Three basic concepts in psychometric theory are homogeneity, consistency, and stability. These terms, however, are not singular in meaning as used in the literature and as a result often lead to confusion. The pluralities involved are discussed and alternatives are recommended.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllenM. J.YenW. M. (1979) Introduction to measurement theory. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
2.
BeckerG. (in press) How important is transient error in estimating reliability? Going beyond simulation studies. Psychological Methods.
3.
CortinaJ. M. (1993) What is coefficient alpha? An examination of theory and applications. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 98–104.
4.
CronbachL. J. (1951) Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297–334.
5.
CronbachL. J.AzumaH. (1962) Internal consistency reliability formulas applied to randomly-sampled single-factor tests: An empirical comparison. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 22, 645–665.
6.
CronbachL. J.GleserG. C.NandaH.RajaratnamN. (1972) The dependability of behavioral measurements. New York: Wiley.
7.
EbelR. L. (1951) Estimation of the reliability of ratings. Psychometrika, 16, 407–424.
8.
GlassG. V.HopkinsK. D. (1996) Statistical methods in education and psychology. (3rd ed.) Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
9.
GorsuchR. L. (1983) Factor analysis. (2nd ed.) Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
10.
GulliksenH. (1950) Theory of mental tests. New York: Wiley.
11.
HoytC. (1941) Test reliability estimated by analysis of variance. Psychometrika, 6, 153–160.
12.
HunterJ. E.GerbingD. W. (1982) Unidimensional measurement, second order factor analysis and causal models. In StawB. M.CummingsL. L. (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior. Vol. 4. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Pp. 267–320.
13.
JacksonR. W. B. (1939) Reliability of mental tests. British Journal of Psychology, 29, 267–287
14.
KennyD. A. (1979) Correlation and causality. New York: Wiley.
15.
KomaroffE. (1997) Effect of simultaneous violations of essential τ-equivalence and uncorrected error on coefficient α. Applied Psychological Measurement, 21, 337–348.
16.
LordF. M.NovickM. R. (1968) Statistical theories of mental test scores. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
17.
McDonaldR. P. (1981) The dimensionality of tests and items. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 34, 100–117.
18.
MillerM. B. (1995) Coefficient alpha: A basic introduction from the perspective of classical test theory and structural equation modeling. Structural Equation Modeling, 2, 255–273.
19.
NorušisM. J. (1994) SPSS professional statistics 6.1. Chicago, IL: SPSS, Inc.
20.
NunnallyJ. C. (1978) Psychometric theory. (2nd ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.
21.
RaykovT. (1998) Coefficient alpha and composite reliability with interrelated nonhomogeneous items. Applied Psychological Measurement, 22, 375–385.
22.
RosenthalR. (1973) Estimating effective reliability in studies that employ judges' ratings. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 29, 342–345.
23.
SchmidtF. L.HunterJ. E. (1996) Measurement error in psychological research: Lessons from 26 research scenarios. Psychological Methods, 1, 199–223.
24.
SchmittN. (1996) Uses and abuses of coefficient alpha. Psychological Assessment, 8, 350–353.
25.
ZimmermanD. W.ZumboB. D.LalondeC. (1993) Coefficient alpha as an estimate of test reliability under violation of two assumptions. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53, 33–49.