Deck 13: Reliability and Validity

Question 1

The reliability coefficient of a new instrument designed to measure anxiety is established at 0.86.How should a nurse researcher interpret this finding?

A) High error variance; high reliability
B) High error variance; low reliability
C) Low error variance; high reliability
D) Low error variance; low reliability

Answer 1

Low error variance; high reliability

Question 2

In an attempt to distinguish depression from fatigue among patients receiving radiation therapy for cancer,a researcher developed a fatigue scale.The new fatigue scale was administered along with instruments that measure depression.Fatigue scores were found to be negatively related to indicators of depression.How should this information be interpreted?

A) Divergent validity present; construct validity supported
B) Divergent validity present; construct validity unsupported
C) Convergent validity present; construct validity supported
D) Convergent validity present; construct validity unsupported

Answer 2

Divergent validity present; construct validity supported

Question 3

What type of validity is demonstrated when a nurse researcher submits items of an instrument to a panel of experts to evaluate item clarity and reflection of the concept under consideration?

A) Content validity
B) Construct validity
C) Concurrent validity
D) Criterion-related validity

Answer 3

Content validity

Question 4

What type of validity is demonstrated by administering a test in which all the items relate to wound care and then evaluating student performance in caring for clients with wounds in the clinical setting?

A) Face validity
B) Content validity
C) Construct validity
D) Criterion-related validity

Question 5

Why should nurse researchers critiquing research reports be concerned with the assessment of the validity and reliability of study instruments?

A) To determine the utility of the instruments for triangulation
B) To assess the relationships between the hypotheses and the research questions
C) To determine whether the concepts and variables were measured adequately
D) To assess whether the concept under study is being treated as a dependent or an independent variable

Question 6

What property is established when the results of two separately administered tests that measure the same domain or concept are highly correlated?

A) Validity
B) Stability
C) Equivalence
D) Homogeneity

Question 7

How should a nurse researcher describe an instrument that produces the same result when it is administered to the same subjects under similar conditions on two or more occasions?

A) Possesses homogeneity
B) Possesses equivalence
C) Possesses stability
D) Possesses validity

Question 8

A researcher who is developing a new instrument to measure pain has been told by experts and patients that the instrument has face validity.What should be the researcher's next step?

A) Use the instrument in a parent study.
B) Use the instrument in a pilot study.
C) Assess the reliability of the instrument.
D) Assess the content validity of the instrument.

Question 9

When the nurse researcher demonstrates that an instrument is highly reliable,what type of error is reduced?

A) Random error
B) Variance error
C) Persistent error
D) Systematic error

Question 10

Which type of validity is most difficult to establish?

A) Content validity
B) Construct validity
C) Predictive validity
D) Concurrent validity

Question 11

How can a nurse researcher determine an instrument's homogeneity?

A) Split-half reliability
B) Test-retest reliability
C) Interrater reliability
D) Alternate form reliability

Question 12

How should a nurse researcher describe an instrument that is administered repeatedly and obtains the same results?

A) Indicative of validity
B) Indicative of reliability
C) Indicative of consistency
D) Indicative of predictability

Question 13

In developing an instrument to measure self-esteem,the researcher administered the instrument to a group of individuals who were substance abusers and to a group who were not drug users,expecting to see significant differences in scores between the two groups.How should this method of establishing construct validity be categorized?

A) Factor analysis
B) Convergent validity
C) Discriminant validity
D) Contrasted-groups approach

Question 14

How can a nurse researcher assess the degree to which individual items on a scale cluster together around multiple dimensions?

A) Factor analysis
B) Split-half reliability
C) Cronbach's alpha coefficient
D) Kuder-Richardson coefficient

Question 15

A new instrument developed to measure mental status has been determined to be highly valid.What does this attribute mean?

A) It is sensitive but not specific.
B) Its use results in minimal random errors.
C) It accurately measures level of mentation.
D) Determination of interrater reliability is unnecessary.

Question 16

An ear temperature probe that consistently reports body temperature at 0.8° C lower than actual body temperature has what type of reliability or validity problem?

A) Reduced reliability, systematic error
B) Reduced validity, random error
C) Increased validity, systematic error
D) Increased validity, random error

Question 17

What type of reliability is established by administering a test anxiety questionnaire to a group of nursing students before attending a test anxiety workshop and administering a different questionnaire to the same nurses immediately following the workshop?

A) Split-half
B) Test-retest
C) Parallel form
D) Alternate form

Question 18

Why should a nurse researcher be concerned about an instrument's degree of internal consistency?

A) The instrument is appropriate to use to measure a single concept.
B) The instrument has low measurement error and high error variance.
C) More refinement of the instrument is needed before it can be applied.
D) The instrument is valid, but the reliability has yet to be determined.

Question 19

Which type of validity is demonstrated by examining the extent to which a passing grade in physiology is correlated with passing the registered nurse licensure examination?

A) Content validity
B) Construct validity
C) Predictive validity
D) Concurrent validity

Question 20

What is the significance of concurrent validity to a nurse researcher?

A) The degree of correlation between the measure of the concept and some future measure of the same concept
B) The degree of correlation of two measures of the same concept administered at the same time
C) The extent to which a test measures a theoretical construct or trait
D) The representativeness of the items to measure a specific concept

Question 21

How should the researcher proceed if the initial test for reliability of an instrument has been conducted on a sample that has different characteristics from those of the current study sample?

