With the development of contemporary tools using psychological assessment like questionnaires, rating scales and self report inventories which of the three might be less statistically reliable than the others.
Psychological testing
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With the development of contemporary tools using psychological assessment like questionnaires, rating scales, and self-report inventories which of the three might be less statistically reliable than the others.
Reliability refers to the degree to which specific assessment tools administered over multiple trials provide the same results. Reliable tools provide consistent results, are precise, and have minimal errors in measurement. The main types of reliability include test-retest and inter-rater reliability which are forms of external reliability. Internal consistency is a type of internal reliability which refers to the extent to which all sections of a measurement tool contribute equally to the concept being measured. (Matheson, 2019).
Generally, questionnaires are considered to be highly reliable because they contain closed and uniform questions that respondents are required to answer. It is also possible to assess any issues with the design of the questionnaire by conducting pilot studies that help determine cases of ambiguity or bias in the items. Rating scales place-specific attributes on a continuum defined by either word or numerical descriptions. The reliability of rating scales depends on the scale properties such that all parts of the scale must equally contribute to the item being measured. There is also the risk of rating errors since rating scales are prone to leniency and severity errors that are threats to test-retest and inter-rater reliability (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2018).
In self-report measures, people assess themselves by responding to specific questions. These reports are usually regarded as unreliable since they rely on the memory of the person completing them. Self-report measures are also affected by factors such as the individual’s feelings and bias caused by the need to be socially desirable hence the findings may not be consistent over time. Generally, self-report measures are less reliable in comparison to questionnaires and rating scales (Cohen & Swerdlik, 2018).
References
Cohen, R. J., & Swerdlik, M. E. (2018). Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and measurement (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Matheson G. J. (2019). We need to talk about reliability: making better use of test-retest studies for study design and interpretation. PeerJ, 7, e6918. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6918