IMPROVING

• HOW TO IMPROVE VALIDITY IN EXPERIMENTS?

  • control group to assess whether changes in DV are due to IV
  • standardised procedure to minimise impact of investigator effects
  • control extraneous variables to minimise impact of situational variables
  • use single/ double blind trials to minimise demand characteristics/ investigator effects
• HOW TO IMPROVE VALIDITY IN OBSERVATIONS?

  • use covert methods to measure natural behaviour
  • record observations
  • operationalise behavioural categories to make them appropriate and clear
• HOW TO IMPROVE VALIDITY IN QUESTIONNAIRES?

  • keep respondents anonymous to prevent social desirability bias
  • counterbalance to check for response bias and exclude respondents from data analysis
  • include a lie scale to test consistency and exclude inconsistent participants from data analysis
• HOW TO IMPROVE VALIDITY IN QUALITATIVE METHODS OF STUDY?

  • make questions appropriate and not leading
  • giving direct quotes to support their interpretation
• EXAMPLES OF QUALITATIVE STUDIES?

  interviews, case studies, content analysis