Reliability
Understanding the ability of CareerExplorer's Proprietary Vocational Assessment to consistently measure psychometric traits.
Introduction
Reliability is the overall consistency of a measure. Reliability is usually evaluated using Cronbach's α (alpha), a metric that reflects the consistency of results across items within a scale. In published assessments, a Cronbach's α of .7 is considered minimally acceptable, .8 is considered good, and .9 is considered excellent. Ideally, all scales on an assessment should have a Cronbach's α of .8 or higher. In real life, few assessments meet that goal.
All of CareerExplorer's scales have Cronbach's α above .8. The average reliability is .88, and the minimum is .82. This level of reliability suggests that CareerExplorer's assessment is suitable for use in both personal and high-stakes testing.
Full Results
Scale | Sample | # of Items | α |
---|---|---|---|
Holland Codes 5-point scale from 1=Hate it to 5=Love it |
|||
Artistic | 16 635 | 8 | 0.85 |
Conventional | 16 770 | 6 | 0.87 |
Enterprising | 14 418 | 10 | 0.84 |
Investigative | 16 665 | 6 | 0.87 |
Realistic | 16 664 | 6 | 0.86 |
Social | 16 651 | 8 | 0.84 |
Work Styles / Personality 5-point scale from 1=Strongly disagree to 5=Strongly agree |
|||
Achievement/Effort | 14 341 | 8 | 0.86 |
Adaptability/Flexibility | 12 455 | 10 | 0.85 |
Analytical thinking | 12 460 | 10 | 0.91 |
Attention to detail | 14 307 | 8 | 0.88 |
Concern for others | 12 443 | 10 | 0.87 |
Cooperation | 12 495 | 12 | 0.86 |
Dependability | 14 343 | 9 | 0.89 |
Impression management | 2441 | 14 | 0.81 |
Independence | 12 548 | 12 | 0.82 |
Initiative | 11 844 | 10 | 0.85 |
Innovation | 14 456 | 6 | 0.92 |
Integrity | 14 324 | 6 | 0.83 |
Leadership | 14 475 | 6 | 0.92 |
Persistence | 14 324 | 10 | 0.88 |
Self control | 14 364 | 9 | 0.89 |
Social orientation | 14 307 | 7 | 0.88 |
Basic Interests 5-point scale from 1=Hate it to 5=Love it |
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Adventure | 13 355 | 7 | 0.86 |
Athletics | 13 347 | 5 | 0.87 |
Beauty & style | 11 579 | 6 | 0.88 |
Business | 13 393 | 5 | 0.90 |
Counseling and helping | 11 661 | 6 | 0.88 |
Creative arts | 13 353 | 5 | 0.90 |
Creative writing & journalism | 11 643 | 5 | 0.90 |
Culinary arts | 13 340 | 5 | 0.87 |
Engineering | 13 396 | 5 | 0.87 |
Family activity | 11 595 | 8 | 0.90 |
Finance | 13 377 | 5 | 0.90 |
Green industry | 11 625 | 6 | 0.92 |
Healthcare service | 13 342 | 6 | 0.87 |
Human relations management | 11 610 | 6 | 0.87 |
Information technology | 13 431 | 5 | 0.90 |
Law | 13 345 | 5 | 0.90 |
Life science | 11 930 | 5 | 0.89 |
Management | 13 339 | 6 | 0.86 |
Manual labor | 13 343 | 6 | 0.84 |
Mathematics | 11 654 | 5 | 0.93 |
Military | 11 590 | 4 | 0.93 |
Nature and agriculture | 10 230 | 11 | 0.89 |
Office clerical work | 10 245 | 8 | 0.88 |
Performing arts | 11 607 | 5 | 0.87 |
Personal service | 10 243 | 11 | 0.88 |
Physical science | 13 524 | 5 | 0.88 |
Politics | 11 634 | 5 | 0.92 |
Professional advising | 11 626 | 5 | 0.88 |
Protective services | 11 621 | 8 | 0.89 |
Religion & spirituality | 11 619 | 5 | 0.89 |
Sales | 11 604 | 5 | 0.89 |
Skilled trades | 13 367 | 5 | 0.88 |
Social sciences | 13 404 | 5 | 0.86 |
Teaching | 13 481 | 5 | 0.88 |
Technical writing | 11 640 | 5 | 0.88 |
Working with animals | 11 641 | 5 | 0.90 |