research methods: validity

Question 1

What is validity?

Answer 1

The extent to which an observed effect is genuine and represents what is actually ‘out there’ in the real world

Question 2

How can data be reliable but not valid?

Answer 2

E.g. if a test that claims to measure IQ may produce the same results every time but not measure true intelligence

Question 3

What is internal validity?

Answer 3

Questions the cause and effect relationship between the change the researcher made to the independent variable and the observed change in the dependent variable
- not influenced by other variables

Question 4

What largely determines the internal validity of a study?

Answer 4

The quality of the study’s experimental design and method

Question 5

What is an example of something effecting internal validity?

Answer 5

Social desirability bias: Participants hide their genuine opinions/behaviours and instead act in a more socially acceptable way to ‘look good’

Question 6

How can demand characteristics effect internal validity?

Answer 6

Participants think they have discovered the aim and behave in a way they believe will produce results supporting the researcher’s theory

Question 7

What is external validity?

Answer 7

Questions if the findings of a study can be generalised beyond the study

Question 8

What is ecological validity?

Answer 8

The extent to which the findings of any particular study can be generalised beyond the experimental setting to ‘real life’

Question 9

What is mundane realism?

Answer 9

The extent to which the task used in an experimental set-up are similar to the stimuli experienced in the real world

Question 10

What is temporal validity?

Answer 10

The extent to which findings can be generalised to other historical times and eras

Question 11

What is population validity?

Answer 11

The extent to which the same used in the study is representative of the target population/ wider population

Question 12

How can validity be assessed?

Answer 12

• face validity
• concurrent validity

Question 13

What is face validity?

Answer 13

Does the test measure what it claims to be measuring?
- known as criterion validity -> confidence in the validity of a test increases if we can compare the data from a test to another measure of the same variable and identify a correlation

Question 14

What is concurrent validity?

Answer 14

The extent to which data from the newly created test is similar to an established test of the same variable conducted at the same time
- correlation should exceed +0.80 for high concurrent validity

Question 15

How can validity be improved in experiments?

Answer 15

• using a control group so the researcher is more confident that changes in the DV were due to the effect of the IV
• standardised procedures minimise the effects of extraneous variables and investigator effects
• in a single-blind procedure, participants are not aware of the aims of the study until they have taken part to reduce demand characteristics

Question 16

How can validity be improved in questionnaires?

Answer 16

• lie scales to control for social desirability bias
• telling participants that data is confidential so they are more likely to tell the truth

Question 17

How can validity be improved in observations?

Answer 17

• behavioural categories that are well-defined, operationalised and not ambiguous or overlapping
• triangulation: using a number of different sources as evidence e.g. interviews, observation