The criterion of ‘dependability’ in qualitative research parallels which of…

Concept

Rigour in qualitative research is judged by Lincoln and Guba’s trustworthiness framework, which sets out four criteria: credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability.

Each trustworthiness criterion is the naturalistic counterpart of one conventional quantitative criterion, because both answer the same underlying methodological concern — truth value, applicability, consistency or neutrality — through means suited to their own kind of data.

Application

1. Dependability addresses consistency: whether the findings of an inquiry would remain stable if the study were repeated with the same or similar participants in the same or a similar context.

2. Consistency of measurement is precisely the concern of reliability in quantitative research, which is assessed through test–retest, inter-rater and internal-consistency procedures.

3. Because both criteria answer the same question about consistency, dependability is the qualitative parallel of reliability. In qualitative work it is demonstrated through an audit trail and an external audit rather than through repeated measurement.

Cross-check

Mapping the framework as a whole shows that each quantitative criterion is already paired with a different concern, leaving consistency as the only match:

Hence the criterion of dependability in qualitative research parallels reliability in quantitative research.