Reliability and Validity
Reliability and validity are important with any kind of research. Without them research and their results would be useless. This paper will define the types of reliability and validity as well as give examples of each. Both the data collection methods and the data collection instruments used in human services research will also be given. This paper will also look into why it is important to ensure that data collection methods as well as the instruments are reliable and valid. Reliability
There are several kinds of reliability used in research. The first kind is the alternate-form reliability. This kind of reliability consists of the degree of relatedness of different forms of the same test. For example, a psychological tests where the questions are changed. The second kind is the internal-consistency reliability. This kind of reliability is the overall degree of relatedness of all items in a test or raters in a judgment study. Internal-consistency is measured between different items on the same test. An example of this would be If a respondent expressed agreement with the statements “I like to eat frozen chocolate” and “I’ve enjoyed eating frozen chocolate in the past,” and disagreement with the statement “I hate frozen chocolate,” this would be indicative of good internal consistency of the test. The third kind is the item-to-item reliability. This kind of reliability is the reliability of any single item on average. An example of this would be the reliability of two items such as a construction worker’s hammers that are identical. The last kind of reliability that I will discuss is the test-retest reliability. This kind of reliability consists of the degree of temporal stability (relatedness) of a measuring instrument or test, or the characteristic it is designed to evaluate, from one administration to another (Rosnow, 2008). Statics.com (n.d). states, “a group of respondents is tested for IQ scores: each respondent is...
References: Rosnow, R. L.(2008) Beginning Behavioral Research: A Conceptual Primer, Retrieved from
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