Validity And Reliability: Self-reports Reliability

Question 1

What are the types of reliability relevant to self reports

Answer 1

• internal reliability
• external reliability

Question 2

What is internal reliability

Answer 2

• A measure of the extent to which something is consistent within itself
• e.g. all the Qs on a questionnaire should be measuring the same thing

Question 3

what is external reliability

Answer 3

• A measure of consistency over time
• e.g. if the same interview/questionnaire was conducted one day then a week later, the outcome should be the same

Question 4

What is the method for assessing internal reliability

Answer 4

• Split half method
  1. Randomly select half the test items and placing them on form A and placing the other half on form B
  2. Therefore you have 2 forms of the same test
  3. To have good reliability, the scores from these tests should at least be 80% in agreement

Question 5

What is the method for assessing external reliability

Answer 5

• Test-retest method
  1. Give someone same questionnaire / interview to the same person on 2 separate occasions
  2. With a sufficient gap for the chance to forget
  3. If both yield same results = reliable

Question 6

How do we improve low in internal reliability

Answer 6

Remove Qs that don’t appear to be getting consistent results

Question 7

How do we improve low external reliability

Answer 7

• rewrite Qs so they aren’t ambiguous or leading
• train interviewer to deliver Qs the same way each time (participants might respond in certain ways depending on how it’s asked)

Question 8

What are the ways of assessing internal reliability

Answer 8

Face / content / concurrent / construct / predictive validity

Question 9

What are the ways of assessing external validity

Answer 9

Ecological / population / historical validity

Question 10

What is the type of reliability associated with observations, how is it assessed

Answer 10

• inter-rater reliability
• check for high positive correlation (+0.8)

Question 11

What types reliabilities are associated with self-reports, and how are they assessed

Answer 11

• Internal reliability: split-half method
• external reliability: test-retest method

Question 12

How do we deal with low reliability in observations

Answer 12

• it would be low inter-rather reliability
  Dealt:
  —> pilot study (help clearly operationalise)
  —> train the observers

Question 13

What are the ways of dealing with low internal reliability

Answer 13

• control extraneous variables
• by: random allocation, single blind, etc….

Question 14

What are the ways of dealing with low external reliability

Answer 14

• more realistic setting/task (different research location method)
• A more representative sample (different sampling method)
• replicating research in current day