Relationship between Randomness and Coefficient Alpha: A Monte Carlo Simulation Study

Recep Bindak

Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey.

DOI: 10.4236/jdaip.2013.12003                

Abstract

Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient is the most popular method of examining reliability. It is typically used when the researcher has several Likert-type items that are summed or averaged to make a composite score. Distribution of alpha coefficient has been subjected of many studies. In this study relationship between randomness and Cronbach alpha coefficient were investigated and in this context, present study was examined the question“What is the distribution of the coefficient alpha when a Likert-type scale is answered randomly?” Data were generated in the form of five point Likert-type items and Monte Carlosimulation was run for 5000 times for different item numbers.

Keywords

Cronbach Alpha; Reliability Coefficient; Randomness; Simulation

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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