Question

Reliability and Validity

1) what does each term mean? Are they interchangeable

2) why are these important to a researcher?

3) what can be done to avoiddifficulties withthese two issues

Answer 1

Part 1

Reliability refers to the degree to which research instrument or information used in the research provides same and consistent results every time when it is used.

Validity refers to the soundness. The validity in case of data collection indicates how fairly findings represents the circumstance measured.

They are not interchangeable as their purposes are different. As reliability refers to the accuracy and validity refers to relatedness and appropriateness.

Part 2

Reliability and Validity are important to a researcher because they help in in analyzing and enhancing the meaningfulness, usefulness appropriateness of a research study.

Part 3

To avoid difficulties with reliability, sample should be selected from the consistent environment and more number of questions should be added in the questionnaire.

To avoid difficulties with validity, random sample should be used in the experiment and also there should addition of control variable.