Data analysis, reliability and validity

Question 1

Test-retest reliability

3

Answer 1

• way to find out whether a measure is consistent over time
• done using the same test on the same participant twice
• the two results should be roughly the same

Question 2

Inter-rater reliability

3

Answer 2

• measure of whether different researchers are scoring consistently
• if they are reliable, ratings of the recorded date should have a positive correlation
• e.g if data from an interview was interpreted the same way

Question 3

Reliability

Answer 3

Consistency over time and whether replicating a study would produce the same results

Question 4

Validity

Answer 4

whether the study measured what it was supposed to measure

Question 5

Ecological validity

2

Answer 5

• whether the environment of the study is natural and reflects a real-life situation
• whether the behaviour corresponds to behaviour in the natural environment

Question 6

Subjectivity

Answer 6

analysis of data using a researchers personal opinion

Question 7

Objectivity

Answer 7

analysing data based on fact with no need to use personal judgement

Question 8

Measure of central tendancy

Answer 8

Represents how data clusters around a central point in a data set

Question 9

Mean

Answer 9

the arithmetic average

Question 10

Median

Answer 10

the middle value of a set of scores

Question 11

Mode

Answer 11

the most common value

Question 12

Measure of dispersion

Answer 12

Gives you the idea of how spread out data is

Question 13

Range

Answer 13

Difference between top value and bottom value

Question 14

Standard deviation

Answer 14

measure of spread of data around the mean