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The Test-Retest Reliability of Qualitative Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Louis Guttman
Louis Guttman*
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Abstract

The test-retest reliability of qualitative items, such as occur in achievement tests, attitude questionnaires, public opinion surveys, and elsewhere, requires a different technique of analysis from that of quantitative variables. Definitions appropriate to the qualitative case are made both for the reliability coefficient of an individual on an item and for the reliability coefficient of a population on the item. From but a single trial of a large population on the item, it is possible to compute a lower bound to the group reliability coefficient. Two kinds of lower bounds are presented. From two experimentally independent trials of the population on the item, it is possible to compute an upper bound to the group reliability coefficient. Two upper bounds are presented. The computations for the lower and upper bounds are all very simple. Numerical examples are given.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 1946 , pp. 81 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © 1946 The Psychometric Society

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References

Guilford, J. P. Fundamental statistics in psychology and education, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1942.Google Scholar
Guttman, Loui.et al. An outline of the statistical theory of prediction. In Horst, P.et al (Eds.), The prediction of personal adjustment, New York: Social Science Research Council, 1941.Google Scholar
Guttman, Loui. A basis for scaling qualitative data. Amer. Sociol. Rev., 1944, 9, 139–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guttman, Loui. A basis for analyzing test-retest reliability. Psychometrika, 1945, 10, 255–282.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed