Is the Measure of Consistency a State of Mind?

In your unit readings from the Psychological Testing and Assessment text, you read about three sources of error variance that occur in testing and assessment. These include test construction, test administration, and test scoring and interpretation. Additionally, other sources of error may be suspect. You were also introduced to reliability coefficients, which provide information about these sources of error variance on a test (see Table 5-4).

The following reliability coefficients were obtained from studies on a new test, THING, purporting to measure a new construct (that is, Something). Alternate forms of the test were also developed and examined in subsequent studies published in the peer-reviewed journals. The alternate test forms were titled THING 1 and THING 2. (Remember to refer back to your Psychological Testing and Assessment text for information about using and interpreting a coefficient of reliability.)

• Internal consistency reliability coefficient = .92
• Alternate forms reliability coefficient = .82
• Test-retest reliability coefficient = .50

In your post:

• Describe what these scores mean.
• Interpret these results individually in terms of the information they provide on sources of error variance.
• Synthesize all of these interpretations into a final evaluation about this test’s utility or usefulness.
• Explain whether these data are acceptable.
• Explain under what conditions they may not be acceptable and under what conditions, if any, they may be appropriate.

(Discussion Guidelines)

Discussion question instructions will be presented for each question as it is posted. Your discussion answers must be thorough and expansive. Be sure to answer every question substantially using excellent integrative material from course readings and research. Usually a good answer to a set of discussion questions is about 1-2 pages (three to four substantial paragraphs for a total of 500 words…..NOT including the questions or references; only your answer). It is HIGHLY encouraged to conduct a word count before submitting your discussion answer. One or two short paragraphs or one or two sentences per paragraph will not meet the rigor requirements for this class. 

Discussion question instructions will be presented for each question as it is posted. Your discussion answers must be thorough and expansive. Be sure to answer every question substantially using excellent integrative material from course readings and research. Usually a good answer to a set of discussion questions is about 1-2 pages (three to four substantial paragraphs for a total of 500 words…..NOT including the questions or references; only your answer). It is HIGHLY encouraged to conduct a word count before submitting your discussion answer. One or two short paragraphs or one or two sentences per paragraph will not meet the rigor requirements for this class.   

 Support all work (even reflections and article reviews) with excellent integration of material. This class places a heavy emphasis on how well learners use resources to supplement and support their work. The answers to discussion questions are not to be opinion papers, but professionally presented research/course material-based work. Therefore, to be eligible for top grading of your work, each unit discussion answer requires AT LEAST TWO resources/references (one of which must be from the required Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman text book) listed at the end of the work. In addition, you must have SEVERAL (three or more) citations in your work that are associated with your references. Each answer to every question must have resource support