Reliability Flashcards
what are the two types of reliability?
internal reliability & external reliability
what is internal reliability?
the extent to which a test or measure is consistent within itself.
what is external reliability?
the extent to which a test produces consistent results over several occasions
what are reliability issues?
- lack of operationalisation of the variables
- order effects
- lack of standardised procedures
- inconsistency of measuring tools
- an uncontrolled environment
why is a lack of operationalised variables a reliability issue?
if you dont state how you are defining and measuring your variables, it makes replication impossible and makes inter-rater reliability issues more likely
why are order effects a reliability issue?
order effects occur in a repaeated measurews design. whilst completing the second condition the participant can become better practised at the task the second time around, or underperform due to boredom
how do we deal with reliability issues?
- using a standardised procedure, instructions and scientific measuring equipment
- using a laboratory environment
how do we deal with order effects?
using counterbalancing :
get half of the participants to complete condition a then condition b and the other half vice versa. this negates the order effects as they affect each condition equally, therefore increasing internal reliability.
what are the three ways of assessing reliability?
- split half reliability/ testing
- test retest reliability
- inter-rater reliability
what is split half reliability/ testing?
splitting a participants test answers in half and seeing whether they got the same or similar scores scores on the two halves. if they are similar, internal reliability is high, if not, the questions either need to be reordered or redesigned.
what is test-retest reliability?
testing and retesting the same participants over time with the same test, and comparing their scores. if the scores are the same, the test has external reliability
what is inter-rater reliability?
where two or more psychologists produce consistent results by using a standardised procedure, agreed coding system, or correlation of their data.
