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Responses to request for Low alpha scores of Big 5 TIPI scale

  • 1.  Responses to request for Low alpha scores of Big 5 TIPI scale

    Posted 03-29-2010 06:55
    Thanks to everyone who responded to my request concerning low alpha
    scores of scales with small numbers of items. I�ve attached a Word
    document that has the summary.


    Thanks again!




    >
    >
    > On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 5:33 AM, Stefan Volk
    > <stefan.volk@uni-tuebingen.de
    > <mailto:stefan.volk@uni-tuebingen.de>> wrote:
    >
    > Dear all,
    >
    > we used the Gosling et al. (2003) 10-item personality
    > inventory (TIPI) and obtained low Cronbach�s alpha scores. Sam
    > Gosling provides an explanation on his website indicating that
    > alphas are misleading when calculated on scales with small
    > numbers of items. I was wondering if someone could provide me
    > with or point me to some more arguments for reviewers apart
    > from the explanation given by Sam, in the ideal case something
    > that has been published. I see once in a while that authors do
    > not report alphas if they use two-item scales. What is the
    > theoretical argument of not reporting alphas, if scales
    > consist of only two items?
    >
    > Many thanks in advance,
    > Stefan
    >