A sociologist wants to know how satisfied workers at Company X are with their jobs.She goes to personnel records to find out how many years each worker has been with the company as an indicator of how satisfied they must be.One benefit of her method is that later researchers can easily use her method to produce the same data and results.A colleague argues with her, however, that years with the company is not an accurate measure of job satisfaction.The sociologist's method might be said to be
A)reliable and valid.
B)reliable but not valid.
C)valid and generalizable.
D)valid but not reliable.
E)neither valid nor reliable.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The method used by the sociologist is reliable as other researchers can replicate her study and produce the same results. However, using years with the company as an indicator of job satisfaction may not be valid as there are many other factors that can influence a worker's decision to stay with a company, such as job security, benefits, or lack of other job options. Thus, the method is considered reliable but not necessarily valid.

A Sociologist Wants to Know How Satisfied Workers at Company