Assessing Reliability and Validity

The second of our three final comments [in Chapter 4] concerns the possible use of multiple methods to assess instrument quality. Since there is no rule or law that prohibits researchers from using two or more approaches when estimating reliability or validity, it is surprising that so many research reports contain discussions of only one kind of reliability and (if validity is discussed at all) only one kind of validity. That kind of research reports is common because researchers typically overlook the critical importance of having good data to work with . . . and instead seem intent on quickly analyzing whatever data have been collected. Give credit to those few researchers who present multiple kinds of evidence when discussing reliability and validity. To see an example of this good other look at the first excerpt included in this chapter.

(From Chapter 4, p. 109)

Copyright © 2003 Schuyler W. Huck
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