Validity

Question 1

What is validity?

Answer 1

the extent to whether a method produces results that are genuine and represents what is the real world

Question 2

What is external validity?

Answer 2

refers to the extent to which findings can be generalised beyond the research setting in which they are found e.g. populations, other settings, eras

Question 3

What is internal validity?

Answer 3

• Whether the researcher has managed to measure what they intended to measure
• whether the effects observed in an experiment are due to the manipulation of the IV and not another factor

Question 4

What threat is posed to internal validity?

Answer 4

demand characteristics

Question 5

What are the types of external validity?

Answer 5

• ecological
• temporal
• population

Question 6

What is ecological validity?

Answer 6

extent to which findings from a study can be generalised to other settings- most particular to everyday life

Question 7

What is temporal validity?

Answer 7

extent to which findings from a study can be generalised to other historical times and eras

Question 8

What is mundane realism?

Answer 8

extent to which a task mirrors everyday life

Question 9

What are the two ways of assessing validity?

Answer 9

• face validity
• concurrent validity

Question 10

What is face validity?

Answer 10

basic form of validity in which a measure is scrutinised to determine whether it appears to measure what it is supposed to measure - does it look like it is?

Question 11

What is concurrent validity?

Answer 11

• the extent to which a psychological measure relates to an existing similar (known to be valid/well established) measure
• close agreement would indicate that the new test has high concurrent validity > exceeding .80 CC

Question 12

How to improve validity of a questionnaire?

Answer 12

anonymity and lie scale > controls effects of social desirability bias and assesses consistency of a respondents response

Question 13

How to improve validity in a experiment?

Answer 13

• use control group
• standardise procedures/same investigator/double-blind/single-blind to minimise investigator effects & demand characteristics
• control of extraneous variables

Question 14

How to improve validity of observations?

Answer 14

covert observation and unambiguous behavioural categories

Question 15

How to improve the validity of qualitative research?

Answer 15

triangulation - use of a number of different sources as evidence. e.g. interviews, diaries, observations
> demonstrates interpretive validity (extent to which the researcher interpretation of events matches their participants) of their conclusions