Reliability And Validity In Research

The controversy over the MMR vaccine started in the late 1990’s when Andrew Wakefield suggested that there was a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism in a scientific paper which he had published with several other co-authors. Although there has not been a proven fact that the MMR vaccine is the causation to autism it has brought concerns to parents and has caused a major drop in immunization rates. For example, Dannetun et al., 2005 states that, “Fear of side effects and beliefs

In order to investigate more about Wakefield’s study, Brian Deer, a journalist of British Medical Journal, carefully talked to the parents of all children who were participated in the study. Interestingly enough, he revealed the fraud behind Wakefield’s research. The Lancet, the journal that reported Wakefield’s study, retracted the paper soon afterwards (Deer). However, the real trouble still exists. Though it has been proved by many researchers that the MRR doesn’t cause autism, many people perceive the vaccine as a threat. Dr.Nemeroff once said “it is quite difficult to get the cognitive sewage out of the water even after the real sewage is gone” (Greene).

Doctor Andrew Wakefield’s study, published the 28th of February, 1998 in the scientific magazine The Lancet, is constantly cited as being the catalyst for the ongoing debate on whether or not vaccinations have any connections to autism. In the case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s study on the connections between autism and the M.M.R. (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, proper scientific experimental procedures were not seen to, such as his not including a control group. That is to say, in an act transgressing scientific integrity, he documented the cases

In a study by Brent Taylor and his coworkers, they had studied the mystery debate link as to whether or not MMR vaccines have a link towards the development of autism. Taylor and his coworkers had examined around 498 children who were developed with autism. As Taylor examined the children, he had discovered two great findings. The first being that there was “no difference in the age of diagnosis of autism was found in vaccinated and unvaccinated children” (Taylor), and second being “symptoms of autism did not occur within 2, 4, 6 months of receiving the MMR vaccine”

Credibility is similar to internal validity in quantitative studies; if a study is credible, the reader can have faith that the study and its findings are accurate; to determine credibility the reader should look for the use of standard procedures, extended observation and/or contact with the participants, member checking, and reexamination of the data (Connelly, 2016). Dependability, refers to the constancy of the data over time and condition, and is comparable to reliability in quantitative research. However, in qualitative studies, it is important to understand that the study’s nature affects its conditions. Measures that denote a dependable study include peer debriefings, and the maintenance process logs (Connelly,

Reliability, which is a further implication of research, and is concerned with the consistency of results. This means if another researcher researched on the same topic; using the same methods, which therefore would produce the same results. It may be less likely to happen as the research may be carried out in a different place, different time and different people, which would lead to very dissimilar results (Shuttleworth and Shuttleworth, 2015)

Now, it is time to give an overview of some of the design threats to construct validity. If the researcher did not define the construct efficiently than it can lead to the inadequate preoperational explication of constructs threat (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). Next, is the mono-operation bias, which is the use of the study program only one time and one place (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). Third, the mono-method bias is the use of any one measure or observation (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). Finally, the confounding constructs and the levels of constructs threat (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). Overall, this threat to construct validity is a labeling issue like some of the other threats to construct validity (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). However, there are more design threats than listed in this paper to construct

For any measure to be valuable in psychological research, it needs to be both valid and reliable (Goodwin, 2008: 128). Research is reliable when more researchers have found the same results, or, within for instance behavioural research, when the same behaviour occurs at several measurements (Goodwin, 2008: 124). There are different types of validity. Firstly, there is construct validity, which measures whether an operationalisation of a construct actually measures what it is supposed to measure. Secondly, criterion validity determines whether a certain phenomenon is related to another phenomenon, and can accurately determine future developments. Lastly, content validity determines whether a test measures all aspects of the construct that is being measured (Goodwin, 2008: 125-126).

In the text book, “Theories and Research of Personality” written by Daniel Cervone and Lawrence A. Pervin, the authors talk about the goals to research and they are referring to reliability, validity, and ethical behavior. With reliability, the author is referring to the “extent to which observations can be replicated and whether the measures of the research are dependable or stable” (Cervone, Pervin 43, 2013). Reliability is extremely important to have when conducting research because if the research conducted is not reliable then when trying to get research out to people, other psychologists will not believe what you are trying to get across and in the long term affecting ones career. Also Cervone and Pervin talk about validity which is,

In 1998 a study was published by Andrew Wakefield theorizing that there was a link between autism symptoms and receiving a MMR vaccination. However, his findings are to be inconclusive considering he did not take the proper procedures to conduct a controlled study. First, he did not include control subjects in his study, so the results cannot be compared properly if there were any changes in the subjects. Second, the endoscopic or neuropsychological assessments were not done blind and the data was not collected systematically or completely. Third, the symptoms found between the children with autism and gastrointestinal problems were inconsistent. In reality, many health groups are theorizing that a vaccination does not cause autism by any

The three types of research methods that will be discussed are surveys, participant observation, and experimental methods. The best method depends on what you want to learn and how you want to learn it. It is important to have reliability in a study because any person that will read you study has to be able to replicate it and do the same steps you did to see what kind of results they get “the likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure” (Conley,. pg.

Reliability refers to coherence, stability and dependability in test results, generally using internal consistency to express the levels of reliability in the test. The higher reliability indicates the higher level of accordance, stabilization and dependability in test results. Reliability is the precondition of validity (Guba and Lincoln, 1981). The same findings may not generate if the same research is repeated, because many influencing factors may work in the process of research. The process of establishment in reliability research includes: the research rigorously collect and explain data in consistent investigation (internal checks); the process is transparent (sample design, field work, inquiry and rational data). Patton (1987) suggests that the use of triangulation in multiple approaches can increase the reliability in results.

In order to measure the potential real-world impact of research, it is important to measure validity. Validity explores the degree to which evidence and theory support the researcher’s interpretations of the various data the researcher measures (Moss, 2010). A researcher can evaluate a study based on many criteria including internal validity and external validity to determine whether the study is valid (Hernon, 1991). Among various types of validity, in particular, external validity refers to the extent to which study findings can be generalized to a population at large while internal validity relates to whether a study correctly measures what it proposes to gauge (Hernon, 1991). While many types of validity are helpful to

-You think the research design has “reliability”? Do you think the data has “internal and external validity”?

A research can be defined as the systematic inquiry conducted with an objective of testing a hypothesis, evaluating knowledge or searching for new information. To ensure that the outcome of a research is valid, researchers must ensure that the processes followed minimize errors, inconsistencies, and anomalies that are capable of impairing the findings. In conducting a research therefore; the process must be closely monitored and any potential problem mitigated to eradicate significant errors or deviations.