Reference no: EM132389606

Reliability Analysis

Introduction

In many areas of research, the precise measurement of hypothesized processes or variables (i.e., theoretical constructs) poses a challenge by itself. For example, in psychology, the precise measurement of personality variables or attitudes is usually a necessary first step before any theories of personality or attitudes can be considered.

In general, in all social sciences, unreliable measurements of people's beliefs or intentions will obviously hamper efforts to predict their behavior.

The issue of precision of measurement will also come up in applied research, whenever variables are difficult to observe. For example, reliable measurement of employee performance is usually a difficult task; yet, it is obviously a necessary precursor to any performance-based compensation system.

For this assessment task you will use reliability analyses procedures on a 14-item test that measures the subject's empathetic tendency. These items are from the Mehrabian-Epstein Scale of Empathetic Tendency.

Specific course competencies assessed by this assignment:

Apply structural procedures using SPSS to analyze research data.

Apply the APA style in writing the results section of a research report.

Task

Conduct reliability analyses by completing the tasks listed in the evaluation checklist using the empathy dataset.

Process

1. Download the SPSS empathy dataset.

2. Using the empathy dataset, conduct reliability analyses on the 14-items of the Mehrabian-Epstein Scale of Empathetic Tendency recorded as variables empath01 through empath14. Items 2, 8, 10, 13, and 14 were reversed scored because these items are phrased negatively to control for response bias.

Consequently, the dataset does not need to be re-coded. The Mehrabian-Epstein Scale is additive, so that each item is linearly related to the total score.

The dataset consists of 517 cases. Organize your response around each of the tasks listed in the evaluation checklist (i.e., each checklist task should be a separate heading in your document). Regardless of the results of your evaluation of assumptions, proceed using the full, unaltered dataset provided.

Evaluation

Tasks

1. Provide appropriate descriptive statistics.

2. Provide the results of your evaluations of reliability analysis assumptions. Identify how you evaluated each assumption.

3. Calculate and report coefficients of internal consistency using both split-half and Cronbach's alpha methods.

4. Calculate and report coefficients of internal consistency using both split-half and Cronbach's alpha methods by gender (male, female).

That is, report two sets of reliability coefficients, one for males and another for females.

5. Identify three problem items that are most adversely affecting reliability for the entire dataset. Delete these three items and re-calculate and report internal consistency using both split-half and Cronbach's alpha methods. Note: variables are not automatically dropped just because of a higher internal consistency result. There are often theoretical or practical reasons for keeping such variables.

6. Write a parsimonious results section that draws from the information you provided in response to the tasks above and that conforms to APA style.