A) Conduct a pilot study on the current sample to determine whether reliability is maintained.
B) Use the instrument with the current sample because reliability holds across samples.
C) Use the Kuder-Richardson formula to recalculate the reliability coefficient.
D) Discard or reject the instrument.

Question 22

How should a nurse researcher interpret a Cronbach's alpha coefficient ranging from 0.84 to 0.92 for the dimensions of an instrument?

A) Test-retest reliability must be established.
B) A Kuder-Richardson coefficient is preferred.
C) The instrument has high internal consistency reliability.
D) The instrument requires parallel form testing.

Question 23

A scale used in a hemodialysis unit consistently weighs chronic renal failure patients 1 lb more than their actual body weight.Which measurement problem does this illustrate?

A) Chance error
B) Random error
C) Observer error
D) Systematic error

Question 24

The interrater reliability of a new instrument is established to be 40%.What is the correct interpretation of this finding?

A) The instrument is not equivalent.
B) The instrument demonstrates homogeneity.
C) The scoring criteria require clarification.
D) The scoring criteria are clear and unambiguous.

Question 25

A nurse investigator administers an instrument to subjects attending a chemical dependence meeting and to subjects who abstain from alcohol and drugs.Which type of validity is this investigator attempting to establish?

A) Expert
B) Predictive
C) Convergent
D) Contrasted-groups

Question 26

How should the nurse researcher describe variability in test scores attributed to error rather than to actual differences in behavior? (Select all that apply.)

A) Random error
B) Variance error
C) Persistent error
D) Systematic error

Question 27

When would a nurse researcher want to use a Cronbach's alpha coefficient to establish the internal consistency of an instrument?

A) When questions are open-ended
B) When questions/statements demand a yes or no response
C) When the instrument uses a Likert-type response scale
D) When the instrument is designed to measure more than one concept

Question 28

Which measures used to test reliability are specific for equivalence? (Select all that apply).

A) Test-retest reliability
B) Item to total correlation
C) Parallel or alternate form
D) Split-half reliability
E) Kuder-Richardson coefficient
F) Cronbach's alpha
G) Interrater reliability

Question 29

When would a nurse researcher want to use a Kuder-Richardson (KR-20)coefficient to establish the internal consistency of an instrument?

A) When questions are open-ended
B) When multiple choice tests are analyzed
C) When the instrument uses a Likert-type response scale
D) When the instrument is designed to measure more than one concept

Question 30

The nurse researcher notes that test-retest correlations were r = 0.79 when given over 4-week intervals.How should this be interpreted?

A) Equivalence
B) Discriminability
C) Reliability
D) Homogeneity

Question 31

What is the method or format of the Cronbach's alpha coefficient that a nurse researcher can expect to use as a test for reliability?

A) Comparison of each item in the scale simultaneously with each other item
B) Determination of the correlation between the odd- and even-numbered items of an instrument
C) Determination of a correlation based on the consistency of responses to all items of a single-test form
D) Demonstration of a high degree of agreement when the behavior or change is observed by two or more observers

Question 32

What does a nurse researcher assess when validity of an instrument is determined?

A) Stability
B) Variance
C) Accuracy
D) Precision

Question 33

Testing of a new instrument demonstrates that it has a high degree of internal consistency.What is the significance of this to the nurse researcher?

A) The instrument is appropriate to use to measure a single concept.
B) The instrument has low measurement error and high error variance.
C) More refinement of the instrument is needed before it can be applied.
D) The instrument is valid, but the reliability has yet to be determined.

Question 34

What terms are applied to variability in test scores attributed to error rather than to actual differences in behavior? (Select all that apply.)

A) Random error
B) Variance error
C) Persistent error
D) Systematic error

Question 35

How should a nurse researcher describe the type of reliability existing when consistency of observation,measured by a correlation coefficient,is noted between two or more research assistants who record their observations of an event at the same time?

A) Internal consistency
B) Parallel forms
C) Test-retest
D) Interrater

Question 36

A group of researchers developing an instrument to measure hope performed a test-retest on the instrument with an interval of 5 days.This testing resulted in a correlation coefficient of 0.38.How should the nurse researcher interpret this finding?

A) Instrument is stable; high reliability
B) Instrument is stable; low reliability
C) Instrument is unstable; high reliability
D) Instrument is unstable; low reliability

Question 37

In testing an instrument consisting of 25 items for homogeneity using the item to total correlation,eight items were found to have a low correlation to the total.How should the researcher use this information?

A) Use the instrument without changes.
B) Use the instrument only with a multitrait-multimethod approach.
C) Retain the eight items with low correlation and delete the other 17 items.
D) Delete the eight items with low correlation and retain the other 17 items.

Question 38

Which measures used to test reliability are specific for homogeneity? (Select all that apply

A) Test-retest reliability
B) Item to total correlation
C) Parallel or alternate form
D) Split-half reliability
E) Kuder-Richardson coefficient ).
F) Cronbach's alpha
G) Interrater reliability

Question 39

A newly developed instrument is found to have a Cronbach's alpha of 0.82.How should the nurse researcher interpret this finding?

A) The instrument has no internal consistency.
B) The instrument has a low degree of internal consistency.
C) The instrument has a moderate degree of internal consistency.
D) The instrument has a relatively high degree of internal consistency.

Question 40

Which type of reliability can be defined as consistency of observation between two or more research assistants?

A) Internal consistency
B) Parallel forms
C) Test-retest
D) Interrater