Originally published here.
Evaluation of the Validity and Reliability of Our Research
Although the research that we did was a great exercise and I learned a tremendous amount through the activity, it is clear that the work we did is dubious at best if you consider its validity and reliability. It is worth taking another look at the data, our methodology, and the tools that we used to conduct our research so that we can better understand where our work is incomplete and weak and so that we develop analytical skills to better understand the shortcomings of all conducted research. We are in the think of the “critical” part of our critical thinking course.
Our task was to support an argument about what is the best way to cook an egg. Obviously, this topic was designed to both make it easy to make progress and then easy to look back on for evaluation. The argument is so subjective that we were bound to fail.
Although we mutually contributed to our research project, we did not collaborate on our research. I will run through the evaluation procedures to which we were introduced this week in Crit101 on the research that I performed.
We were asked to data from several sources so that we could better triangulate. Our document did include three sources of data but I was only able to provide two. The first problem that I perceive in regard to validity is that I did not have enough varied sources of data. I was not able to “triangulate” in order to establish validity or reliability. I will continue the exercise focusing my sources of data.
I’d like to focus my evaluation on my first data source. This source was a cookbook titled The Joy of Cooking (1). Because this is the most recognized resource on cooking that I know of, I took it as an authoritative text. I was hoping to find a mention of a preferred method for cooking an egg. Pretending that I did find support for an argument (which I didn’t), there are several issues with this data source once evaluated.
Considering a cookbook as a tool, it is not the right tool for our research. The purpose of a cookbook is most often to present information and list procedures for the preparation of food. It is often objective by its nature. I should not have expected to find any qualitative data. Perhaps if we had defined the criteria for “best” beforehand. This source could have been used for quantitative data.
I do not know if The Joy of Cooking is a universally recognized authority. If I had food data to support the argument, I would not be able to assume that cooks outside of the United States would recognize its authority. America cuisine is not held in the same esteem as say French cooking. Even in the U. S. there are also thousands of cookbooks. It would be impossible to argue that one cookbook has more authority than the thousands of other resources. I am sure there is a name for a data source that is so watered down with the overabundance of other data. Maybe it would be that this source is over generalized.
The reliability of this source is dubious. When considering cooking, we are literally considering tastes. Tastes are so subjective that this data source is unreliable. Some people prefer spicy food and own a reference, Mexican, Indian, and Jamaican cookbooks. Cooking situations also differ. There are cookbooks that are for camping situations and these sources become more reliable is camping situations.
It is interesting to consider how my “go to” source of data holds up so poorly when you evaluate its validity and reliability.
Reference
Rombauer, Irma S. and Rombauer-Becker, Marioin, 1997. The Joy of Cooking. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc.