Reliability & Validity Qualitative Research Methods
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Qual vs. Quant “The quantitative study must convince the reader that procedures have been followed faithfully because very little concrete description of what anyone does is provided. The qualitative study provides the reader with a depiction in enough detail to show that the author’s conclusion ‘makes sense’... The quantitative study portrays a world of variables and static states. By contrast the qualitative study describes people acting in events.” (Firestone, 1987, p. 19)
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Challenges 1.What can you possibly tell from an n of 1? 2. What is it worth to just get the researcher’s interpretation of what is taking place? 3. How can you generalize from a small, nonrandom sample?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Challenges 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? 5. How will you know when to stop collecting data?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Challenges 6. Isn’t the researcher biased and just finding out what he or she expects to find? 7. Without hypotheses, how will you know what you’re looking for? 8. Don’t people lie to field researchers?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Challenges 9. Doesn’t the researcher’s 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?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Some argue that qualitative researchers should consider validity and reliability from the philosophical assumptions underlying the chosen paradigm.
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Qual vs. Quant Criteria QuantitativeQualitative Internal ValidityCredibility External ValidityTransferability ReliabilityDependability ObjectivityConfirmability
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria 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?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Credibility: Some argue one can never truly discover the reality of a situation and should look for what’s credible instead. - Validity is relative - Humans are closer to the truth than if a data collection instrument had been interjected between us and the participants
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Credibility: Use triangulation to overcome inherent flaws - data - investigator - interdisciplinary- theory
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Credibility: Have adequate engagement in data collection, a.k.a, saturation - Holistic - Look for data that supports alternate explanations
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Credibility: Employ reflexivity Reflexivity: the process of reflecting critically upon the self as the researcher, the “human instrument”
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Transferability: degree to which the results can be applied to other settings/situations - Researcher supplies thick (detailed) descriptions - Pays careful attention to the sample
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria 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)
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Dependability: concerned with whether or not the findings can be duplicated/repeated - Describes changes in the setting and how those changes affected the research
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Dependability: Difficult because human behavior is constantly changing - many interpretations - no benchmarks or static means of measurements - similarity of answers does not ensure accuracy
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Dependability: More important to ask if whether the results are consistent with the data collected
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Dependability: Strategies to help with dependability: - triangulation - peer examination - investigator’s position - audit trail
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Dependability: Audit trail: independent readers can authenticate the findings of a study by following the trail of the researcher
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Confirmability: the degree to which the results can be corroborated by others - Results should be well-reasoned - The results of the study vs. the researcher’s bias?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria Confirmability: One concern is reactivity - How the act of observation changes a situation
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Criteria 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
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Evaluating Research 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?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Evaluating Research 4. Does the sensitivity of the methods match the needs of the research question? 5.Were the data collection and record keeping systematic? 6. Is reference made to accepted procedures for analysis?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Evaluating Research 7. How systematic is the analysis? 8. Is there adequate discussion of how themes, concepts and categories were derived from the data?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Evaluating Research 9. Is there adequate discussion of the evidence for and against the researcher’s arguments? 10. Is a clear distinction made between the data and their interpretation?
ON TARGET Reliability & Validity Qualitative Research Methods