Types of validity

• What is ecological validity?

  • Concerns generalising finding from one setting to another setting
  • a form of external validity.
  • Low mundane realism (relative to everyday life) lowers the ecological validity of an experiment.
  • An example of a task with low ecological validity would be learning random lists of words for a memory study- cannot be generalised to everyday life.
• What is validity?

  The extent to which an observed effect is genuine
• What is temporal validity?

  • The issue of whether findings from a study or a concept within a theory hold true over time.
• What are the 2 assessments of validity?

  • Face
  • Concurrent
• What is face validity?

  • a basic form of validity, in which a measure is scrutinised to determine whether it appears to measure what its supposed to
  • This can be determined by ‘eyeballing’ a measurement or passing it to an expert to check
• What is concurrent validity?

  • the extent to which a psychological measure relates to an existing similar measure
  • Eg. Close agreements between two sets of data would indicate the newer test has high concurrent validity
• What is internal validity?

  • Whether the effects observed in an experiment are due to the manipulation of the IV and not another factor
  • Demand characteristic affect the rate of internal validity
• What is external validity?

  • The extent to which findings can be generalised to other settings, populations, scenarios and eras
• How can validity be improved?

  • Using a control group to assess changes in DV were caused by IV and not other variables/influences
  • Standardizing procedures to ensure all ppts experience the same conditions, minimizes ppt reactivity and investigator effects
  • Single blind or double blind trials
• How can validity be improved in questionnaires?

  • Use a lie scale to assess the consistency of a respondent’s response and to control the effects of social desirability bias
  • Validity may be further enhanced by assuring respondents that all data submitted will remain anonymous, ppts are less likely to lie/conform to researchers aims
• How can validity be improved in observations?

  • Observational research may produce findings that have high ecological validity as there may be minimal intervention by the researcher.
  • This is especially the case if the observer remains undetected (overt)
• Use of qualitative methods and validity?

  • Tend to have high ecological validity due to the depth and detail found from case studies and interviews, better measure of ppts reality
  • Validity can be enhanced by demonstrating interpretive validity -> coherence of researchers reporting and inclusion of direct quotes
  • Also enhanced through triangulation
• What is interpretive validity?

  • The extent to which the researcher's interpretation of events matches those of their ppts
  • Can be demonstrated through using direct quotes to ensure coherence between researcher's report and ppts experience
• What is triangulation?

  • Used in qualitative methods to improve validity
  • Use of multiple sources for evidence
  • E.g. data complied from interviews, personal diaries and observations