After 8 years of working for a company that installed underground sprinkling systems for golf courses, Trevor was ready to venture into his own business. As he prepared his SWOT analysis, he evaluated where he stood at this time. He was fortunate to have $100,000 financing to get the business under way. He knew of three skilled installers who were willing and interested to work for him, and he was aware that new construction was at an all-time low, with several residential properties being foreclosed. In reviewing his list, you would categorize these events as

A. three opportunities and one threat.
B. two strengths and one threat.
C. two strengths and one opportunity.
D. three opportunities and one weakness.

Reliability and validity reliability and validity are two important considerations that must be made with any type of data collection. reliability refers to the ability to consistently produce a given result. in the context of psychological research, this would mean that any instruments or tools used to collect data do so in consistent, reproducible ways. unfortunately, being consistent in measurement does not necessarily mean that you have measured something correctly. to illustrate this concept, consider a kitchen scale that would be used to measure the weight of cereal that you eat in the morning. if the scale is not properly calibrated, it may consistently under- or overestimate the amount of cereal that’s being measured. while the scale is highly reliable in producing consistent results (e. g., the same amount of cereal poured onto the scale produces the same reading each time), those results are incorrect. this is where validity comes into play. validity refers to the extent to which a given instrument or tool accurately measures what it’s supposed to measure. while any valid measure is by necessity reliable, the reverse is not necessarily true. researchers strive to use instruments that are both highly reliable and valid.