Reliability & Validity
Reliability & Validity
Reliability & Validity
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1.What can you possibly tell from an n of 1? 2. What is it worth to just get the researchers interpretation of what is taking place?
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4. If the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis, how can we be sure the researcher is a valid and reliable instrument?
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6. Isnt the researcher biased and just finding out what he or she expects to find? 7. Without hypotheses, how will you know what youre looking for? 8. Dont people lie to field researchers?
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9. Doesnt the researchers presence result in a change in participants normal behavior, thus contaminating the data? 10. If somebody else did the study, would they get the same results?
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Some argue that qualitative researchers should consider validity and reliability from the philosophical assumptions underlying the chosen paradigm.
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Quantitative
Internal Validity External Validity Reliability Objectivity
Qualitative
Credibility Transferability Dependability Confirmability
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Credibility: the extent to which interpretations can be validated as true, correct, and dependable
- Is the study believable from the perspective of those observed, does it ring true to the people studied? - Is the data complete?
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Credibility: Use triangulation to overcome inherent flaws - data - investigator - interdisciplinary - theory
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Reflexivity: the process of reflecting critically upon the self as the researcher, the human instrument
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Transferability: degree to which the results can be applied to other settings/situations - Researcher supplies thick (detailed) descriptions - Pays careful attention to the sample
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Transferability:
In qualitative research, a singe case or small, nonrandom, purposeful sample is selected precisely because the researcher wishes to understand the particular in depth, not to find out what is generally true of the many.
(Merriam, 2009, 224)
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Dependability: concerned with whether or not the findings can be duplicated/repeated - Describes changes in the setting and how those changes affected the research
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Dependability: Difficult because human behavior is constantly changing - many interpretations - no benchmarks or static means of measurements - similarity of answers does not ensure accuracy
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Dependability: More important to ask if whether the results are consistent with the data collected
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Dependability: Strategies to help with dependability: - triangulation - peer examination - investigators position - audit trail
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Dependability: Audit trail: independent readers can authenticate the findings of a study by following the trail of the researcher
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Confirmability: One concern is reactivity - How the act of observation changes a situation
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Different criteria apply to different methods i.e. In narrative analysis look for what tells a persuasive story in a narrative way vs. the thick description needed in an ethnography of a cultural group
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1.Are the methods of research appropriate to the nature of the question being asked? 2. Is the connection to an existing body of knowledge or theory clear? 3.Are there clear accounts of the criteria used for the selection of cases for study and of the data collection and analysis?
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5.Were the data collection and record keeping systematic? 6. Is reference made to accepted procedures for analysis?
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8. Is there adequate discussion of how themes, concepts and categories were derived from the data?
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