reliability

• -          reliability refers to the consistency of research this can mean whether the findings from the investigation are constant or whether the measuring device produces consistent results every time it is used
• -          the more reliable/ consistent research is then the more confident we can be with the results

  -          the idea of being able to replicate they study is also a key feature of science
• ways of assessing reliability

  -          to test reliability you can use the test re test method this is where a person is given the test used this could be a questionnaire or a test or an interview on one occasion and the same test is repeated again a number of times after a reasonable interval with the same person - for example they could complete it once a week
• ways of assessing reliability

  -          however the info in the test re test method has to be long enough so that the respondent cannot remember their answers from last time and if the measures is reliable the outcome should be the same or very similar every time
• ways of assessing reliability

  -          in the test re test method a correlation can be carried out to find out the link between the scores and whether it is a strong positive correlation which would suggest good reliability and an increased confidence in the study and its conclusions
• ways of assessing reliability

  -          to test reliability you can also use inter observer reliability this is where all the observers use the same behavioural categories in a study and it checks whether or not they're all interpreting the categories in the same way- this can be assessed by measuring the extent to which different observers achieve similar results when observing and scoring the same participants
• ways of assessing reliability

  -          inter observer reliability is achieved if there is a significant positive correlation between the scores of the different observers
• ways of assessing reliability

  -          in into observer reliability observers record their own data individually and then the sets of data from each observer well correlated to establish the degree of similarity in their schools