Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Cronbach's alpha

Cronbach's alpha

8.0
A number that shows how well survey or test questions measure the same thing
  • noun
  • /ˈkrɒnbɑːks ˈæl.fə/
  • Specialized
translation icon : alfa de Cronbach
  • "Reliability for this scale was high, with a Cronbach's alpha of .90.
  • Cronbach's alpha coefficient
  • Cronbach's alpha reliability
  • internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha)

Examples

  • Internal reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha on the qualified factors.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Factors with Cronbach alpha less than 0.70 were not used for the analysis.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Questions combined in a cluster for evaluation were subjected to the Cronbach's alpha test for reliability features.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Reliability of the survey instrument was checked using Cronbach's alpha on items for both general and physical education-specific technology.

    Academic text (2008)

  • In this study, 17 items of the CES-D had a Cronbach's alpha of .87.

    Academic text (1993)

  • All instruments showed good to excellent internal consistencies, with Cronbach alphas above .85.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Internal consistency reliability, computed using Cronbach's alpha formula, was r = .72.

    Academic text (1991)

  • In a series of studies conducted by the author, Cronbach's alpha ranged from .90 to .94.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Pilot sample (n = 27) reliability was good with a Cronbach's alpha = .82.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The survey demonstrated high internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.92.

Synonyms

split-half correlation
vsCronbach's alpha
  • Specialized
9.4

A number that shows how similar scores are on two parts of a test

measures consistency across the whole set of items
chance-half correlation
vsCronbach's alpha
  • Specialized
9.8

A number that shows how similar scores are between two random halves of a test

uses all items to assess internal consistency rather than random halves

Surface Forms

Cronbach's alpha singular

Morphology

Cronbach's + alpha

This is an eponymous, domain-specific statistical term: knowing 'Cronbach's' (a surname) and 'alpha' (a label for the first element) does not allow a B1 learner to infer the technical meaning of internal consistency or reliability. The meaning requires subject-matter knowledge of psychometrics and is not compositionally predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

Cronbach's alpha is named after researcher Lee Cronbach, who created a simple math method to check if test or survey questions measure the same thing. The word alpha is the Greek letter used as the label, so today Cronbach's alpha means 'a number that shows how reliable a test is'.