Reliability

Question 1

What is reliability?

Answer 1

The consistency and stability of measurement across different situations, time points or observers.

Question 2

Types of reliability

Answer 2

Internal and external

Question 3

Internal reliability

Answer 3

A measure of the consistency of a test or other measure is within itself

Question 4

External reliability

Answer 4

The consistency of a measurement across different people over time. e.g. if a participant took the same IQ test two years in a row and their results.

Question 5

Tests of reliability

Answer 5

Inter-observer, split-half and test-retest

Question 6

Inter-observer reliability

Answer 6

Checks the agreement between different observers when assessing the same behaviour or phenomenon.

Question 7

Split-half reliability

Answer 7

Data is collected and split randomly in half. It is then compared to see if the results taken from each part of the measure are similar.

Question 8

Test-retest reliability

Answer 8

Involves administrating the same test to the same group on separate occasions and correlating the scores obtained to see if the results are similar.