Validity

Question 1

What is validity?

Answer 1

the extent to whish the study investigates what it set out to study.

Question 2

What are the 6 types of validity?

Answer 2

internal validity
temporal validity
ecological validity
population validity
face validity
concurrent validity

Question 3

What is is internal validity?

Answer 3

in an experiment, the extent to which our findings are due to the manipulation of the IV and not any oter uncontrolled variables

Question 4

What is temporal validity?

Answer 4

a type of external validity that concerns the extent to which research findings hold true over time

Question 5

What is ecological validity?

Answer 5

the extent to which an experiment effect can be generalised from the study to other settings and situations

Question 6

What is population validity?

Answer 6

the extent to which findings can be generalised from the sample tested to other populations

Question 7

What is face validity?

Answer 7

the extent to which research looksas though it is doing what it claims to, on the surface level

Question 8

What is concurrent validity?

Answer 8

the extent to which a new measure (or instrument) compares (or concurs) to a previously validated measure

Question 9

What is external validity?

Answer 9

a broader term that questions whether research can be generalised to diverse settings (ecological validity), time (temporal validity) and other people (population validity)

Question 10

What are the 3 issues with internal validity?

Answer 10

confounding variables
demand characteristics
investigator bias

Question 11

What are confounding variables?

Answer 11

known as ‘uncontrolled variables’ and might manipulate the IV (extraneous variable). If these are not removed, the study will have low internal validity

Question 12

What are demand characteristics?

Answer 12

social desireability and screw you effect

distorts P’s behaviour and damages validity

Question 13

What are investigator bias?

Answer 13

This is when the researcher’s expectations influence how P’s behave and/or how results are interpreted

Question 14

What is mundane realism?

Answer 14

the degree to which the setting, the task or the procedure reflects that in real life

Question 15

What is the eye ball test?

Answer 15

assesses face validity and involves EXPERTS examining the content of a test to see if it looks like it measures what it’s supposed to measure

Question 16

How do you assess concurrent validity?

Answer 16

invlolves comparing a method/test with an already well established one that claims to measure the same variables. P’s would complete the new and older tests and scores would then be correlated looking for similiarities. If a high positive correlation is achieved then the test has concurrent validity

Question 17

How do you assess temporal validity?

Answer 17

by repeating a study in different times to see if the experimental effect is still evident

e.g. Perin and Spencer (1980) replicated Asch (1951) research and found virtually non-existent levels of conformity. This implies Asch’s research had very low temporal validity

Question 18

How do you assess ecological validity?

Answer 18

if similar results are found in different settings then the study can be said to have high ecological validity

e.g. Milgrim replicated his study in many diverse settings and still found high levels of obedience. This implies Milgrim’s research had high levels of ecological validity

Question 19

How do you improve concurrent validity?

Answer 19

from results of concurrent validity checks, if the new method does not correspond to an established measure then it can be tweaked or refined and then reassessed against the valid measure.

Question 20

What is the single blind technique (improves internal validity)

Answer 20

when P’s donot know whihc condition they have been allocated to and/or have not been given full details of what the investigation is about. (reduces demand characteristics)

Question 21

What is the double blind technique (improves internal validity)

Answer 21

when P’s and whoever is collecting data do not know which condition have been allocated (reduces demand characteristics)

Question 22

How does random sampling improve validity?

Answer 22

by random sampling it gives the most representative samples becuase every member in target population and has an equal chance of being selected, but it is not very common as it requires a population database.

Question 23

How do you improve temporal validity?

Answer 23

by replicating research. If we are ablw to show that with periodic esting that a theory/test holds true then it has some temporal validity.

Question 24

How do you improve ecological validity?

Answer 24

by replicating research in different settings and even different diverse methods.

e.g. Hofling (1966) was able to demonstarte that we fall into the agentic state in a real life environment (i.e. hospital) as well as the laboratory. This shows that milgrims Agency theory holds true in different settings