Evaluating Quantitative Research Flashcards
Types of validity?
Logical validity, construct validity, internal and external validity
What is logical validity?
Quality of researchers’ arguments, their application of theory to support their study, and appropriate interpretation of results
Things to consider in logical validity?
- logical flow from intro to purpose statement to hypotheses
- research methods make sense
-overall flow from beginning of study to final conclusions
What is construct validity?
- measure or test validity
- do the measures used by researchers actually measure what they intend to measure
What is a construct defined as?
Defined in terms of the operations used to measure it
Theory -> measure -> results
Ex) fitness ->activity -> strength
What is validity evidence?
Extent to which a variable has been adequately measured
- soundness/appropriateness of an instrument in measuring what it is designed to measure
What is a nomological network
Web of evidence that researchers collect to justify their choices for using particular measures and support that the measures indeed measure what they intend to
Forms of construct validity evidence?
Content validity, convergent validity, discrimination validity
What is content validity?
On the surface, the measure looks like it assesses what its supposed to
- does not require reporting statistics
- useful approximation, a necessary but not sufficient step in validity
What is convergent validity?
Consists of moderate to high correlations with measures of similar constructs
What is discriminant validity?
Evidence consists of zero or low correlations with measures of different constructs
Convergent and discriminant validity?
-relationships with measures of other constructs
-statistics
-how similar and how different is measure to measuring similar constructs?
Why care about construct validity?
Helps identify whether an instrument might be good one to us
Instrument with evidence of validity means you can draw meaningful and useful inferences from the scores
Measurement validity?
The extent to which a variable has been adequately measured
Measurement reliability?
The consistency (or repeatability) of a measure
