reliability and Validity

Question 1

what is validity

Answer 1

Related to whether a result is a true reflection of
‘real-world’ behaviour

Question 2

internal reliability

Answer 2

Internal reliability refers to the consistency of a measure within itself. For example, the items on a questionnaire or questions in an interview should be testing the same thing.

Question 3

external reliability

Answer 3

assesses consistency of a measure from one use to another. For example, if a participant took an IQ test one year, and then took the same test a year later and gained a very similar score, this would show external reliability.

Question 4

interater reliability

Answer 4

measures the degree of agreement between different people observing or assessing the same thing. - when multiple researchers agree on a set of results

Question 5

ecological validity

Answer 5

a measure of how test performance predicts behaviours in real-world settings

Question 6

construct validity

Answer 6

how well a test or tool measures the construct that it was designed to measure.

Question 7

population validity

Answer 7

whether you can reasonably generalise the findings from your sample to a larger group of people

Question 8

reliability

Answer 8

Measure of consistency

Question 9

are quantitative or qualitative methods more reliable

Answer 9

Quantitative methods – tend to be
most reliable Qualitative methods – less reliable

Question 10

why do case studies and unstructured interviews have low reliability

Answer 10

Case studies and unstructured
interviews – difficult to repeat in the
same way

Question 11

how can observations be made more reliable

Answer 11

one observer should
produce same observations if repeated
or two observers (interobserver
reliability)

Question 12

why do closed question interviews and questionnaires have high reliability

Answer 12

same person should answer the q’s in the
same way, closed questions better for this

Question 13

what type of experiment is most reliable and why

Answer 13

Lab exp’s – controlled and easy to
replicate

Question 14

why might repeated measures have low validity and how could this be overcome

Answer 14

Repeated measures – order effects challenge
validity, overcome by counterbalancing

Question 15

counterbalancing

Answer 15

With counterbalancing, the participant sample is divided in half, with one half completing the two conditions in one order and the other half completing the conditions in the reverse order.

Question 16

why might independent measures lack validity and how could this be overcome

Answer 16

Independent groups – p’s variables challenge
validity, overcome by random allocation