Sudhir KumarAIR 42 · CSE 2017 · 215 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening · a definition
Reliability and validity are important concepts in social science research, which specify degree of authenticity of the research method and its findings.
Body · continuous prose
Reliability means degree to which a measurement gives the same results each time it is used and by anyone.
Validity means degree to which a study reflects or calculates the effects which a researcher intends to measure.
Qualitative methods like participant observations, focus groups tend to be more valid as they give a detailed study, but they are less reliable as cant be replicated. Quantitative methods like questionnaire, survey, interview tend to be very reliable but not valid as they suffer from interview bias and more 'Hawthorne effect'.
However, these two terms are not polar as it may seem. Triangulation of methods - multipluralism is bringing about their interface. While qualitative researchers argue that quantitative methods are full of researchers' bias, but the fact is that qualitative methods may even lack validity, if not used carefully.
Close · a way forward
These tools are best to judge which research methods to combine to make a research useful. for example - Durkheim too used triangulation. studied tribe and totemism and then collected data to compare. Similarly he did in 'suicide'. Thus triangulation is way forward as there is nothing like methodological purity which can give both validity and reliability.