What Is Coefficient Alpha? An Examination of Theory and Applications

By Jose M. Cortina. 1993

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Metrics for Explainable AI: Challenges and Prospects (2018, background): “…0.86; ES items had item-total correlations ranging from 0.41 to 0.76 and an average inter-item correlation of 0.71, indicative of excellent internal consistency reliability, especially for such a brief scale that is very easy to administer and score (Comrey, 1988; Cortina, 1993; Streiner, 2003).”
Do beliefs about aggression predict physical aggression to partners (2003, methodology): “They were from additional questions concerning injury included in the modified CTS used by Morse [1995]. Respondents answered on a 5-point scale from ‘‘never’’ (0) to ‘‘always’’ (4).”
The Measurement of Curiosity As a Feeling of Deprivation (2004, background): “…considered to indicate acceptable, if not desirable, internalconsistencygiven thateachsubscaleconsistedof only five items and that this study reflected only the very early stages of research on CFD as a psychological construct (Cortina, 1993; DeVellis, 1991; Nunnally, 1967, 1978; Streiner, 2003).”
Commentary on Coefficient Alpha: A Cautionary Tale (2009, background): “The argument against alpha to assess internal consistency is relatively transparent and has been made multiple times in the literature (e.g., Cortina, 1993, Green, Lissitz, & Mulaik, 1977); nevertheless, this interpretation persists.”
The α and the ω of Congeneric Test Theory: An Extension of Reliability and Internal Consistency to Heterogeneous Tests (2005, background): “However, simulation studies and simple cases have thrown serious doubt on this claim (Cortina, 1993; Green, Lissitz, & Mulaik, 1977; Hattie, 1985; Miller, 1995).”
The Mediation Effect of Outdoor Recreation Participation on Environmental Attitude-Behavior Correspondence (2010, background): “However, a factor that has a small number of items (six or less) and with alpha value close to .60 is acceptable for an exploratory study (see Cortina, 1993; Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).”
Using Structural Equation Modeling to Test for Multidimensionality (2001, background): “As one of the most pervasive statistics for evaluating measures (Cortina, 1993), coefficient alpha often is mistaken as a test for unidimensionality or test homogeneity.”
Making Reliability Reliable (2016, background): “Many users perform the reverse; they calculate reliability to identify unidimensionality, misconceiving that a high value of a unidimensional reliability coefficient indicates unidimensionality (Cortina, 1993; Green, Lissitz, & Mulaik, 1977; Hattie, 1985; Schmitt, 1996).”
Essentials of Psychological Testing (2005, background): “Cortina (1993) provides an extensive discussion of the meaning of coefficient alpha formulas and the various factors that can affect their results.”
A Note on Structural Equation Modeling Estimates of Reliability (2010, background): “…argued against the general use of coefficient alpha as a reliability coefficient in that the assumptions underlying alpha may be frequently violated in practice, and thus alpha is a biased estimate of reliability (Cortina, 1993; Green & Yang, 2009; Raykov, 1997b; Rozeboom, 1966; Sijtsma, 2009).”
Factors Affecting Relative Weights: The Influence of Sampling and Measurement Error (2004, background): “For example, coefficient α is a lower-bound estimate of reliability and approaches reliability as the items in an instrument become linearly related (Cortina, 1993).”
Culture's Influence on Emotional Intelligence: An Empirical Study of Nine Countries (2014, background): “Thus, the low Cronbach's alpha could likely be a function of the low number of items (Cortina, 1993).”
Estimating Ordinal Reliability for Likert-Type and Ordinal Item Response Data: A Conceptual, Empirical, and Practical Guide. (2012, methodology): “Some of this attention has been motivated by the fact that Cronbach’s alpha has repeatedly been misinterpreted and misused (cf. Cortina, 1993; Schmitt, 1996; Sijtsma, 2009)—as noted by Cronbach himself (2004).”
Destination image, on-site experience and behavioural intentions: path analytic validation of a marketing model on domestic tourists (2017, background): “60, indicating the reliability of the measures (Cortina, 1993; Lee, 2009; Lin et al., 2007).”