Single-item measures: Queries, responses and suggestions

Subjects: Psychology >> Psychological Measurement submitted time 2019-02-24

卫旭华 张亮花

Abstract： Single-item measures have long been debated by researchers. Proponents advocate the efficiency of single-item measures, while opponents question reliability and validity of them. Through comprehensive qualitative and quantitative reviews, advantages and disadvantages of single-item measures are summarized, and doubts and debates in the literature are analyzed and responded specially. Through systematic review, results show that single-item measures have acceptable level of reliability and validity. More notably, the criterion-related validity of multi-item measures is not superior than single-item measures. With the review and current findings, issues that should be noted during the development and usage of single-item measures were addressed. Although multi-item measures are more acceptable, single-item measures may also have its legitimacy in academic research. That is, researchers should value the potential advantages and application scope of single-item measures, so that single-item measures can play its appropriate role in managerial psychology and social science research.

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