What does the term "reliability" refer to in psychological assessments?

The term "reliability" in psychological assessments specifically refers to the consistency of a measure over time. This means that if an assessment is reliable, individuals should score similarly on the same test when it is administered at different times, assuming that there have been no significant changes in what is being measured. Consistency can be thought of as the degree to which an assessment yields stable and consistent results across repeated administrations or different forms of the test.

Reliability can be evaluated in various ways, including test-retest reliability, which assesses the stability of test scores over time, and internal consistency reliability, which measures whether different items on the test produce similar results. High reliability is crucial because it ensures that the assessment can be trusted to produce similar outcomes across different instances, thereby enhancing the overall credibility of the psychological evaluation.

In contrast, accuracy pertains to how close the test results are to the true value, fairness relates to equal and unbiased test administration, and validity concerns whether the test measures what it is intended to measure. While these concepts are important in psychological testing, they are distinct from reliability.