Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The $\Alpha$ And The $\Omega$ Of Congeneric Test Theory: An Extension Of Reliability And Internal Consistency To Heterogeneous Tests, Joseph F. Lucke

Joseph Lucke

Psychometric theory focuses primarily on tests that are homogeneous, that measure only one attribute of a psychosocial entity. However, the complexity of psychosocial behavior often requires tests that are heterogeneous, that measure more than one attribute. In this presentation, reliability and internal consistency are extended to heterogeneous tests under the rubric of congeneric test theory. The extensions show that reliability and internal consistency have very similar properties. Reliability and internal consistency are shown to be unique up to a linear transformation. Whereas internal consistency is a lower bound to reliability in the homogeneous case, it is a strict lower bound …