the extent to which an observed effect is genuine- does it measure what it was supposed to measure, and can it be generalised beyond the research setting within which it was found
face validity
a basic form of validity in which a measure is scrutinised to determine whether it appears to measure what it is supposed to measure- for instance, does a test of anxiety look like it measures anxiety
internal validity
refers to whether the effects observed in an experiment are due to the manipulation of the independent variable
major threat to the internal validity of a study- if pps respond to demand characteristics
external validity
relates more to factors outside of the investigation e.g., generalising to other settings
ecological validity
concerns generalising findings from one setting to other settings
more particular to 'everyday life'
temporal validity
is the issue of whether findings from a particular study, or concept, within a particular theory, hold true over time
concurrent validity
the extent to which a psychological measure relates to an existing similar measure
