validity

Question 1

what is validity?

Answer 1

the extent to which a psychological test, observation, experiment etc. produces a result that is genuine and represents what is in the real world

Question 2

what is internal validity?

Answer 2

whether the effects observed in an experiment are due to the manipulation of the IV and not another factor

Question 3

what is a major threat to internal validity?

Answer 3

• demand characteristics
• pts may act in a way they think is expected and not how they would normally act
• eg. milgram obedience study

Question 4

what is external validity refer to?

Answer 4

factors outside the investigation eg. generalising to other settings, other populations of people and other areas

Question 5

what is ecological validity?

Answer 5

• a type of external validity
• the extent to which findings from a research study can be generalised to other settings and situations

Question 6

what is temporal validity?

Answer 6

• a form of external validity
• the extent to which findings from a research study can be generalised to other historical times and eras

Question 7

examples of studies with low temporal validity

Answer 7

• high rates of conformity in original asch experiments could be due to conformist era in american history (1950s)
• freud’s concepts eg. penis envy are outdated, sexist and a reflection of the patriarchal victorian society he lived in

Question 8

what is face validity?

Answer 8

the extent to which a measure measures what it appears to measure

Question 9

what is concurrent validity?

Answer 9

the extent to which a psychological measure relates to an existing similar, well-established measure

Question 10

how can face validity be assessed?

Answer 10

• eyeball measuring instrument
• pass it to an expert to check

Question 11

how can concurrent validity be assessed?

Answer 11

• administer new measure to a group of pts
• compare with performance on well-established measure
• close agreement between the two sets of data would indicate that the new test has high concurrent validity
• close agreement is indicated if the correlation between the two sets of scores is >+.80

Question 12

how can the validity of experiments be improved by using a control group?

Answer 12

control groups means that a researcher is better able to assess whether changes in DV were due to effect of IV

Question 13

how can the validity of experiments be improved by using standardised procedures?

Answer 13

• impact of participant reactivity and investigator effects decreases
• validity improves
• could also use single and double-blind procedures for this purpose

Question 14

how can the validity of questionnaires be improved?

Answer 14

• incorporate lie scale within questions to assess consistency of a respondent’s response and to control for the effects of social desirability bias
• assure respondents that all data submitted will remain anonymous

Question 15

how can the validity of observations be improved?

Answer 15

• minimum intervention from researcher
• covert observations; behaviour is likely to be natural and authentic
• have behavioural categories that are broad, overlapping or ambiguous

Question 16

how might qualitative research have higher ecological validity than quantiative methods of research?

Answer 16

depth and detail associated with case studies and interview is better able to reflect a pt’s reality

Question 17

what is interpretive validity?

Answer 17

the extent to which the researcher’s interpretation of events matches that of their participants

Question 18

how can interpretive validity be improved? (qual)

Answer 18

• demonstrate coherence of researcher’s narrative
• include direct quotes from participants in the report

Question 19

how can validity be further enhanced through triangulation? (qual)

Answer 19

use a number of different sources as evidence:

• interviews with friends and family
• personal diaries
• observation