Validity and Reliability Issues - Research Paper Example

Validity and Reliability Issues The dependability of academic reference materials including books and journal are often questioned. The questioning of research is ultimately done in order to determine whether the researcher’s data is in its purest form. The scrutiny of these works is to boost readers’ confidence in the new ideas before they incorporate them in their practices. Because most of the research work is done to either understand or improve existing knowledge, validity and reliability must, therefore, be determined to further substantiate and enable people trust and believe in the new findings. This research paper will basically focus on the general issues in the validity and reliability of qualitative research, physiological assumptions that have affected the credibility of most works and the strategies that can be adapted to ensure the integrity of qualitative research findings. In addition, the strategies that are congruent with the ensuring the trustworthy of qualitative research will be presented. There are common questions that find place in the review and authentication arenas. For instance, when trying to find out if the researcher is not biased, the reviewers are basically trying to illustrate whether the researcher is the only primary source of the put forward data. Is he or she the main instrument of data collection and analysis and whether they employed the valid and reliable instruments while acquiring the information? Another common question to determine the rigor of a research is when you are asked to state whether the same results will be achieved if someone else did the same research. Furthermore, a researcher is supposed to explain his/her ability to generalize hi research work either deductively or inductively. This research paper explains the validity and reliability issues of qualitative research technique. What factors might limit this type of research? Firstly, credibility factor limits qualitative type of research; credibility is an important attribute for the establishment of whether the results of the research are believable (Akerlind 2012). This should be from the researchers’ perspective as these are the people who can legitimately judge the validity of a research. Second factor is transferability (Aryet et al 2013). Transferability factor limits a qualitative research in relation to its ability to generalize or transfer the result of a research to another situation. Third attributed factor is dependability. Dependability postulates that a qualitative research must always allow for reliability; if people do the same study, they should be able to come up with the same results. Lastly, Confirmability may also limit a qualitative research; Confirmability preempts that the results of the research should be able to be corroborated by others (Bryman & Bell 2011). What strategies can a researcher use to make the research more credible? Internal Reliability attribute may ultimately make research work more credible. It is evident that any attempts to ensure the internal reliability of any research work must prioritize. The internal prioritization elements rely in the fact that the findings should congruently be the reality (Creswell 2012). This additionally implies that; as people research, it is important to strive as much as possible to ensure that they protect their research notions from their passions for most undetermined truths. In ensuring validity, it helps to have in mind that the rules that have for a long time prompted to guarantee truths of inquiries have changed greatly over time (Goerel et al 2012). Therefore, researchers must accommodate the assumptions of qualitative research that state truth in qualitative research is constructed, multi-dimensional and dynamic or ever-changing hence, each researcher must endeavor to make their own acceptable interpretation of reality (Guion et al 2011). This will further lead researchers in the right direction towards ensuring that there is prescribed validity and credibility in their research works. Triangulation attributes of a credible research; this particular method involves the employment of multiple investigators and sources of data collection and analysis. This means that a group of people will conduct similar investigations but separately leading to different but related results. Having different sources of data can also play a big role in establishing validity. This will provide information from separate entities therefore increasing the chances of having truthful conclusions. Different method of analysis will ensure accuracy further complimenting to the achievement of credibility (Gray 2013). Triangulations converges into various research guidelines sub-branches which include; Member checks; this is a second strategy proposed and is believed to critically influence the validity of any research. It involves going back to the sources of data and asking for interpretations. Each individual will give their personal perception and analysis of the situation thereof increasing the accuracy of the data collected further impacting directly on the validity and credibility of the research (Hennessy & Patterson 2012). Peer or colleague interpretations; as the people you work with have a glimpse at your work and have the opportunity to scrutinize and make their individual opinions, the credibility bar is raised significantly (Holloway & Wheeler 2013). They will be able to correct any made mistakes and at the same time give honest sentiments about the research. This method can also be efficient and effective in ensuring credibility. Commitment in the research; this particular methodology has proved effective in ensuring the credibility of any work. When the person conducting the research is totally submerged or engaged in the research by allocating enough time and resources, the results are always dependable. A depth study that looks at every angle of an issue will definitely increase the chances of having steady outcomes. Audit-trial; this method lead to credibility by running backgrounds on how data was collected, how the different data categories were created and how all the necessary decisions affecting the research were made. If all this is carried out, then the chances of having a credible research are generally very high (Jones et al 2013). Another method that has fundamentally provided positive