89 Validity Threats In qualitative research, validity threats may appear from specific events and processes that lead to invalid conclusions.. Maxwell 2013 noted that a researcher’s own
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Validity Threats
In qualitative research, validity threats may appear from specific events and processes that lead to invalid conclusions Maxwell (2013) noted that a researcher’s own biases and reactivity and the researcher’s influence on the participants are the two most common validity threats in qualitative research
This study found four validity threats that could have emerged during the
investigation The first validity threat was about interview translations from the Hindi language to the English language The second validity threat could have arisen out of incorrect identification of the study participants, like non-genuine sadhus The third validity threat could have originated from personal biases, and the fourth validity threat could have resulted from my position as an “outsider” within the context of sadhus I took measures to avert these validity issues
As for the validity threat related to Hindi to English translations, while my skill in the Hindi language was a strength in this study, sometimes linguistic differences can pose
a validity threat in qualitative research Linguistic discrepancies may arise with non-English speaking researchers during translating interviews into non-English (Vygotsky, 1987) However, in this study, many sadhu participants spoke English, and for those who spoke
in the Hindi language, their Hindi to English translations was simple The simplicity of interview translations from Hindi texts to the English language averted this validity threat
For the second validity threat about finding the wrong participants, the strategy to find real sadhus using references—the snowballing method—proved helpful During the