Validity – A process of which to ensure your findings.

Posted on October 14, 2011 by poeywycheung

(“Free” Topic this week…… even harder :S )

Validity – A process of which to ensure your findings.

Valid is…

  1. having some foundation; based on truth; legally acceptable; logic
  2. having legal efficacy or force; especially : executed with the proper legal authority and formalities <a valid contract>
  3. well-grounded or justifiable : being at once relevant and meaningful <a valid theory> logically correct <a valid argument> <valid inference>

*<example>
(From http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/valid and http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/valid)

It is very important for any study or research to have validity.  A test is valid when it actually measures what it intended to measure. Validity is the key to interpret the result, because without validity, the result would not be able to generalize and not representable.

Validity is usually assessed with reliability, however they are different.  If the result of a test is reliable, it means the result is consistent and the test can be replicated and will obtain similar results.

For a finding to be valid, it must be accurate and appropriate. [Using the appropriate statistical test to analyze the data]. Results can be reliable, but surprisingly, it might not be valid, this is due to factor A might not truly effected by factor B for example, but it just happens that either the it is a positive skewed or negative skewed graph, but yet, if results are not reliable, results are definitely Not valid, and of course, if results are not reliable, validity does not exist in this case.

Once, if your results are valid (tested it over and over again), it is reliable, representable enough to generalize the population, then you can be confident to draw our your findings as conclusion.

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1 Response to Validity – A process of which to ensure your findings.

  1. psuc15 says:
    October 28, 2011 at 10:57 pm

    It always represents well when you identify the different definitions of a new category as this really highlight you have covered all aspects of the topic ensure that there is no confusion for readers.
    As a suggestion have you thought about including the relationship between validity and reliability as people often confused the two having a distinction could increase your argument of the importances of validity but also how it stands alone within the constant necessity of reliability to create an impact on research. Moss (1994) emphasises this point and would be an excellent example: http://www.creative-wisdom.com/teaching/assessment/reliability.html
    This just provides a different outlook onto your topic and elivates the idea of how much research you have put into the blog.
    Overall a well rounded blog I look forward to reading more

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