Validity Flashcards
What are the two types of validity?
- internal validity
- external validity
what is internal validity?
whether the study measures what it intends to measure
what is external validity?
whether the study paints a true picture of real-life behaviours (mundane realism) and would apply to different places, times or people (population validity)
what are the three main validity issues?
- researcher bias
- demand characteristics
- social desirability
what is researcher bias?
the researcher can directly or indirectly influence the result of a study, through the process of designing the study or through the way the research was conducted or analyzed
what are demand characteristics?
when participants unconciously work out the aim of the study and act differently than how they would normally
what is social desirability?
when participants give the response that they think will show them in the best possible light, meaning they are not atrue reflection of their thoughts/feelings
how can we deal with researcher bias?
researcher bias can be overcome with a double blind procedure. this involves neither the researcher collecting the data, nor the participant involved, knowing the true aims of the study. this also reduced demand characteristics
how can we reduce social desirability and demand characteristics?
social desirability and demand characteristics can be reduced with a single blind procedure, where the participants dont know the intentions of the study, and therefore cannot change their behaviour accordingly
what are the five ways of assessing validity?
- face validity
- predictive validity
- content validity
- concurrent validity
- construct validity
what is face validity?
whether the test appears to measure what it claims to, and therefore is objective. tests where the aim is clear are said to have high face validity
what is predictive validity?
the degree to which a test accurately forecasts a future outcome on a more broadly related topic.
what is content validity?
checking whether the method of measuring behaviour is accurate and decides whether it is a fair test that achieves the aims of the study (internal validity). this can be achieved by asking an expert in that specific area of behaviour to check the validity of the test.
what is concurrent validity?
validating a measurement by comparing it with an established measurement that has known validity. if similar results occur on
both tests, then the new test has concurrent validity. if not, then the new test
would have to be redesigned and tested.
what is construct validity?
looks at whether the overall results reflect the phenomena as a whole (external validity). it is achieved by checking the
existing definitions of the behaviour being studied and redesigning the test if it measures a different construct
