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Outliers in Questionnaire Data

Author

Listed:
  • Wobbe P. Zijlstra
  • L. Andries van der Ark
  • Klaas Sijtsma

Abstract

Outliers in questionnaire data are unusual observations, which may bias statistical results, and outlier statistics may be used to detect such outliers. The authors investigated the effect outliers have on the specificity and the sensitivity of each of six different outlier statistics. The Mahalanobis distance and the item-pair based outlier statistics were found to have the best combination of specificity and sensitivity. Next, it was investigated how outliers influenced the bias in the percentile rank score, Cronbach’s alpha, and the validity coefficient. Outliers due to random responding and faking produced considerable bias, and outliers due to extreme responding produced little bias. Finally, the influence of removing discordant observations on bias was studied. Removing observations due to random responding identified by means of the Mahalanobis distance, the local outlier factor, and the item-pair based outlier statistic reduced bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Wobbe P. Zijlstra & L. Andries van der Ark & Klaas Sijtsma, 2011. "Outliers in Questionnaire Data," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 36(2), pages 186-212, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jedbes:v:36:y:2011:i:2:p:186-212
    DOI: 10.3102/1076998610366263
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Yick, John S. & Lee, Andy H., 1998. "Unmasking outliers in two-way contingency tables," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 69-79, November.
    2. Douglas M. Hawkins, 1980. "Critical Values for Identifying Outliers," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 29(1), pages 95-96, March.
    3. Christmann, A. & Van Aelst, S., 2006. "Robust estimation of Cronbach's alpha," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(7), pages 1660-1674, August.
    4. Lee Cronbach, 1951. "Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 16(3), pages 297-334, September.
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