Model answer & approach
- What do you mean by reliability? Discuss the importance of reliability in social science research. (Answer in 150 words)
Introduction
Reliability is a property of instruments rather than of conclusions.
Body
1. What reliability means: The consistency of a measure: the same instrument on the same object yields the same result. It is judged by test-retest stability, agreement between coders, and internal consistency among items, for which Cronbach's alpha is the usual statistic. It differs from validity: a scale can measure the wrong thing consistently.
2. Why it matters: Without reliability a difference in findings cannot be told from a difference in measurement, so nothing is comparable across time or place. India's large rounds — the National Sample Survey, the Periodic Labour Force Survey — are useful because definitions and schedules are held constant, which is why a change in how women's work is asked about reopens whether participation rose or the counting did. Unreliable measurement also makes replication pointless and leaves policy chasing noise. In qualitative work the requirement returns as Lincoln and Guba's dependability: an audit trail behind every claim.
Conclusion
Reliability buys nothing alone, and without it nothing else can be bought.
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