Trustworthiness or 'Validity' in Qualitative Research?

This post covers the concept of trustworthiness in qualitative research (known as validity in quantitative research). The post specifically discusses the building blocks of trustworthiness: Credibility, Transferability, Dependability, and Confirmability. The purpose of this post it to share with the readers the recent developments in the area of qualitative research.

By understanding these areas discussed in the post, it is expected of the reader to become conversant with the idea of trustworthiness and to apply this concept to their qualitative research projects such as a dissertation, term paper, presentation, and the like.

In the past, qualitative research was closely associated with the concepts, constructs, and worldviews of quantitative research. Hence, quite a few such concepts were borrowed for qualitative research and applied with similar semantic properties to qualitative research. Validity is one such concept.

However, growing knowledgebase in qualitative research has postulated that the two research paradigms (qualitative vs. quantitative) hold different worldviews and need to be applied differently to specific research areas. For a succinct discussion on the evolution of qualitative research, read this interesting post.

Unlike recent past, present-day qualitative research scholars and thinkers have come up with more a refined approach in explaining the grounds on which qualitative studies should be critiqued for their rigor, reliability, and validity.

Trustworthiness (if I can trust what the study/research has found and can learn from its findings) may be seen as a holistic concept that ensures that qualitative research is accountable to the critical scrutiny of scholars, thinkers, and equally importantly, policymakers so that it can facilitate decision making.

Credibility, Transferability, Dependability, and Confirmability can thus be said to be the pillars of a rigorous qualitative study. Understanding these concepts and attempting to attain these in a study is inevitable for anyone who wishes to produce authentic work in the area of qualitative research.

I explain these concepts precisely.

Credibility
This concepts is essentially home to a qualitative study. Since qualitative research has words as the central communicative devise of its message, credibility implies that the research scholar takes as much care as possible to convey to the reader the original subject-matter reported by the research participants, context, and/or the social issue to the researcher.

Honestly, most of the time, it is NOT possible for a researcher to report a participant's account verbatim, due mainly to word limit constraints. Thus, scholars like Maxwell, Patton, Creswell (you might want to read my previous post that reviews their books on the latest developments in qualitative research), among others, have offered a set of useful strategies that can come to the researcher's rescue.

These strategies are thick description (detailing an account in as much depth as necessary to address your research aims and objectives), prolonged engagement with participants (to gain an in-depth understanding of their issues, and the social context they are in), coanalysis (to collaborate with participants/peers to create mutually-constructed meaning of a research context).

Transferability
In his book, Creswell has enumerated that unlike quantitative research, qualitative studies do not conform well to the idea of replication simply because one social context is fairly different from another even within the same geographical area and/or country; hence the concept of transferability finds its way here. This concept implies that a qualitative researcher can first identify with a previously done study and can try to transfer its central premise to his/her own context.

The key is to discuss all the pertinent details about the social context being explored under these premises.

Dependability
The concept of dependability implies the extent to which a reader can depend/trust the findings of a qualitative research. This is very critical for a powerful study because it is the words in which you convince the reader of the rigor your study has. To attain dependability, thus, the researcher has to ensure employing some widely established and accepted strategies.

Some of the useful strategies to create greater dependability in your research is to have consistent reporting from the start to the end of your research. This requires you to note and communicate all the ups and downs confronted during the study. This would not only bring more transparency to your research but would also put the reader in the shoes of the judge.

More often, students think that eliminating any loopholes from their research report would make it a perfect piece. However, this is a wrong assumption because qualitative research is a way of interacting with people in a meaningful way; and, such an interaction is never perfect. Thus, talking about the issues, obstacles, conflicts, biases, etc. in a research would bring more dependability in it.

Confirmability
This concept in qualitative research is a holistic organization or coherence of the entire research study. Generally, a study offers an overall rationale for the study, specific research aims and objectives, undertakes data collection and analysis, and concludes by sharing the findings and recommendations.

Confirmability holds that from the very beginning of the study, all its subsequent activities should be well justified against the overall purpose of the study and its goals. Thus, there must be a rationale behind every activity that you undertake. Nothing happens in a vacuum.

It is these four major conceptual directions that assist a researcher to ensure that their qualitative study is not only rigorous but is also trustworthy for the readership to learn from its findings to help move the world forward. There are other strategies that come under these umbrella concepts. Once you have a clear understanding of these four pillars that form the overall trustworthiness of a qualitative study, it is likely that you'd find it easier to incorporate other strategies in your overall research effort.

I hope you find my post informative. Do not forget to share your thoughts with me.

Critical Analysis of Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor: The Four Challenges

In this post I am going to share with the reader a critical analysis of Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor. A Country Doctor is a narrative account that presents professional, moral, and psychological aspects of human self. First I discuss the major themes of the story; it is followed by my reaction on the four challenges faced by the doctor and the frustrations accompanying these challenges; then I analyze important aspects of the story which can help analyze it as a nightmare.

