THE MULTI-METHOD TRIANGULATION AND THE VALIDITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Abstract

Reliability and validity as criteria forjudging the appropriateness of the research are common in quantitative methodology. This article discusses the need for redefining their use in qualitative studies by adjusting their meaning as well as the ways of their examination considering the epistemological and ontological paradigm typical for the qualitative research. It explores several problems related to the practice of using the multi-method approach for the purpose of triangulation, i.e. validation in qualitative study, suggesting that the quality of the study in each paradigm shoidd be judged by its own paradigm terms. Finally, the author explains the alternative strtegies for assessing the validity of the research, whose starting point is their radically different notion of what validity is.