Question

• Describe the scientific rigor associated with quantitative and qualitative research and the importance of reliability, validity in quantitative research, and trustworthiness in qualitative research.
• What are the differences among these concepts?

Answer 1

Scientific rigor associated a term used to ensure the highest standards while conducting a research. The main use of this is to reduce or eliminate the chances of bias during selection of subjects, and data collection. in qualitative research the sample size will be less compared to quantitative research and the data has to be collected in descriptive form for example through detailed interview or open ended questionnaires. The scientific rigor associated with the qualitative research is degree of confidence in data interpretation and the methods used to ensure the quality of the study. while conducting a qualitative research the investigator should be trustworthy so that the bias can be minimized. The researcher must have interest in the selected topic to achieve this aim and he must be subjectively immersed with the subjects.

In qualitative study, the data will be collected in numerical form. The sample size for the study will be more than that in the qualitative research. To maintain the quality of the research, the tools must be subjected to reliability and validity. Reliability is checking the consistency of the tool. this can be done by either split half method or test retest method or inter rater method Validity is the extent to which the tool actually represent the variable they are intended to measure. there are four types of validity. they are content validity, criterion validity, construct validity and face validity. Face validity is done for the appearance of the tool. content validity is done to measure the adequacy with which the tool samples the domain of measurement. criterion validity is the extend to which the tool related to some criterion of importance. Construct validity is the degree to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring.

Both reliability and validity is important to ensure the quality of the research to be conducted. it increases the chances of generalization of results.

in a qualitative research, where the researched collects the data in descriptive form, the trustworthiness of the researcher is very important to maintain high quality. In a quantitative research, where there are more samples and data is collected in numerical form, the reliability and validity is very important.