BUSINESS RESEARCH

TOPIC- 6

INSTRUMENTS IN RESEARCH

Instruments are materials, concrete or verbal or non- verbal communication, used to collect data for
research study.

Guide for a GOOD Instrument

1. Is the instrument appropriate for the study?

2. Was there a trial run of the instrument to determine the difficulty index and validity index of
each item included if this is a research-made?
3. Are the items in the instrument relevant to the problem?
4. How long does it take to finish answering the instrument?
5. Are question clear?
6. Has the instrument stood the test of time? How popular is it?
7. What are the critiques of its use? \were these considered?
8. Will responses yield to quantification and descriptive qualifications?
9. Is the instrument easy to administer?
10. Is scoring facilitated?

1. Ready-to- Use instrument – this are standardized materials established and tested for the
purpose intended.

2. Researcher- made instruments

3. Questionnaire
4. Interviews
5. Observation, records and ratings
6. Research Instrument forms
7. Checklists
8. Other like concrete tools, equipment and materials.

TEST ON VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY

Validity is the degree to which a test or measuring instrument measures what it intends to
measure. . The soundness of the questionnaires.
Criteria to determine the validity of a TEST
1. Content Validity- the content is truly a representative of the study.
2. Concurrent validity – the degree to which the test agrees or correlates with a criterion
set up as an acceptable measure.
3. Predictive validity – Outcome of the subjects is predicted.
 4. Construct validity – it seeks agreement between theoretical concept and specific
measuring device or procedure. It is the extent to which the test measures a theoretical
construct or trait.
5. Face validity - we can think about observational measures of behavior that woud have
face validity.
6. Criterion –related validity – how well one variable or sets of variables predicts an
outcome based on information from other variables.

Reliability is the consistency of your measurement or the degree to which an instrument measures the
same way each time it is used under the same condition, with the same subjects. A measure is
considered reliable if a person’s score on the same test given twice is similar. It is important to
remember that reliability is not measured, it is estimated.