What Is Reliability? Describe Two Basic Ways to Assess Reliability

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The Answer is Reliability refers to the stability of the relationship between observed values and the events that actually occurred. One way to do this is as a byproduct of assessing accuracy. That is, when comparing observed and true values, it is easy to also track the nature of any error. If the consistency of the error is relatively high, for instance, the data might be described as acceptably reliable. Of course, this would have nothing to do with whether the data were acceptably accurate. This way of calculating the reliability of observations involves the same methods for assessing accuracy.
A second way of assessing the reliability of observed values does not require true values. In this approach, the behavior of interest must be preserved in some way, such as in a videotape format. With this advantage, the observer can be presented with the videotape two or more times so that the consistency of observational judgments can be evaluated.

What Is Reliability? Describe Two Basic Ways to Assess Reliability

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