One of my dependent variables has only 3 items to measure. In the explanatory factor analysis this variable is only succesful when 1 item is left. At that point I cannot calculate the Cronbach alpha. When I have all 3 or in any combination 2 items the Cronbach alpha is too low. What should I do? Im not really good with spss, so are there other analyze techniques I can use and go further with this (unacceptable) variable or is there another solution? Excluding the variable was not a good solution according to my supervisior because then I have only two hypothesis left for my research.