NCM 115 -Nursing Research 2

Module 02
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
OF RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS
 Module 02

Research Instruments are scientific

RELIABILITY and
AND VALIDITY OF systematic
RESEARCH
tools which are designed in order toINSTRUMENTS
help the
researcher collect, measure, and analyze data
related to the topic of the research.
Research instruments can include questionnaires,
interviews, tests, surveys, scales, or checklists.

Two primary criteria for assessing a quantitative

research instrument are: reliability and validity.
 Module 02

Reliability
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH
INSTRUMENTS
Reliability is the degree of consistency or accuracy

with which an instrument measures an attribute.

It is the extent to which an experiment, test, or
any measuring procedure gives the same result
on repeated trials, every time.

Reliability (or precision) refers to the repeatability

of a measure, i.e., the degree of closeness
between repeated measurements of the same
 Module 02

Reliability addresses the AND

RELIABILITY question: ‘If
VALIDITY OFthe same
RESEARCH
thing is measured several times, how close are
INSTRUMENTS
the measurements to each other?”

The higher the reliability of an instrument, the

lower the amount of error in obtained results.
The three key aspects of reliability are:
• Stability,
• Internal consistency, and
• Equivalence.
 Module 02

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

Stability INSTRUMENTS
The stability of an instrument is an aspect of
reliability that indicates if a test is stable over
time, i.e., that the results do not change over
time.
Stability (also called test-retest reliability) answers
the question: “Will the scores be stable over
time?”
 Module 02

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

A test ormeasure is administered. INSTRUMENTS
Some time later the same test or measure is re-
administered to the same or highly similar
group.
One would expect that the reliability coefficient
will be highly correlated.
 Module 02

Internal Consistency
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH
Internal consistency refers to the extent to which
INSTRUMENTS
all the instrument’s items are measuring the
same attribute.
An instrument may be said to be internally
consistent to the extent that its items measure
the same trait.
 Module 02

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

Internal consistency reliability answers the
INSTRUMENTS
question: “How well does each item measure the
content or construct under consideration?”
It is an indicator of reliability for a test or measure
which is administered once.
 Module 02

Equivalence RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

Equivalence refers to the accuracy of observing
INSTRUMENTS
ratings and classifications.
Equivalence (also called parallel forms reliability)
answers the question: “Are the two forms of the
test or measure equivalent?”
If different forms of the same test or measure are
administered to the same group; one would
expect that the reliability coefficient will be
high.
 Module 02

Validity
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH
INSTRUMENTS
Validity is the degree to which an instrument
measures what it is supposed to measure.
This refers to the degree of closeness between a
measurement and the true value of what is
being measured.
Validity addresses the question: “How close is the
measured value to the true value?”
 Module 02

The three key aspects of AND

RELIABILITY validity are:OF RESEARCH
VALIDITY
• Face validity, INSTRUMENTS
• Content validity,
• Criterion-related validity, and
• Construct validity.

Face Validity
Face validity refers to whether the instrument
appears or looks as thought it is measuring the
appropriate construct.
 Module 02

Content Validity
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH
Content validity concerns the degreeINSTRUMENTS
to which an
instrument has an appropriate sample of items
for the construct being measured.

Criterion-Related Validity
Criterion-related validity involves determining the
relationship between an instrument and an
external criterion.
 Module 02

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

Construct Validity INSTRUMENTS
Construct validity is an instrument’s adequacy in
measuring the focal construct.
The construct validity addresses the key
questions:
“What is this instrument really measuring?”
“Does it really measure the abstract concept of
interest?”
 Module 02

Reliability and RELIABILITY

validity are not
AND independent
VALIDITY OF RESEARCH
qualities of an instrument. INSTRUMENTS
A measuring device that is unreliable cannot
possibly be valid.
A measure cannot be valid without being reliable.
An instrument cannot validly measure an attribute
if it is inconsistent and inaccurate.
 Module 02

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

INSTRUMENTS
 Module 02

Sensitivity
RELIABILITYand
AND Specificity
VALIDITY OF RESEARCH
INSTRUMENTS
Sensitivity and specificity are criteria that are
important in evaluating instruments designed as
screening instruments or diagnostic aids.
Screening refers to the application of a medical
procedure or test to people who, as yet, have no
symptoms of a particular disease, for the
purpose of determining their likelihood of having
the disease.
The screening procedure itself does not diagnose
the illness.
 Module 02

The screening procedure itself

RELIABILITY AND does not
VALIDITY diagnose
OF RESEARCH
the illness. INSTRUMENTS
Sensitivity and specificity are measures of a test's
ability to correctly classify a person as having a
disease or not having a disease.
 Module 02

Sensitivity RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

Sensitivity is the ability of an instrument to identify
INSTRUMENTS
a ‘case’ correctly, that is, to screen or diagnose a
condition correctly.
It is the ability of a test to correctly identify
patients with a disease, or true positives.
True positive: the person has the disease and the
test is positive.
 Module 02

Specificity RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF RESEARCH

Specificity is the instrument’s abilityINSTRUMENTS
to identify
‘non-cases’ correctly, that is, to screen out those
without the condition correctly.
It is the ability of a test to correctly identify people
without the disease.
It is the rate of yielding ‘true negatives.’