Reliability, Validity, Generalisability 2 Flashcards
What is triangulation?
Uses multiple measures
If a relationship is established between several different types of measures then there is good validity between the 2 variables
What is external validity?
Can the observed results be applied to the real world?
What are the 3 components of external validity?
Generalisability
Applicability
Replicability
What is population generalisability?
How well do our sample results apply to the population from which they were drawn
How can samples be made representative to the population of interest?
Larger samples
Participant demographics should be measured, to ensure the sample is in line with the population of interest
Random sampling but this is difficult
What is environmental generalisability?
How well do the results apply to different regions, areas or countries?
Consider the social make up and infrastructure of areas the samples are conducted in
e.g. GP appointments, education
What is temporal generalisability?
Do the results apply to different time periods?
e.g. Milgram’s shock study, are people just as obedient as they were back then?
What is the issue with generalisability in psychology?
96% of psychology studies used participants only from WEIRD cultures
Western
Educated
Industrial
Rich
Democratic
Do WEIRD findings translate to non-weird cultures?
What is applicability?
How relevant are the findings to the real world?
Ecological validity
The real world doesn’t have constraints so experiments are less controlled
What is replicability?
repeating a study and finding the same results
What is direct replication?
Repeating the study with a different sample from the same population
Increase external validity
What are the wider implications from reproducibility crisis?
Lack of reliability in research findings
Lack of trust in science from the public
Clinical and legal consequences
What can we learn from the reproducibility crisis?
An opportunity to review scientific practise and improve it
