Validity in Research Methods

Validity is the accuracy of a tool in measuring what it intends to measure.

Internal Validity: The extent to which the test measures what it should, and findings are due to the independent variable (IV) alone, controlling for extraneous variables.
External Validity: The extent to which findings can be generalized outside the study.
- Ecological validity: How reflective the study is of real life. Improving ecological validity involves field experiments and realistic tasks.
- Population validity: How representative the sample is of the target population. Improving population validity involves representative sampling and diverse participants.
Temporal Validity: The extent to which the findings are relevant today. Assessing temporal validity involves repeating the study in the current time period.

Concurrent validity: Comparing a test to an existing, validated test.
Face validity: Whether the test appears to measure what it claims to measure.