Cronbach's Alpha Reliability Analysis

Cronbach's Alpha measures the internal consistency of a multi-item scale — the degree to which items "hang together" and measure the same underlying construct. The most-reported reliability statistic in questionnaire-based research.


Step 1 — Provide your data

Matrix of respondents x items (numeric, e.g. Likert 1-5).

Supports Excel Import, Sample Data Generator, and Manual Entry.


Step 2 — Results

Overall reliability:

  • Cronbach's Alpha with interpretation label
  • Standardised Alpha (from inter-item correlations)
  • Number of items and respondents
  • Mean inter-item correlation

Item-level statistics (per item):

  • Item mean and SD
  • Corrected item-total correlation
  • Squared multiple correlation
  • Alpha-if-item-deleted (with change indicator)

Inter-item correlation matrix

A UniversalChatBot is available for discussion.


Statistical methods used

Cronbach's Alpha

alpha = (k/(k-1)) * (1 - sum(item_variances) / total_variance)

Standardised Alpha

alpha_std = (k * mean_r) / (1 + (k-1) * mean_r)

Interpretation

Alpha Label
>= 0.90 Excellent
0.80 - 0.90 Good
0.70 - 0.80 Acceptable
0.60 - 0.70 Questionable
0.50 - 0.60 Poor
< 0.50 Unacceptable

Corrected item-total correlation — correlation between item and sum of all other items. < 0.30 = weak.

Alpha-if-item-deleted — alpha recomputed without each item. If alpha increases when item removed, that item may be hurting reliability.

Assumptions: tau-equivalence and unidimensionality. Very high alpha (> 0.95) may indicate item redundancy.