Professional Documents
Culture Documents
August 7, 2009
a mental model
a way of seeing
a filter for one's perceptions
a frame of reference
a framework of thought or beliefs through
which one's world or reality is interpreted
an example used to define a phenomenon
a commonly held belief among a group of
people, such as scientists of a given discipline
Paradigm Shif t
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn wrote The Structure of
Scientific Revolution, and fathered, defined and
popularized the concept of "paradigm shift" (p.10).
Kuhn argues that scientific advancement is not
evolutionary, but rather is a "series of peaceful
interludes punctuated by intellectually violent
revolutions", and in those revolutions "one conceptual
world view is replaced by another".
Ontology
Epistemology
Methodology
Main Components of Paradigm
Creativity
Deductive Thinking
Reliability Dependability
Objectivity Confirmability
The Qualitative-Quantitative Debate
External
validity
Introduction to Validity: Four types of
validity
Four Types of Vali di ty
The four validity types are: Internal
validity, External Validity, Construct
Validity and Conclusion Validity. They
build on one another, with two of them
(conclusion and internal) referring to
the land of observation on the bottom
of the figure, one of them (construct)
emphasizing the linkages between the
bottom and the top, and the last (
external) being primarily concerned
about the range of our theory on the
top.
Internal Validity deals with the question of
how one’s findings match reality. Do the
findings capture what is really there? Are
investigators observing or measuring what
they think they are measuring?
One of the assumptions underlying
qualitative research is that reality is holistic,
multi-dimensional, and ever-changing; it is
not a single, fixed, objective phenomenon
waiting to be discovered, observed, and
measured. Then how do we assess the
validity of what is being observed or
measured?
External validity is related to generalizing.
That's the major thing you need to keep in
mind. Recall that validity refers to the
approximate truth of propositions,
inferences, or conclusions. So, external
validity refers to the approximate truth of
conclusions the involve generalizations.
Put in more simple terms, external validity
is the degree to which the conclusions in
your study would hold for other persons in
other places and at other times.
Threats to externa l
val idiarety
There three major threats to external validity because
there are three ways you could be wrong -- people, places or
times. Your critics could come along, for example, and argue
that the results of your study are due to the unusual type of
people who were in the study. Or, they could argue that it
might only work because of the unusual place you did the
study in (perhaps you did your educational study in a college
town with lots of high-achieving educationally-oriented kids).
Or, they might suggest that you did your study in a peculiar
time. For instance, if you did your smoking cessation study
the week after the Surgeon General issues the well-publicized
results of the latest smoking and cancer studies, you might
get different results than if you had done it the week before.
Reliability Dependability
Objectivity Confirmability
Dealing with the issue of
validity and reliability
All researchers is concerned with
producing valid and reliable
knowledge in an ethical manner.
Basic question: TO WHAT EXTENT CAN
THE RESEARCHER TRUST THE FINDINGS
OF A SURVEY STUDY???
The first thing we have to ask is: "validity of
what?" When we think about validity in
research, most of us think about research
components. We might say that a measure
is a valid one, or that a valid sample was
drawn, or that the design had strong
validity. But all of those statements are
technically incorrect. Measures, samples
and designs don't 'have' validity -- only
propositions can be said to be valid.
Technically, we should say that a measure
leads to valid conclusions or that a sample
enables valid inferences, and so on. It is a
proposition, inference or conclusion that
can 'have' validity.
Internal Validity = It deals with the question of how
one’s findings match reality. Do the findings
capture what is really there? Are investigators
observing or measuring what they think they are
measuring?
External Validity = Ability to generalize. The extent
to which the findings of one study can be applied
to other situations.
Construct Validity = How well you have translated a
concept or construct into a functioning and
operating reality (the operationalization).
Reliability = The extent to which there is
consistency in one’s findings. This is enhanced by
the investigator explaining the assumptions and
the theory underlying the study, by triangulating
data, and by leaving a audit trail, that is, by
describing in detail how the study was conducted
and how the findings were derived from the data.
Co nclu si on
“I keep six honest
serving men, (they
taught me all I knew),
their names are what,
and why, and when,
and how, and where
and who.”
--Rudyard Kipling
Co nclu si on