results in attempt to raise the credibility of any research is having knowledge of the researcher. When using secondary sources, it is recommended that one learns about the assumptions and biases that the primary developer of data might have (Munhall 2012). This will lead to correct decision making that will not be affected by neither bias nor inappropriate assumptions. External Reliability This can be described as the generalizability or the extent to which the findings of a particular study can be accurately applied. To ensure this, any given researcher must first create a working hypothesis, guarantee that the situations under study have concrete universal views and finally confirm that the findings can be easily applied by other people in different situations (Onwuegbuzie et al 2011). Therefore, to ascertain external reliability, the following fundamental strategies must be employed; Thick description; this particular method calls for the provision of enough information about the research therefore, allowing easier transferring of the findings additionally increasing the credibility of the research. Multi-site as a strategy recommends that the researcher uses different designs in data collections, separate sites, diverse cases and ultimately altered circumstances (Ritchie et al 2013). This will guarantee varying results that will definitely lead to external validity of the research. Modal comparison research technique is usually broad and full of details. For external validity and credibility, it is recommended that comparisons are made within the same class. Situations are supposed to be assessed using similar situations within their class. This will lead to consistent and more accurate dependable findings. Finally, it will be of further assistance is the sampling of the study group was done from within the larger data. Generalizations should be from a larger group with many study parts that basically form the unit of study. This gives the best sample leading to precise results. Discuss how your philosophical stance as the researcher affects the way you establish validity and reliability in the following: Research design (Please talk about these design in the paper; phenomenological, case study, ethnographic, grounded theory and content analysis), Data collection and Data analysis Research design Qualitative research design overly explores the use of qualitative techniques; these techniques are extremely useful to generate unknown ideas concerning the targeted social actors of study. A well-structured research design should henceforth collectively consist of a systematic and subjective approach. The subjective and systematic entities of research design are important aspects of interpreting the personal experiences regarding the human behavior and habitual experiences by the researchers (Siedman 2011). Phenomenological The ultimate goal of a qualitative phenomenological research is initially to describe a phenomenon or a lived experience (Silverman 2013). As a result of these phenomenological attributes, a qualitative analytical measure of qualitative narrative data must solely embark on significantly-based method of data analysis. These data analysis must conservatively be different from mere traditional or qualitative methods of research. Case study Qualitative research methods and case studies are different sides of the same coin (Thomas & Magilvy 2011). This statement elaborates on the similar entity nature of qualitative research and case study guidelines. A case study simultaneously, is an approach to qualitative research; or any other research work that put focus on gaining in-depth understanding of a specified research subject, entity or event at a particularly specific time. Ethnographic The ethnographic approach to qualitative research techniques majors on the field of anthropology. The emphasis of research design ethnographically is on reviewing an entire customs, values and cultural beliefs of a people. Preferably, the original cultural design on was tied on the idea of ethnicity and cultural geographical locations (Pickard 2013). This notion nonetheless, has been overly broadened in relation to qualitatively based research designs into virtual groups or organizations. This means a culture can be studied as per defined group or business culture. Grounded theory Grounded theory is basically a qualitative research approach that was originally developed by various social science researchers in 1960s (Wahyuni 2013). The theory self-definably is purposefully to develop a comprehensive theory about phenomenon of interest. Ground theory is a simplified; but complex iterative process. Any qualitative research work must firstly begin with attribute of raising generative questions. The generative questions consequentially help in the observation. Additionally, these questions assist in the provision of static and confining research study guidelines. Content analysis Content analysis is widely used in qualitative research techniques (Yin 2014). As much as this methodology portrays singularity, the current content analysis attribute of qualitative research singles out three distinctively validating applications of content analysis. These methods are; directed summative and conventional data analysis process. All of these three content analytic methods are used interprets data naturally, hence adhering to the naturalistic paradigm. Data collection Data collection process in qualitative research to some extent, if sluggishly organized, may be largely hectic. Data collection processes in this research method therefore include; direct interaction with individuals on a face to face basis, direct interaction with group individuals (Siedman 2012). Either ways, these data collections methods overly rely on interviews and observations. Data analysis In conclusion, the data analysis of qualitative research involves an aim to unearth or understand the research guidelines in a broader picture. This is done by describing the phenomenon and the overall and purposeful meaning of the whole research work. A qualitative research analysis involves coding and labeling all the data collected in an orderly manner. The most appropriately coding and labeling order used in data collected involve the arrangement of similarities and differences per data collected. References Åkerlind, G. S. (2012). 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