This is particularly important for the researcher who has few or no potential evaluators available who are knowledgeable in small group communication theory. The second purpose of the study was the development of a measuring instrument for interaction behavior in small group communication that would be amenable to parametric statistical analysis. The resulting instrument was found to have acceptable reliability on each of the six factors measured. Since reliability in the use of this type of instrument is closely tied to the number of evaluators using the instrument, the researcher who wishes to improve his reliability of measurement may do so by increasing the number of evaluators he employs. Since people need no special background to be selected as evaluators, and training of evaluators is a brief and simple task, this is a viable procedure.
Validity is always an important question in the development of a measuring instrument.
In most cases, there is no absolute criterion against which to compare a newly developed instrument to test its validity. This instance is no exception. One important check on the validity of a measure is whether it can detect differences we know or believe exist. Differences were detected among the fifteen interaction behaviors employed in this study on five of the six dimensions of the instrument. The exception was the verbosity dimension.