Credibility

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Credibility
Validity of the research is relative to the purpose and circumstances under which it is conducted. Validity in research concerns the truthfulness and accuracy of its findings. Validity in qualitative research is referred to as credibility. The question to be asked is whether the findings are credible and whether one can be confident in observation and interpretations. When the researcher has established confidence in the findings, the credibility notion has been met. Credibility in qualitative research equals internal validity in quantitative research.

Five methods have been suggested to assess the credibility of qualitative research: structural corroboration, consensus, referential or interpretive adequacy, theoretical adequacy, …show more content…

The term transferability is equal to external validity in quantitative research. Although the main goal of qualitative research is not to generalize the findings, it is the researcher’s responsibility to provide sufficient detailed and thick description of the context under study. In this case the potential users can make comparison and judgments. Hence, the researcher must to provide accurate and complete descriptions of the context and participants to assist the reader in determining transferability. The findings of qualitative research can be applied to other settings, people and times to the extend they are similar. Transferability of a set of findings to another context depends on the similarity or “goodness of fit” between the context of the study and other contexts.
One of the strategies that can be implied in enhancing the transferability is cross-case comparisons.
There are some threats to transferability as well which includes selection effects (the fact that the constructs that are being investigated are unique to a single group), setting effects (the fact that results can be a function of the specific context), and history effects (the fact that unique historical experiences of the participants may militate against comparisons). Reactivity (the effect of the research itself) might also limit

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