MCRS part A week 4

Question 1

Two kinds of research validity

Answer 1

1. Internal validity

2. External validity

Question 2

What is ‘internal validity’?

Answer 2

Can what we observe indeed be attributed to our explanatory factor? It should not be a spurious relationship.

Question 3

What is ‘external validity’? And what are the two kinds of external validity?

Answer 3

Can what we observe in our sample be generalised to a wider context?

1. Population validity; Is our sample representative of the population?
2. Ecological validity; Is the research setting/context true to real life and applicable in other circumstances?

Question 4

What is the ‘Third variable problem’?

Answer 4

When there is a spurious relationship. So, there is a third variable that affects the correlation between two variables. The variable in this case affects both variables, so you can’t conclude a causal relationship between the two variables.

Question 5

What is a ‘moderating variable’?

Answer 5

It influences the strength of a direct relationship between two variables.
Example hypothesis: The influence of variable A on variable B is stronger when (moderating variable).

Question 6

What is a ‘mediating variable’?

Answer 6

Explains the relationship between two other variables. It is always an asymmetrical relationship. So, variable A influences the mediator variable, which influences variable B, but never the other way around!!
Example hypothesis; The relationship between variable A and variable B gets explained by (mediating variable).

Question 7

What is the difference between ‘full mediation’ and ‘partial mediation’?

Answer 7

Full mediation: When the direct relationship between variable A and B completely disappears because of the mediator variable.

Partial mediation: When the direct relationship between variable A and B still exists, but just becomes less strong.