Psych 535

University of Phoenix Material
Validity and Reliability Matrix
For each of the tests of reliability and validity listed on the matrix, prepare a 50-100-word description of test’s application and under what conditions these types of reliability would be used as well as when it would be inappropriate. Then prepare a 50-100-word description of each test’s strengths and a 50-100-word description of each test’s weaknesses.

TEST of Reliability
Application and APPROPRIATENESS
Strengths
Weaknesses
Internal Consistency Internal consistency is a measure that based on the correlations between different items on the same test. It measures whether several items that are supposed to measure the same general construct produce similar scores.
The Spearman-Brown formula allows a test developer to estimate internal consistency reliability from a correlation of two halves of a test. It is a very specific application of a general formula to estimate the reliability of a test.

A weakness of the internal consistency test is that it doesn’t allow for measuring the reliability of heterogeneous tests as well as speed tests. A speed test would generally produce varied results, and an internal consistency test would not even be appropriate for something like that because it is not measuring consistency.

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Split-half
Split-half reliability is obtained by correlating 2 pairs of scores that are obtained from equal halves of a single test administered once.

The strength of split half is that is allows you to work with a formula to check reliability. It typically contains three steps.(1) Divide the test into halves (2) Calculate a Pearson r between scores on the two halves of the test, and (3) Adjust the half-test reliability using the Spearman-Brown formula

A weakness of the split-half reliability is that is impractical to use when trying to assess reliability with two tests or to administer a test twice, because of factors such as time or expense.
Test/retest
Test Retest is an estimate of reliability obtained by correlating pairs of scores from the same people on two different administrations of the same test. The test-retest measure is appropriate when evaluating the reliability of a test that is supposed to measure something that is relatively stable over time, such as a personality trait. If the characteristic being measured were going to vary over time, then there would be little sense in assessing the reliability of the test using the test-retest method.

Strength of this test is that is has the ability to measure the reliability that is stable over time. For example, if a person has an introverted type of personality, then this test would be very appropriate.
A major weakness of this test is that it can only measure something that is stable. A high school wrestler’s weight is a god example of this. Throughout the year, the athlete’s weight is constantly changing based on upcoming matches, diet, and even upgrading or downgrading a weight class. This is not relatively stable over time, and thus a weakness of the test.
Parallel and alternate forms
Parallel form of a test exists when the means and variances of the test scores are equal. The means of scores on parallel forms typically correlate with the true score. Alternate forms on the other hand, are just different versions of a test are meant to be constructed to be parallel. Alternate forms of test are designed to be equal with respect to the content and level of difficulty.

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Once an alternate or parallel form of a test has been developed, it plays an advantage to the test user in multiple ways. For example, it minimized the effect of memory for content of a previously administered form of the test.

Developing alternate forms of tests can very time consuming and expensive. It can also be so time consuming that the test developer might not put as much effort into the alternate form of the test compared to the original.

Test of Validity
Application and APPROPRIATENESS
Strengths
Weaknesses
Face validity
Face validity relates more to what a test appears to measure to person being tested than to what the test actually measure. It is a judgment concerning how relevant the test item appears. To be.

A major strength of this is that it can gauge how well written the test is by the developer. If it accomplished the test writer’s goal of measuring the person being tested, then it had a strong face validity or high in face validity.
A test’s lack of face validity could also contribute to a lack of confidence in the perceived effectiveness of the test, which could lead to a decrease in the test-taker’s cooperation or motivation to do his or her best. On the other hand, in a corporate environment, a lack of face validity may lead of managers to accept the use of a particular test.

Content validity
Content validity describes a judgment of how efficiently a test samples behavior representative of the universe of behavior that the test was designed to sample in the first place.

A major strength of content validity is its measurement of content in employment setting. This is very important because it allows for tests to be used to hire and promote people that are carefully examined for their relevance and competence to the job

The problem with content validity is that if it doesn’t sample a behavior that is universal for what the original test was designed for, then the test is not really measuring anything and there is no positive correlation.
Criterion related
Criterion-related validity on the other hand is a judgment of how efficiently a test score can used to infer an individual's standing on some measure of interest, and that measure of interest is the criterion. It is composed of two parts, the concurrent validity and the predictive validity. The concurrent validity is an index of the degree to which a test score is related to some criterion measure that is obtained at the same time. The predictive validity is an index of the degree to which a test score predicts some criterion measure.

Strength of criterion-related validity is that it allows psychiatrists to use the very important MMPI-2-RF test for the purpose of psychiatric diagnosis of patients.

A weakness is that it can contain criterion contamination. It is the term applied to criterion measure that has been based on predictor measures. The problem is that when criterion contamination occurs, the results of the validation study cannot be taken seriously.

Construct
Construct validity is a judgment about the appropriateness of inferences that are drawn from test scores regarding individual standing on a variable called a construct. A construct is an “informed, scientific idea developed or hypothesized to describe or explain behavior.

The strength of construct validity is that it has been viewed as the unifying concept for all validity evidence. All types of validity evidence, including evidence from the content and criterion validities, all come under the umbrella of construct validity.

The weakness of construct validity is that the constructs are unobservable traits that the test developer may invoke to describe test behavior or criterion performance.