validity and reliability in research methodology

The motivation for providing this guide is our observation that researchers, not necessarily being survey researchers per se, but wanting to use a survey method, lack a concise resource on validity. Future studies should also aim to replicate the current findings with additional samples of psychology students. Research Methods, Survey Methods, Validity Abstract: What follows is a practical guide for establishing the validity of a survey for research purposes.

Future research should expand the RMSA to include items that measure knowledge with confidence intervals as the proposed items were removed due to poor fit. This is a measurement of responses it does not measure the efficacy of the instrument itself. The Cronbach alpha measures the consistency of responses in a set of survey. The Cronbach alpha cannot verify the reliability or validity of the instrument. Together the findings provide a preliminary test that can be further developed to provide a tool for instructors and departments to use when assessing psychology students' statistics knowledge and skills. It is a common mistake to report alpha Cronbach as the indicator of reliability or validity. Validity analysis showed that using the RMSA to measure students' statistics knowledge was an improvement over the assessment recommended by the APA Guidelines and was less time consuming. Results from a Rasch analysis with data from n = 330 undergraduates showed good fit for 16 of the 21 items created. The American Psychological Association's Guidelines for the Undergraduate Major in Psychology (APA, 2007, 2013) served as a framework for development. The Research Methods Skills Assessment (RMSA) was created to measure psychology majors' statistics knowledge and skills.

Validity and reliability in research methodology