RM: Validity Flashcards
(28 cards)
What does the term validity refer to?
- How true or legitimate the experiment is as an explanation of behaviour (how well can your findings generalise to the whole popluation, other settings and other time periods?)
- Involves the issues of control, realism and generalisability.
What is a common misconception about validity?
- That it is about being correct.
Validity is not about confirming your expectations/proving your hypothesis to be correct.
What are the two different types of validity?
External validity
and
Internal validity
Briefly, what is internal validity about?
Control and realism of the experiment.
It concerns what goes on inside a study.
Briefly, what is external validity about?
Being able to generalise from research participants to other people and situations.
What type of things is internal validity concerned with?
Give 3 examples.
- Whether the IV produced the change in the DV, or did a confounding/extraneous variable affect the DV
- Whether the researcher tested what they wanted to test, eg. if you are testing how watching TV affects homework performance, it is not enough to just put the TV on as you can’t be certain the person is watching it.
- Whether or not the study posessed mundane realism
What must a researcher do to gain high internal validity?
- Design the research carefully
- Control confounding and extraneous variables
- Ensure they are testing what they intend to test
What is external validity affected by?
How is it affected by this factor?
Internal validity.
You cannot generalise the results of a study that was low in internal validity because the results have no real meaning for the behaviour in question.
What are the three types of external validity?
Ecological validity.
Population validity.
Historical validity.
Ecological, population and historical are all types of what?
External validity.
What does ecological validity refer to?
The place where the research was conducted.
How might a study lack ecological validity?
The results may not be able to generalise from the research setting to other settings, like everyday life.
What does population validity refer to?
The people who are studied.
How might a study lack population validity?
If the study involved just one type of participant, eg all men or only Americans, then the findings may not be able to genralise to the whole population/all people.
What does historical validity refer to?
The historical period the research was conducted in.
How might a study lack historical validity?
For example, if it was conducted in the 1950s then it may not be appropriate to generalise the findings to people today because many other behaviours affect behaviour now.
State the textbook definition of internal validity.
The degree to which an observed effect was due to the experimental manipulation (AKA the IV) rather than other factors such as confounding/extraneous variables.
State the textbook definition of external validity.
The degree to which a research finding can be generalised to other settings, other groups of people and over time.
What are the different types of validity?
Concurrent validity
Construct validity
Temporal validity
Ecological validity
Face validity
What is face validity?
The extent to which test items look like what the test claims to measure.
What is concurrent validity?
A means of establishing validity by comparing an existing test or questionnaire with the one you are interested in.
What is ecological validity?
The ability to generalise a research effect beyond the particular setting in which it is demonstrated in other settings.
What is temporal validity?
Concerning the ability to generalise a research effect beyond the particular time period of the study.
What is investigator effects and what type of validity is it?
Anything that an investigator does that has an effect on the participants performance other than what was intended. E.g. encouraging participants to try harder.
(internal validity)