The Central Themes in A Country Doctor

The main themes of the text are traceable in the light of at least two contemporary influences on Franz Kafka.

1.      The first one, his symbolic illustration of Jewish folklore in his writings, in connection to life that was in then Europe (the time of Kafka’s life);

2.      The other influence is Kafka’s predisposition toward the growing popularity of the tradition of psychoanalysis (essentially Freudian) and its troublesome interpretation of human sexuality and sexual tensions in general life.

These two themes construct a complicated picture in the story that represents quite a few social and psychological predicaments shown to us around the short life account of the doctor, the central character of the story.

It is essentially these two influences (Jewish folklore and Freudian psychoanalysis) that produce several sub-themes in the narrative. For example, it would probably be very rational to follow Lorenz who states that the character of the doctor is Kafka’s masterful depiction of a mixture of “divergent models” that signify, sexual desire, manhood, civilization, and feebleness that one may feel while making just one straight decision or choice.

It is this situation that makes the doctor feel lost while he confronts his psychological predicaments.

One more important theme is the changeover that (seemingly) the Jew doctor feels between his conventional position and the strains of the human flesh. Therefore, when we see the doctor emerging as the hostile groom, this is in fact the vicious side of the doctor. His maid, Rosa, however, is a representation of the doctor’s sexual side – the back of his mind inflicted with sexual thoughts. The sick young man in the story may be a signification of the “Gentile stereotype of the Jew”. Similarly, when the Jew doctor just readily lies down besides the young patient, this intensifies the hidden tension between the conscious and unconscious thoughts present in the doctor’s mind.

Constantly, we are reminded of sexual tension in Freudian tradition and the way Kafka’s doctor tries to situate himself between the tension and the traditional stance of Judaism. These themes can even be enlarged if Kafka’s own life, his aversion to marriage, and his inability to form a heterosexual relation in his life are also taken into account. Therefore, the story offers quite a few subtle and obvious themes that emerge from the primary structure of the story which at surface is just about reaching a distant village to attend to a sick patient. It is the literary mastery of Kafka that makes the story open to as many themes and subthemes as the reader can find out. (186-198).

The Challenges

There are quite a few challenges confronted by Kafka’s central character in the story.

The First Challenge

Firstly, the doctor cannot find a horse on a stormy night and he has to attend to a sick man in another village. As his horse already died of overwork, he is frustrated both psychologically and professionally. The psychological frustration comes with the fact that with his horse dead, no one from the village is ready to lend him a horse and so the professional frustration emerges out of this one. Perhaps, this can increase his frustration because no one takes this doctor to be worthy of lending a horse even when he wants to attend to a sick person.

The Second Challenge

Second challenge takes place as the groom comes out of the pigsty followed by two horses “with thick steaming bodies” (¶ 1). As the groom offers him the horses and leashes up his lustfulness for Rosa, the doctor is faced with the challenge as weather to go to attend to the patient or to save his servant Rosa from the blue-eyed beast. This challenge has sexual, physical, and moral frustrations that remain with the doctor up to the end and we see him completely haunted by these thoughts even when he checks up the sickly young man.

 The Third Challenge

The doctor confronts the third challenge as he tries to examine the patient. This challenge is a blend of the previous thoughts, his professional loyalty, the vulnerable family of the patient, and the intrusion of the horses during his examination. Thus, he is frustrated by how to find out the cure of the wound in the boy’s body “in the region of the hip”, and how to satisfy the patient and his family. This challenge is heightened by his failure to cure the boy’s wound and because the patient’s family “demanded the impossible from” him – he is frustrated since he finds no way to go about any of the ways.

The Forth Challenge

The forth challenge comes out of his thoughts of Rosa, perhaps being raped by the groom; he has to save her by going back home. Here he is frustrated by the fact that now on his journey back home the horses are not moving fast enough (¶ 1). This entire scene from the showing up of the groom up to this phase is regarded by some critics as the stage that Kafka set to portray the subtleties or human psychology and how different forces within a human mind work in opposition to each other (Marson & Leopld).

Conclusion

The entire story can be fairly regarded as a nightmare because the story has events taking place in a manner which is far from reality, and most have negative connotations. For instance, the appearance of the groom and the horses from pigsty is as odd as the doctor’s instant movement to the other village leaving Rosa behind with the groom, and the way the patient’s wound is reflected: A wound representing the psyche of the doctor, a rusty wound; additionally, the story is beyond reality when we see how the patient’s family rips the doctor off his clothes and the sloth with which he moves back home, naked (Potter).

A Country Doctor is a complex representation of a number of themes within a short fiction story which not only invites the reader to its language but also to its background being immensely provocative.

