In: Statistics and Probability
Describe any issues with validity and reliability that can arise using qualitative method. Explain how you would address those issues in your experiment.
Reliability and validity are concepts used to evaluate the quality of research. They indicate how well a method, technique or test measures something. Reliability is about the consistency of a measure, and validity is about the accuracy of a measure.
If you are measuring correctly what you want to measure, you are good on validity. For example, when asked to measure motivation of an employee, your constructs should be measuring, through different constructs, motivation. If you slip into measuring obedience instead, you are off the mark. (An obedient person usually looks and behaves like a motivated person :).
And, if you are getting consistent information on this, perhaps from more than one people (inter-rater), more than one settings, more than one organizations, more than one times (test-retest), more than one instruments/ questionnaires (parallel forms), then you are good on reliability.