What is the difference between reliability and validity?

Are you curious to know the difference between reliability and validity? Read the following pointers to know about it:

What Is It?

Reliability is the measure of the trustworthiness of a method, while validity is the measure of its accuracy.

What Does It Tell You?

Reliability tells to which extent you can reproduce the results if you perform the research under the same conditions each time. Conversely, validity tells how much you can measure the accurate results under the same conditions each time.

How Is It Assessed?

To assess reliability, you can check the consistency of results across time, different observers, and parts of the test. To assess validity, you can check how well the results are correlated with the established theories and other measures of the same concept.

How Do They Relate?

A non-reliable method probably needs to be validated. Similarly, it is optional for a reliable measurement always to be valid. A valid measurement is usually reliable.


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