The average distance between item values: A novel approach for estimating internal consistency

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

Volumn 27, Issue 5, 2009, Pages 409-420

  Sturman, Edward D ^a   Cribbie, Robert A ^b   Flett, Gordon L ^b  

^a STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

^b YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

Internal consistency; Personality; Reliability; Test construction

Indexed keywords

EID: 70350065507     PISSN: 07342829     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0734282908330937     Document Type: Article

References (15)

1. Briggs, S.R., & Cheek, J.M. (1986). The role of factor analysis in the development and evaluation of personality scales. Journal of Personality, 54, 107-148.
2. Burisch, M. (1984a). Approaches to personality inventory construction: A comparison of merits. American Psychologist, 39, 214-227.
3. Burisch, M. (1984b). You don't always get what you pay for: Measuring depression with short and simple versus long and sophisticated scales. Journal of Research in Personality, 18, 81-98.
4. Burisch, M. (1997). Test length and validity revisited. European Journal of Personality, 11, 303-315.
5. Clark, L.A., & Watson, D. (2003). Constructing validity: Basic issues in objective scale development. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Methodological issues and strategies in clinical research (pp. 207-231). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
6. Cortina, J.M. (1993). What is coefficient alpha? An examination of theory and application. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 98-104.
7. Cronbach, L.J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297-334.
8. Cronbach, L.J., & Shavelson, R.J. (2004). My current thoughts on coefficient alpha and successor procedures. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 64, 391-418.
9. Melchior, L.A., Huba, G.J., Brown, V.B., & Reback, C.J. (1993). A short depression index for women. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 53, 1117-1125.
10. Murphy, K.R., & Davidshofer, C.O. (1998). Psychological testing: Principles and applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
11. Radloff, L.S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401.
12. Shafer, A.B. (2006). Meta-analysis of the factor structures of four depression questionnaires: Beck, CES-D, Hamilton, and Zung. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62, 123-146.
13. Shrout, P.E., & Yager, T.J. (1989). Reliability and validity of screening scales: Effect of reducing scale length. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 42, 69-78.
14. Streiner, D.L. (2003a). Being inconsistent about consistency: When coefficient alpha does and doesn't matter. Journal of Personality Assessment, 80, 217-222.
15. Streiner, D.L. (2003b). Starting at the beginning: An introduction to coefficient alpha and internal consistency. Journal of Personality Assessment, 80, 99-103.