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What Is Reliability

Reliability refers to consistency of measurement and validity refers to accuracy of measurement. There are different types of reliability - test-retest assesses consistency over time, interrater assesses consistency between raters, and internal consistency assesses consistency between parts of the same test. High reliability indicates but does not ensure high validity. There are also different types of validity - construct validity compares the measurement to existing theories, content validity evaluates coverage of the concept, and criterion validity compares the measurement to other measures of the same concept.

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1K views

What Is Reliability

Reliability refers to consistency of measurement and validity refers to accuracy of measurement. There are different types of reliability - test-retest assesses consistency over time, interrater assesses consistency between raters, and internal consistency assesses consistency between parts of the same test. High reliability indicates but does not ensure high validity. There are also different types of validity - construct validity compares the measurement to existing theories, content validity evaluates coverage of the concept, and criterion validity compares the measurement to other measures of the same concept.

Uploaded by

sairam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is reliability?

Reliability refers to how consistently a method measures something. If the same result
can be consistently achieved by using the same methods under the same
circumstances, the measurement is considered reliable.

You measure the temperature of a liquid sample several times under identical
conditions. The thermometer displays the same temperature every time, so the results
are reliable.
A doctor uses a symptom questionnaire to diagnose a patient with a long-term medical
condition. Several different doctors use the same questionnaire with the same patient
but give different diagnoses. This indicates that the questionnaire has low reliability as a
measure of the condition.

What is validity?

Validity refers to how accurately a method measures what it is intended to


measure. If research has high validity, that means it produces results that
correspond to real properties, characteristics, and variations in the physical or
social world.
High reliability is one indicator that a measurement is valid. If a method is not reliable, it
probably isn’t valid.

Types of reliability
Different types of reliability can be estimated through various statistical methods.

Types of reliability

Type of reliability What does it assess? Example

Test-retest The consistency of a measure across time: do you A group of participants complete a questionnaire
get the same results when you repeat the designed to measure personality traits. If they
measurement? repeat the questionnaire days, weeks or months
apart and give the same answers, this indicates hig
test-retest reliability.

Interrater The consistency of a measure across raters or Based on an assessment criteria checklist, five
observers: do you get the same results when examiners submit substantially different results for
different people conduct the same measurement? the same student project. This indicates that the
assessment checklist has low inter-rater reliability
(for example, because the criteria are too
Types of reliability

Type of reliability What does it assess? Example

subjective).

Internal consistency The consistency of the measurement itself: do You design a questionnaire to measure self-esteem
you get the same results from different parts of a If you randomly split the results into two halves,
test that are designed to measure the same thing? there should be a strong correlation between the
two sets of results. If the two results are very
different, this indicates low internal consistency.

Types of validity
The validity of a measurement can be estimated based on three main types of
evidence. Each type can be evaluated through expert judgement or statistical methods.

Types of validity

Type of validity What does it assess? Example

Construct The adherence of a measure to existing theory and A self-esteem questionnaire could be assessed by
knowledge of the concept being measured. measuring other traits known or assumed to be
related to the concept of self-esteem (such as socia
skills and optimism). Strong correlation between
the scores for self-esteem and associated traits
would indicate high construct validity.

Content The extent to which the measurement covers all A test that aims to measure a class of students’
aspects of the concept being measured. level of Spanish contains reading, writing and
speaking components, but no listening
component. Experts agree that listening
comprehension is an essential aspect of language
ability, so the test lacks content validity for
measuring the overall level of ability in Spanish.

Criterion The extent to which the result of a measure A survey is conducted to measure the political
corresponds to other valid measures of the same opinions of voters in a region. If the results
concept. accurately predict the later outcome of an election
in that region, this indicates that the survey has
high criterion validity.
To assess the validity of a cause-and-effect relationship, you also need to
consider internal validity (the design of the experiment) and external validity (the
generalizability of the results).

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