AS RESEARCH METHODS- reliability- validity

Question 1

what does validity refer to?

Answer 1

soundness or legitimacy of a measurement or study

Question 2

what should you do in an exam if asked to define validity|?

Answer 2

explain what both internal and external validity are

Question 3

what is external validity?

Answer 3

the extent to which the results of a study can be generalised to other situations and people

Question 4

what is internal validity?

Answer 4

whether the researcher tested what he/she set out to test

Question 5

what are the other types of validity? (4)

Answer 5

mundane realism, experimental realism,ecological validity, population validity

Question 6

what is mundane realism?

Answer 6

the extent to which features of a study mirror the real world

Question 7

what is experimental realism?

Answer 7

the extent to which ps believe in the experimental set up and so will behave naturally

Question 8

what is ecological validity?

Answer 8

the extent to which the research setting where the experiment took place mirrors the real world and therefore whether the study can be generalised to the real world

Question 9

what is population validity?

Answer 9

whether or not the sample used in the study is representative of the wider population e.g student not necc rep adults

Question 10

what is meant by threats to validity?

Answer 10

things that might reduce the validity of the study

Question 11

what are the threats to validity? (4)

Answer 11

controlled setting/contrived research setting
demand characteristics
extraneous variables
social desirability bias

Question 12

what is a dc?

Answer 12

a cue that makes p aware of way in which experimenter expect them to behave leading to unnatural b

Question 13

what is a ev?

Answer 13

any variable other than independent variable that might effect d variable e.g time of day ,temp etc

Question 14

what is a social desir?

Answer 14

p change behaviour in order to appear in a better light

Question 15

what is reliability?

Answer 15

concerns consistency of results

Question 16

what is external reliability?

Answer 16

measure of consistency over several occasions e.g should find same results if study replicated -e.g test retest method

Question 17

what is internal reliability?

Answer 17

extent to which something is consistent with itself e.g all questions on questionnaire should measure same thing

Question 18

what is the test-re test method?

Answer 18

repeating study on another occassion

Question 19

what is reliability in experimental research?

Answer 19

ability to replicate study and obtain the same results using test retest method

Question 20

what is reliability in observational techniques?

Answer 20

assessed by measuring inter rater reliability

Question 21

what is reliability in self report?

Answer 21

internal reliability can be assessed using split half method which involve comparing persons performance on 2 halves of a test t check that they match up. to assess external the result should repeat after a period of time

Question 22

what is inter rater reliability?

Answer 22

extent to 2 observers find same results. correlations should be higher than 0.8

Question 23

potential threats to reliability are?

Answer 23

ambigious qs in q /i

confusing behavioural categories in observation