Definition
These two concepts are the basis for assessment in most scientific work in medical and social sciences. Reliability refers to the degree of consistency in measurement and to the lack of error. There are several types of indices of reliability. Internal reliability (measured by Cronbach’s alpha) is a measure of repeatability of a measure. In psychometrics, a questionnaire of, for example, ten items is said to be reliable if its internal reliability coefficient is at least 0.70. This reflects approximately the mean correlation between each score on each item, with all remaining item scores, repeated across all items. Methodologically, this reflects a measure of repeatability, a basic premise of science. Another type of reliability is inter-rater reliability, which refers to the degree of agreement between two or more observers, evaluating a patient’s behavior, for example. Thus, in the original type A behavior interview, which currently places more emphasis on hostility,...
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Gidron, Y. (2016). Reliability and Validity. In: Gellman, M., Turner, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_1549-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_1549-2
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