A comment on the relationship between coefficient alpha and scale characteristics
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Cronbach alpha estimates increase as scale length increases.
“Indeed,ithasbeenfoundthatCronbachalphaestimatesincreaseasscalelength increases(Voss,Stem,&Fotopoulos,2000).”
From The development of the ‘Forms of Responding to Self-Critical Thoughts Scale’ (FoReST) (2020) · cites this paper as Voss,Stem,&Fotopoulos,2000
Cronbach alpha estimates increase as scale length increases, with the negative effect of low item numbers especially salient below seven.
“Research has indicated that Cronbach alpha estimates increase as scale length increases (Voss, Stem, & Fotopoulos, 2000), with the negative effect of low item numbers especially salient below seven (Swailes & McIntyre-Bhatty, 2002).”
From Psychological Processes Underlying the Impact of Gender-Related Discrimination on Psychological Distress in Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People. (2019) · cites this paper as Voss, Stem, & Fotopoulos, 2000
Cronbach alpha estimations increase as the width of response options increase, and tend to be higher in scales with a central point as opposed to those with no central point.
“Research has indicated that Cronbach alpha estimations increase as the width of response options increase (particularly above 4-points), and that they tend to be higher in scales with a central point (e.g., 7-points) as opposed to those with no central point (e.g., 6-points) (Voss et al., 2000).”
From Psychological Processes Underlying the Impact of Gender-Related Discrimination on Psychological Distress in Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People. (2019) · cites this paper as Voss et al., 2000
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O’Connor, T. M., Cerin, E., Hughes, S. O., Robles, J., Thompson, D. I., Mendoza, J. A., Baranowski, T., & Lee, R. E. (2014) · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · doi:10.1186/1479-5868-11-3 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
“The average inter-item correlation, a more appropriate assessment of internal reliability in scales with less than 5 items [59] was acceptable for all four Discourage subscales (>.”
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The development of the ‘Forms of Responding to Self-Critical Thoughts Scale’ (FoReST)
White, R. G., Larkin, P., McCluskey, J., Lloyd, J., & McLeod, H. J. (2020) · Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2019.11.003 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
- Authors
- Voss, K. E., Stem, D. E., & Fotopoulos, S.
- Affiliations
- Oklahoma State University (US)
- Washington State University (US)
- Venue
- Marketing Letters
- Published
- 2000-05
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 177-191
- ISSN
- 0923-0645 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-059X
- OpenAlex
- W135132900
- Cited by
- 96
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 2.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Marketing Letters (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Reliability and Agreement in Measurement
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Keywords
- Cronbach's alpha, scale length, internal consistency, scale development
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