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
