Cronbach's Alpha (α) using SPSS Statistics

Introduction

Cronbach's alpha is the most common measure of internal consistency ("reliability"). It is most
commonly used when you have multiple Likert questions in a survey/questionnaire that form a scale
and you wish to determine if the scale is reliable. If you are concerned with inter-rater reliability, we also
have a guide on using Cohen's (κ) kappa that you might find useful.

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Example

A researcher has devised a nine-question questionnaire to measure how safe people feel at work at an
industrial complex. Each question was a 5-point Likert item from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree".
In order to understand whether the questions in this questionnaire all reliably measure the same latent
variable (feeling of safety) (so a Likert scale could be constructed), a Cronbach's alpha was run on a
sample size of 15 workers.

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Setup in SPSS Statistics

In SPSS Statistics, the nine questions have been labelled Qu1 through to Qu9. To know how to correctly
enter your data into SPSS Statistics in order to run a Cronbach's alpha test, see our guide: Entering Data
into SPSS Statistics. Alternately, you can learn about our enhanced data setup content on
our Features: Data Setup page.

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Test Procedure in SPSS Statistics

Cronbach's alpha can be carried out in SPSS Statistics using the Reliability Analysis... procedure. In this
section, we set out this 7-step procedure depending on whether you have version 26 (or
the subscription version) of SPSS Statistics or version 25 or earlier. At the end of these seven steps, we
show you how to interpret the results from your Cronbach's alpha analysis.

Note: If you are unsure which version of SPSS Statistics you are using, see our guide: Identifying your
version of SPSS Statistics.

SPSS Statistics version 26

(and the subscription version of SPSS Statistics)

1. Click Analyze > Scale > Reliability Analysis... on the top menu, as shown below:
Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

You will be presented with the following Reliability Analysis dialogue box:
Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

2. Transfer the variables Qu1 to Qu9 into the Items: box. You can do this by drag-and-dropping the

variables into their respective boxes or by using the button. You will be presented with the
following screen:
Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

3. Leave the Model: option set as , which instructs SPSS Statistics to run
Cronbach's alpha.

Note: If you want to provide a name for the scale, enter it in the Scale label: box. Since this only prints
the name you enter at the top of the SPSS Statistics output, it is certainly not essential that you do (in
our example, we leave it blank).

4. Click on the button. You will be presented with the Reliability Analysis:
Statistics dialogue box, as shown below:
Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

5. Select the Item, Scale and Scale if item deleted options in the –Descriptives for– area, and
the Correlations option in the –Inter-Item– area, as shown below:
Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

6. Click on the button. This will return you to the Reliability Analysis dialogue box.

7. Click on the button to generate the output.

Now that you have run the Cronbach's alpha procedure, we show you how to interpret your results in
the Interpreting Results section. You can skip the section below, which shows you how to carry out
Cronbach's alpha when you have SPSS Statistics version 25 or earlier.

SPSS Statistics version 25 and earlier

1. Click Analyze > Scale > Reliability Analysis... on the top menu, as shown below:

Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

You will be presented with the following Reliability Analysis dialogue box:
Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

2. Transfer the variables Qu1 to Qu9 into the Items: box. You can do this by drag-and-dropping the

variables into their respective boxes or by using the button. You will be presented with the
following screen:
Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

3. Leave the Model: option set as , which instructs SPSS Statistics to run
Cronbach's alpha.

Note: If you want to provide a name for the scale, enter it in the Scale label: box. Since this only prints
the name you enter at the top of the SPSS Statistics output, it is certainly not essential that you do (in
our example, we leave it blank).

4. Click on the button. You will be presented with the Reliability Analysis:
Statistics dialogue box, as shown below:

Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

 5. Select the Item, Scale and Scale if item deleted options in the –Descriptives for– area, and
the Correlations option in the –Inter-Item– area, as shown below:

Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

6. Click on the button. This will return you to the Reliability Analysis dialogue box.

7. Click on the button to generate the output.

Now that you have run the Cronbach's alpha procedure, we show you how to interpret your results in
the next section.
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SPSS Statistics Output for Cronbach's Alpha

SPSS Statistics produces many different tables. The first important table is the Reliability Statistics table
that provides the actual value for Cronbach's alpha, as shown below:

Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

From our example, we can see that Cronbach's alpha is 0.805, which indicates a high level of internal
consistency for our scale with this specific sample.

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Item-Total Statistics

The Item-Total Statistics table presents the "Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted" in the final column, as
shown below:
Published with written permission from SPSS Statistics, IBM Corporation.

This column presents the value that Cronbach's alpha would be if that particular item was deleted from
the scale. We can see that removal of any question, except question 8, would result in a lower
Cronbach's alpha. Therefore, we would not want to remove these questions. Removal of question 8
would lead to a small improvement in Cronbach's alpha, and we can also see that the "Corrected Item-
Total Correlation" value was low (0.128) for this item. This might lead us to consider whether we should
remove this item.

Cronbach's alpha simply provides you with an overall reliability coefficient for a set of variables (e.g.,
questions). If your questions reflect different underlying personal qualities (or other dimensions), for
example, employee motivation and employee commitment, Cronbach's alpha will not be able to
distinguish between these. In order to do this and then check their reliability (using Cronbach's alpha),
you will first need to run a test such as a principal components analysis (PCA). You can learn how to
carry out principal components analysis (PCA) using SPSS Statistics, as well as interpret and write up
your results, in our enhanced content. You can learn more on our Features: Overview page. It is also
possible to run Cronbach's alpha in Minitab.