Application of empirical Cronabch’s Alpha in Sports Psychology research

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to introduce the problem of the reliability of the estimated composite score. Reliability analysis is a widely used statistical method in the area of psychology. Many researchers have employed it to analyze data because reliability is the important indicator that represents the internal consistency of data. However, many ignored the importance of reliability, further viewed it as a simple statistic method. In this study, we investigated sport psychology researches that evaluated the reliability of the items used primarily for application of alpha coefficients. We described the alpha coefficients of internal consistency, how to measure it and interpret the meaning of the problem. Furthermore, we brought the issue regarding the reliability measurement model in terms of the estimation of Cronbach’s alpha application and briefly compared it with an example. Alpha coefficients that have been published through the Korean Journal of Sport Psychology research were used for this study. To investigate the reliability and the use of sport psychological tests from 2010 to May 2013 published in the Korean Journal of Sport Psychology, we reviewed methodologies in those selected papers. For all sport psychological test, the reliability was average .802 (sd= .094). Respectively, exercise psychology research design was .820 (sd= .091) and sport psychology research design was .794 (sd=.093). In addition, we found that those papers had some errors in terms of the reliability analysis procedures and interpretations of results. We discussed these problems based on psychometrics.