Credibility, Validity and Transferability

Research Methods for Counselling

Aims

By the end of this session you will be able to describe the terms:

• Credibility• Validity• Reliability• Transferability• Triangulation

Credibility

• Is the research trustworthy? • Is the research believable?• Are the researcher's conclusions supported by

the research findings?

What Makes Research Credible?

1. Well defined research question or well defined aims

2. Consistent and appropriate methodology3. Systematic and comprehensive literature

review4. Sound ethical standards (including objectivity)5. Appropriate data collection and analysis6. Evidence based discussion and conclusion

Validity• Is the way in which the research is designed

capable of answering the research question?• Does it measure or test the research topic as

intended?• Validity refers to the degree to which a study

accurately reflects or assesses the specific concept that the researcher is attempting to measure

Sometimes called internal validity

Reliability

• Is the research repeatable?

• If the research is repeated and consistently yields the same results we can say the research design is reliable.

• While reliability is concerned with the accuracy of the actual measuring instrument or procedure, validity is concerned with the study's success at measuring what the researcher set out to measure.

Transferability

• Is the research applicable to other contexts and situations?

• Can the results be generalised?• Can the findings be applied beyond the

boundaries of the research? This is sometimes called external validity

Please complete the questions on your work sheet

Hand it to your tutor for checking and feedback

Terminology

Credibility – is the research trustworthy?Validity – is the research design capable of answering the question?Reliability – is the research repeatable with consistent resultsTransferability – can the findings be used in another context?Triangulation – involves examining the topic with different methods

Conclusions

We have explored the meanings of these terms:

• Credibility• Validity• Reliability• Transferability• Triangulation