Item Reliability Entire assignment desciption sent for reference - Term Paper Example

Item Reliability Testing scenario In this testing scenario, three observers proceeded with the task of observing participants involved in an experiment aimed at investigating participants’ physiological and emotional reactions towards exposure to selected stimuli. Stimuli presented were either positive or negative guaranteed to solicit reactions from the participants. The researchers listed labored breathing, sweating and micro-facial expressions such as twitching at the corner of the eye, pursing lips, furrowing eyebrows, crying, smiling as the categories of physiological and emotional reactions under assessment.

It was the goal of the researchers to investigate whether perceived stimuli plays a role in influencing people’s physiological and emotional reactions (2011).Example of reliable and unreliable test itemThe method chosen to measure reliability for this testing scenario is the inter-observer reliability, also known as inter-rater reliability. In this method, reliability assessment centers on rating the level of agreement between the observations made by the different observers involved in the study.

Therefore, the test items or categories researchers choose to observe need to be reliable manifesting themselves in a universal manner across all participants guaranteeing the consistency of results (Wanous, 2001). In the above testing scenario, the reliable test item was the micro-facial expressions category whereas the unreliable test item was the labored breathing.Explanation of reliable and unreliable test itemResearch done on micro-facial expressions indicates that humans across the globe have similar micro-facial expressions.

The micro movements on a person’s face, for example, a twitch at the top corner of the eye caused by a reaction to a particular situation is a universal reaction to shocking, negative stimuli. Therefore, researchers in agreement about the micro-facial expressions to look out for when making their observations are able to detect them easily. As a result, a comparison of their results will indicate consistency because of the high level of agreement. On the other hand, a reaction such as labored breathing is open to the subjective interpretation of the observer regardless of the operational definition discussed among all researchers at the onset of research.

For example, an overweight participant might suffer from labored breathing discrediting the idea that labored breathing is a physiological response specific to exposure to negative stimuli. The unreliability of this test item might cause some researchers not to note changes in labored breathing among some participants exposed to negative stimuli. This causes an inconsistency in the observations made by the researchers rendering part of the research less reliable (Britton et al, 2006).ConclusionIn conclusion, reliability refers to the degree of consistency of test items and results collected from a research study.

It is a crucial element of research because it influences the validity of research. Undermining the role played by validity and reliability undercuts the efforts of researchers working towards compiling a study that adds to existing body of knowledge. Moreover, it discredits the research in spite of the properness of other facets of the research. Therefore, it proves beneficial to researchers to ensure that their test items are consistent through the use of methods such as inter-rater reliability, test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability and parallel-forms reliability (Trochim, 2006).

ReferencesBritton, J. C., Taylor, S. F., Berridge, K. C., Mikels, J. A., & Liberzon, I. (2006). Differential Subjective and Psychophysiological Responses to Socially and. Emotion, 6(1), 150-155.Reliability and Item Analysis. (2011, January 20). Retrieved from StatSoft: http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/reliability-and-item-analysis/Trochim, W. M. (2006, October 20). Types of Reliability. Retrieved from Research Methods Knowledge Base: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/reltypes.phpWanous, J. P., & Hudy, M. J. (2001).

Single-Item Reliability. Organizational Research Methods, 4(4), 361-375.