validity

validity

accuracy

internal validity

within the study - the DV was affected by the change in the IV

external validity

the extent to which the findings of a study can be generalised beyond the research setting

temporal validity

the extent to which the findings of the study can be generalised to the other historical times and eras

biological/ cognitive study

strong temporal validity - not affected by time

social psychology study

low temporal validity - society is always changing

population validity

the extent to which the findings can be generalised to other populations of people

stratified sampling validity

strong population validity

large sample

weak population validity - unrepresentative sample

ecological validity

the extent to which the findings can be generalised beyond the present situation to other settings and situations

validity issues

- unrepresentative sample

- researcher bias

- research setting is artificial

- task is not something done in real life

how to deal with an unrepresentative sample

varied sample (stratified or quota)

how to deal with researcher bias

double blind control

how to deal with the research setting being artificial

do the study in the field

how to deal with the task being unrealistic to everyday life

experimental realism

double blind control

both participants and researchers are unaware of the aims or levels of IV

single blind control

participants are unaware of the aims/ hypotheses of the research

ways of assessing validity

concurrent

content

face

construct

predictive

concurrent validity

establishing external validity by comparing an existing test with the one you are interested in

content validity

aims to demonstrate that the content of a test represents the area of interest

face validity

the extent to which test items looks like what the test claims to measure

construct validity

demonstrating the extent to which performance on the test measures an identified underlying construct

predictive validity

correlating the results of a test with some other example of the behaviour that is being tested