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Alpha, FACTT, and Beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Peter M. Bentler Open the ORCID record for Peter M. Bentler [Opens in a new window]
Peter M. Bentler*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
*
Correspondence should be made to Peter M. Bentler, University of California, Los Angeles, Psychology Building 1285, Box 951563, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, USA. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Sijtsma and Pfadt (Psychometrika, 2021) provide a wide-ranging defense for the use of coefficient alpha. Alpha is practical and useful when its limitations are acceptable. This paper discusses several methodologies for reliability, some new here, that go beyond alpha and were not emphasized by Sijtsma and Pfadt. Bentler’s (Psychometrika 33:335–345, 1968. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289328) combined factor analysis (FA) and classical test theory (CTT) model. FACTT provides a key conceptual foundation.

Keywords

probabilistic lower boundFACTT modelbias-corrected glbbias-corrected lambda-4covariate-free reliabilityspecificity-enhanced reliability
Type
Revisiting Cronbach’s Alpha
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 86 , Issue 4: Special Section: Revisiting Cronbach’s Alpha , December 2021 , pp. 861 - 868
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 The Psychometric Society

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