Ensuring Reliability and Validity in Research Methodology

Ensuring Reliability and Validity in Research Methodology

In the field of social science research, research methodologies were formulated to generate data that would appropriately answer research objectives either through the quantitative or qualitative paradigms. It is known among researchers that there is no lone research methodology that can adequately provide data and answer a research objective single-handedly; it takes a combination of two or more methodologies to provide an almost valid and reliable answer to the problem or objective being studied. While some research utilize one methodology to generate answers about the problem, most researches use more than one methodology in order to provide general and specific analyses and interpretations about the data that can be beneficial to answering the research's problem.

What makes multiple methodologies-studies more reliable and valid is that they compensate for the limitations that other methodologies may have. Take as an example the methodologies under the quantitative paradigm. Descriptive study designs under the survey or experimental methods provide reliability in that the findings are consistent with the data generated and analyses conducted through statistical procedures by the researches. Surveys and experiments are reliable because, given the same set of data, researchers can provide the same results from statistical tests that were ran during the course of research. The results will have consistency because the statistical tests objectively and rationally conduct procedures on a set of data that is also consistent with previous tests conducted. Thus, for a specific set of data, quantitative data are reliable because not only are the tests consistent with the data used, but the variables and measures used are also carefully conceptualized and specifically operationalized in accordance to the study's objectives.

Qualitative research, meanwhile, offers more specific information about a specific social action or phenomenon through ethnography, participant observation, or historical research methodologies. More concerned with textual forms of analysis and interpretation, qualitative research methods provide a more subjective viewpoint of the research problem, delving deeper into the phenomenon or problem through the "eyes" of the subjects or artifacts used as units of analysis. While quantitative research has a high level of reliability, qualitative researches have high levels of validity, for information generated qualitatively come from first-hand sources (people themselves or the artifact itself), are more in-depth due to the flexibility in probing deeper on the subject by the researcher, and authentic because the unit of analysis is part of the culture or phenomenon being studied in the research.