Women's Decision-Making And Factors Affecting Their Choice Of ...

the context being studied. They further add that anyone whose first encounter
with the setting is through the effective thick description has a sense of déja vu
upon actually visiting the setting.
Dependability, or consistency, is the third criterion, and deals with
providing evidence that findings of an inquiry would be repeated if the
investigation were to be replicated with similar participants in the same or similar
context (Lincoln and Guba 1985). In a qualitative inquiry, instability in findings
of an inquiry may be attributed to reality shifts or better insights (Erlandson,
Harris, Skipper et al 1993). The quest is, therefore, not for invariance, but for
traceable variance. Consistency is therefore conceived in terms of dependability,
which embraces stability and explainable changes (Guba and Lincoln 1981). One
way of doing this is by use of an inquiry audit, which is based on the fiscal audit
(Guba 1981). The fiscal auditor examines the process by which the accounts were
kept, to determine the fairness of the representation of the company's fiscal
position. The auditor examines the records for accuracy, by checking that every
entry in the account ledgers can be justified, and by sampling entries in the journal
to ascertain whether they could be supported by corroborative documents (Lincoln
and Guba 1985). In the same way, the researcher must make it possible for an
external check to be conducted on the inquiry process. An audit trail, which
provides documentation of the process of inquiry, allows for the check to be done
(Erlandson, Harris, Skipper et al 1993; Lincoln and Guba 1985). The
documentation would attest to the study's dependability. The product of the
investigation, i.e., the findings, interpretation and recommendations, must attest
that it is supported by data. This would also establish the study's confirmability,
which is the fourth criterion for establishing trustworthiness. Dependability and
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