daanice.blogg.se - Reliability in research example

Quality research depends on a commitment to testing and increasing the validity as well as the reliability of your research results.Īny research worth its weight is concerned with whether what is being measured is what is intended to be measured and considers the ways in which observations are influenced by the circumstances in which they are made. Validity and reliability make the difference between “good” and “bad” research reports.

how much “noise,” or unrelated information, is captured by the results.

Research methods, quantitative or qualitative, are methods of studying real phenomenon – validity refers to how much of that phenomenon they measure vs. Validity is how researchers talk about the extent that results represent reality. Even when qualitative measures are used in research, they need to be looked at using measures of reliability and validity in order to sustain the trustworthiness of the results. To disregard validity is to put the trustworthiness of your work in question and to call into question others confidence in its results. Validity is always important – even if it’s harder to determine in qualitative research.

However some qualitative researchers have gone so far as to suggest that validity does not apply to their research even as they acknowledge the need for some qualifying checks or measures in their work.

In quantitative research testing for validity and reliability is a given.

Unfortunately, researchers sometimes create their own definitions when it comes to what is considered valid. How “true” are these results? How well do they represent the thing you’re actually trying to study? Validity is used to determine whether research measures what it intended to measure and to approximate the truthfulness of the results. The conclusions you draw from your research (whether from analyzing survey, focus groups, experimental design, or other research methods) are only useful if they’re valid.