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Reliability of Value Orientation Scales
Author(s) -
Firebaugh Francille M.,
Weaver C.R.,
Warren Richard D.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
home economics research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.372
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1552-3934
pISSN - 0046-7774
DOI - 10.1177/1077727x7500400201
Subject(s) - guttman scale , reliability (semiconductor) , psychology , statistics , scale (ratio) , social psychology , population , egalitarianism , value (mathematics) , authoritarianism , mathematics , geography , demography , sociology , democracy , cartography , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , politics , political science , law
Data originating from an interregional project concerned with patterns of living of dis advantaged families were examined with two purposes: 1) to estimate internal reliability of value orientation scales as a basis for further analysis, and 2) to consider differences in the selection of scale items for single states or for all states included in the study. Scales for four value orientations (abstractness‐concreteness, control‐fatalism, equalitarianism authoritarianism, and integration‐alienation) were developed for both an education and a job focus. Data consisting of five items for each of the eight scales were available from 12 states. To check reliability, a Guttman's lambda 2 was computed for each scale using 26 combinations of individual items. Combinations were ranked by magnitude of the lambda 2 value. Items consistently appearing in combinations of highest reliability were selected for further study. The reliability check yielded scales of three or four items for each value orientation except equalitarianism‐authoritarianism:education. Reliabilities varied among the 12 states as well as between groups of rural and urban states. Differences between maximum and minimum reliabilities were generally reduced when samples were grouped. It is suggested that identifiable population parameters may be associated with varying reliability.