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I am analyzing the responses of a survey using spss statistics. I understand that I will need to do a Cronbach alpha first. But here is my problem:

The first part of my survey is "Awareness" and second part is "Attitudes". Under "Attitudes",there are 6 likert scale questions and 4 yes/no questions. So i was told to do data normalization before calculating Cronbach alpha for "Attitudes".

How should I do data normalization in spss?

Is data normalization same as transforming data in SPSS (arithmetric eg. Log10 or square root)? If so, how should I transform the yes/no questions? (my understanding is we can only transform likert-scale question)

I found very limited information in data normalization using spss.

Your answer is deeply appreciated. Thank you so much!!

user90940
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    "[I] was told to do data normalization": what did your boss say exactly. It's hard to see how Likert-scale questions can be "normalized". – Nick Cox Nov 02 '15 at 11:46

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To normalize means to rescale so that the range becomes [0,1]. See this answer. Normalizing to bring your [1,5] responses into a [0,1] range will not help you assess reliability. (They're not Likert responses--they're ordinal ratings. See here.)

If you are willing to run the Cronbach's alpha procedure on the 1-5 ratings, you arguably can also do so on the larger group of items that includes the binary items. It may not have been Cronbach's original intent to use non-continuous data, but think of it like computing a correlation using two binary variables. Instead of calling it r you would call it phi; it serves the same purpose and in many situations is an adequate indicator.

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rolando2
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