An If-Item-Deleted Sensitive Analysis of Cronbach’s Alpha Technique using Simulated Anneling Algorithm

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Valdecy
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Hora, Henrique Rego Monteiro da, Costa, Helder Gomes, Nepomuceno, Lívia Dias de Oliveira
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Cadernos do IME. Série Estatística (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/cadest/article/view/15758

<doi>10.12957/cadest.2014.15758This work proposes a nonlinear model and also a solution method to improve the overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient technique, by grouping items of an instrument (questionnaire) that should be considered to deletion. The classical method called if-item-deleted Alpha also improves the overall reliability, however it considerers the deletion of only one item per time. Due to the combinatorial nature of the proposed model, a simulated annealing algorithm was implemented in order to achieve optimal or near optimal solutions. We presented an example for a simulated questionnaire with 15 items and 22 respondents. The obtained solution indicates the deletion of 8 items for maximum alpha or 2 items to exclude the most problematic items.