The concepts of validity in social research and its pedagogical approach

Abstract

Since its inception, the social sciences have tried to legitimate their scientific criteria so that the knowledge generated by social research is deemed valid and reliable. With this objective in mind, a series of techniques, norms, processes, rules and procedures have been elaborated to achieve quality results that certify that social research has been conceived and executed with the necessary rigor to define its principal findings as science. The basic concept needed to satisfy scientific criteria is validity. This paper seeks to explore the principal meanings associated with the term validity in the social scientific literature. We begin by identifying the principal adjectives tied in with the term validity in the bibliographies commonly used to teach methodology in our universities [for example predictive validity, criterion validity, etc.]. We then examine the definitions given for each of these identified terms. Finally, we attempt to synthesize and organize these diverse concepts in a way that we feel is logically and pedagogically coherent