Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research by Jerome Kirk Marc L. Miller

Author:Jerome Kirk, Marc L. Miller [Jerome Kirk, Marc L. Miller]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medical, Nursing, Fundamentals & Skills, Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Research
ISBN: 9780803924703
Google: YDFZlq_KM88C
Publisher: SAGE
Published: 1986-01-15T04:36:54+00:00

DAUGHTERS AND FATHERS

Recently, Freeman (1983) has confirmed the relevance of diachronic reliability to study and restudy comparisons in qualitative research. Freeman impeaches Mead’s (1928) early ethnographic conclusions, most notably that anger, violence, and competition are neutralized in Samoan culture.23 Freeman and Mead also differ substantially in their respective evaluations of adolescent sexual behavior.

By Mead’s report, virginity at marriage is nominally important in Samoan society, but teenagers systematically engage in considerable expert and playful sex. According to Freeman, this misrepresents the facts. The cult of virginity, he argues, is taken very seriously by traditional and contemporary Samoans. Female virgins are highly valued, eagerly sought after, and zealously protected by male kin.

The discrepancy between the observations of Mead and Freeman compel a discussion of reliability. Indeed, Freeman effectively finesses the issue of diachronic reliability, presenting historical and survey evidence to indicate that the Samoa he studied had not been radically transfigured during the decades after Mead’s visit. Freeman, then, sees this as an issue of synchronic reliability. Naturally, he regards his own conclusions as internally reliable and those of Mead as counterfeit.

There is an alternative to choosing between Mead and Freeman. The possibility of accepting both sets of findings, however, requires a theory of how Mead and Freeman obtained the different results that they did. Mead talked with female adolescents at a time she herself was a young woman. Freeman conducted much of his study of Samoa with male parents at a time he himself was a high-ranking adult. Mead’s and Freeman’s conclusions are together based on the interplay of the field researcher and the studied culture, but this case study may boil down to different investigators observing different parts of the same Samoan scene.

Indeed, the sexual behavior of adolescents is a touchy subject and Samoans are inclined to be insulted by the suggestion that Samoan teenagers are promiscuous. (This reminds one of Malinowski’s famous passage about a Martian anthropologist asking a British aristocrat whether adulterous hanky-panky goes on in the Commonwealth.) It is possible that Samoan culture is not so different from contemporary American culture on the score of adolescent sex. By analogy, an American daughter might well tell (to a young and female adult ethnographer) some pretty interesting stories based on considerable sophistication; at the same time, an American male parent might assert (to an adult male ethnographer) that his daughters are virgin. By the same token, the father’s description of his work life as a “rat race” might seem inconsistent with the daughter’s characterization of her Daddy and his friends as “nice men.”

The point here is that Freeman’s findings do not necessarily refute Mead’s, or vice-versa. Mead and Freeman were on to different aspects of a very large and complex subject. The partial understandings they achieved are different for good reason, and we are better off with both sets of findings than only one.

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