Reliability And Validity(RM)

Question 1

What is internal reliability?

Answer 1

The extent to which a measure is consistent within itself

Question 2

How can internal reliability be demonstrated or checked using?

Answer 2

Split half method: the rest is randomly divided into two so that each half of equivalent
If participants score are similar on both halves it shows internal reliability

Question 3

What is item analysis?

Answer 3

A measure of Internal reliability- performance on each item is compared with the overall scores. A good positive correlation = high internal reliability

Question 4

What is external reliability?

Answer 4

Describes the extent to which a measure varies from one use to another

Question 5

What is one way in which external reliability can be tested?

Answer 5

Test re-test- the person is tested twice over a period of time, similar scores suggest high external reliability

Question 6

What is inter-observer reliability?

Answer 6

The ratings from more than one person are correlated to check for agreement (if correlation is low it could be due to poorly designed behavioural categories or poorly trained observers

Question 7

What is inter-interviewer reliability?

Answer 7

Different interviewers should produce the same result when interviewing the same person or the same interviewer should provide the same results when interviewing the same person in two occasions (if not suggests interviewers are behaving differently)

Question 8

What is replication (external reliability)?

Answer 8

Any research study should produce similar findings if repeated

Question 9

What is internal validity?

Answer 9

Describes the extent to which a study measures what it intends to measure

Question 10

What is internal validity about?

Answer 10

How other variables are controlled and the extent we can be certain that any changes in DV were due to the manipulation of the IV rather than the extraneous variables
The more controlled the experiment is, the higher the internal validity

Question 11

How does experimental realism affect internal validity?

Answer 11

This refers to when a participant does not believe in the experimental set up and they may simply act so the results are meaningless
(Higher the experimental realism- the more the participant is involved in the task as if it was real)

Question 12

How does mundane realism affect internal validity?

Answer 12

This refers to things that are similar to everyday activities

Question 13

In what three ways can internal validity be assessed?

Answer 13

Face validity- the items look like they measure what the test says it measures
Criterion validity- do people who do well in the test do well on other related things?
Predictive validity- do people who perform well on the test go on to be good at things you would expect them to be good at?

Question 14

What is external validity?

Answer 14

Describes the extent to which the findings from a study can be generalised to everyday life and situations other than the context of the study

Question 15

What’s ecological validity?

Answer 15

Describes the extent to which the findings of a study can be generalised from the setting in which it was conducted, to other settings

Question 16

What is population validity?

Answer 16

A study may use a restricted group of participants and this limits how much the findings can be generalised because these people might have unique characteristics