The Criteria of Sound Research

Question 1

What is external validity?

Answer 1

how well the results generalize to contexts outside the conditions of the labratory

Question 2

What is internal validity?

Answer 2

in experimental research, confidence that only the manipulated variable could have produced results

Question 3

What is reliability?

Answer 3

The degree to which the particular way researchers measure a given variable is likely to yield consistent results

Question 4

What is measurement validity?

Answer 4

the correlation between a measure and some outcome the measure is supposed to predict

Question 5

What is statistical significance?

Answer 5

a measure of the probability that a given result could have occurred by chance

Question 6

What is an hypothesis?

Answer 6

a prediction about what will happen under particular circumstances

Question 7

What is correlational research?

Answer 7

research that involves measuring 2 or more variables and assessing whether there is a relationship between them

Question 8

What is expiremental research?

Answer 8

Research that randomly assigns people to different conditions, or situations enabling researchers to make strong interference about why a relationship exists or how different situations affect behaviour

Question 9

What is an independent variable?

Answer 9

The variable that is measured or manipulated; it is hypothesized to be the cause of a particular outcome

Question 10

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 10

The variable that is measured; it is hypothesised to be affected by manipulation of the independent variable