TY - JOUR
T1 - The Effects of Nonnormality and Number of Response Categories on Reliability
AU - Bandalos, Deborah L.
AU - Enders, Craig K.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1996
Y1 - 1996
N2 - A computer simulation was designed to determine whether increases in reliability would be obtained for situations in which an observed categorical distribution, such as that for a Likert scale, was deliberately constructed to match the shape of the underlying distribution of the trait being measured. Results indicated that reliability did increase with the degree of similarity between the underlying and observed distributions. Reliability also increased with the level of correlation among the variables and with the number of scale points. However, maximum gains were reached with 5 or 7 scale points, after which reliability values leveled off.
AB - A computer simulation was designed to determine whether increases in reliability would be obtained for situations in which an observed categorical distribution, such as that for a Likert scale, was deliberately constructed to match the shape of the underlying distribution of the trait being measured. Results indicated that reliability did increase with the degree of similarity between the underlying and observed distributions. Reliability also increased with the level of correlation among the variables and with the number of scale points. However, maximum gains were reached with 5 or 7 scale points, after which reliability values leveled off.
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U2 - 10.1207/s15324818ame0902_4
DO - 10.1207/s15324818ame0902_4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0030549057
SN - 0895-7347
VL - 9
SP - 151
EP - 160
JO - Applied Measurement in Education
JF - Applied Measurement in Education
IS - 2
ER -