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Reliability and Validity Paper

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In human services research vast amounts of data are collected and analyzed to make decisions regarding the best interest in humans. Majority of data that is collected in human services research are based on tests. It is very important that these tests are reliable and valid. The following paragraphs will explore reliability, and validity. This paper will also explore data collection methods and data collection instruments that are used in human services research, and managerial research.
Types of Reliability Reliability is defined as “the quality or state of being reliable; specifically: the extent to which an experiment, test, or measuring procedure yields the same result on repeated trials” ("Reliability," 2011). There are five types of reliability: alternate-form, internal-consistency, item-to-item, judge-to-judge, and test-retest reliability. Alternate-form reliability is the degree of relatedness of different forms of the same test (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2008). Internal-consistency reliability is how reliable the test is as a whole or how judges score (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2008). Item-to-item reliability and judge-to-judge reliability are almost the same. Item-to-item reliability is the reliability of any single item on average and judge-to-judge is the reliability of any singe judge on average (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2008). Finally test-retest reliability is the degree of stability of a measuring instrument or test (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2008). All types of reliability are used in human services research. It is very important the researcher makes sure that the tests that he or she is using are reliable. For example the alternate-form reliability, if the researcher gave his or her participants a test that will describe their characteristics, and then gave the participants the same test, but the wording is different, the results should be the same.

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