Qualitative Reserch: Five Essential Reads for Doctoral Candidates in the Social Sciences

Obtaining a doctoral degree (doctorate) is probably one of the most remarkable milestones you can achieve in your lifetime because it enables you to gain insight into contemporary research approaches by which you can contribute to the ongoing developments in theory and practice in your respected area of inquiry.

Most probably, the status tag apart, the excitement comes from the fact that a PhD degree cultivates in a person the fine research and thinking skills by which one can make an original contribution to the evolution of knowledge.

Though there are quite a few books available today on qualitative inquiry and research, major universities in the US, UK, Australia, and elsewhere, one way or another, recommend at least five books that are considered a well-blended synthesis of contemporary theory and practice within qualitative inquiry. For a doctoral candidate planning to start their PhD, beginning their coursework, or just thinking about moving on, reading through these (or at least some of these) books can be quite enlightening.

In this post, I offer a succinct introduction to these five books with an aims that the reader would, in short time, find out why these books are so important today for a doctoral candidate in the social sciences.


1. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Author: John W. Creswell. (2012, 3rd Edition)

In this book, Creswell, a learned and globally renowned research scholar, presents a thorough synthesis of contemporary thought on theory and practice revolving around qualitative research design and the role of five major approaches within qualitative paradigm: (i) Narrative Research, (ii) Phenomenological Research, (iii) Grounded Theory Research, (iv) Ethnographic Research, and (v) Case Study Research.

This volume is not simply a sell-yourself thing. The author situates these approaches within contemporary thought processes and practices. He also takes his reader for a walkthrough from philosophical foundations of these approaches to actually writing a qualitative inquiry choosing one or more of these approaches together.

This book can be a delight for any reader interested in gaining an in-depth insight into qualitative research today with specific reference to the five approaches at hand. Don't miss it!


2. "Stretching" Exercises for Qualitative Researchers. Author: Valerie J. Janesick (2010, 3rd Edition)

Janesick uses the metaphor of stretching exercises to relate the elusiveness of qualitative thinking and its subtleties with a clear aim: clarifying misunderstandings around qualitative research and inculcating its real essence in the reader. The book is structured on four major concepts of qualitative research: (i) observation, (ii) interviews, (iii) the role of the researcher, and (iv) qualitative data analysis. The author also defines many related concepts to form a holistic understanding of qualitative research is. She draws useful comparisons between qualitative research and quantitative inquiry to keep clear many a misunderstanding.

The book stands apart for its metaphoric uniqueness with which it discusses all the major areas of qualitative research and conveniently transfers a robust understanding to the reader. Personally, I believe that this book is a very good complement to Creswell. Grab it. A creative piece.


3. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods. Author: Michael Quinn Patton (2002, 3rd Edition)

Though Patton has written this book primarily for doctoral students in psychology, perhaps, it would not be naive to claim that it is equally effective for students working in other disciplines. This volume is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive works on qualitative inquiry.

Patton presents a number of examples, metaphors, references, and critical commentary to build on the three important areas of qualitative research and its evaluation: (i) Conceptual issues in qualitative inquiry, (ii) Qualitative designs and data collection, and (iii) Analysis, interpretation, and reporting. The reader simply sways with Patton on an intellectual journey of discovery. The narrative is very powerful yet so convincing. In this volume, such matters as appropriate sample size for a PhD dissertation (something that keeps doctoral students' mind spinning all the time!) are discussed at length.

Personally, I would recommend this read to every doctoral student in qualitative research! 


4. Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. Author: Joseph A. Maxwell (2012, 3rd Edition)

Maxwell's effort is focused on helping the students take a kickstart with qualitative research. More often, this book is recommended to students who are just beginning to sharpen their concepts and skills as qualitative researchers. Maxwell does his job really well. He assists the reader on how to develop a systematic understanding of major concepts from scratch. For this purpose, he offers quite a few interactive exercises that do the wonder. Alongside, he keeps the tempo going by providing real-life examples that add to the gradual development of the student's thought. Miss it at your own risk!


5. Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook. Author: David Silverman (2013, 3rd Edition)

Silverman takes a project-based approach to doing qualitative research. He not only brings forth the latest developments in qualitative research but also assists his reader in going through different phases of a qualitative research project such as the role of the supervisor in a research endeavor and how to approach your oral exam or defense. I must say that Silverman has come a long way forward to offer a practical guide to doctoral students. Moreover, he provides a useful chapter on Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), making it a rounded effort. He also offers effective matrices and grids that a student can use to keep track of their activities as researchers. 

At the end, I would say that no single work of human effort and creativity is perfect. This is the reason we have so many books on the same area and still counting. However, this should also be acknowledged that we together are responsible for the development of this world. I am very hopeful that the set of these five books can nurture fine conceptual and practical research skills in anyone serious in pursuing a career in qualitative research. Good luck.