
us start by reviewing the original goal for alpha.
Prior to Cronbach’s
seminal work in this area, the reliability of a scale in a particular
sample[1] was evaluated through methods such as test-retest correlations. This type of reliability is still discussed today in psychometrics textbooks, but it has serious drawbacks. ...
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