Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
External validity is the validity of applying the conclusions of a scientific study outside the context of that study. [1] In other words, it is the extent to which the results of a study can generalize or transport to other situations, people, stimuli, and times.
Internal validity, therefore, is more a matter of degree than of either-or, and that is exactly why research designs other than true experiments may also yield results with a high degree of internal validity. In order to allow for inferences with a high degree of internal validity, precautions may be taken during the design of the study.
In other words, the relevance of external and internal validity to a research study depends on the goals of the study. Furthermore, conflating research goals with validity concerns can lead to the mutual-internal-validity problem, where theories are able to explain only phenomena in artificial laboratory settings but not the real world. [13] [14]
Ecological validity, the ability to generalize study findings to the real world, is a subcategory of external validity. [ 6 ] Another example highlighting the differences between these terms is from an experiment that studied pointing [ 7 ] —a trait originally attributed uniquely to humans—in captive chimpanzees.
Rotter, Julian B (1975). "Some problems and misconceptions related to the construct of internal versus external control of reinforcement". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 43: 56– 67. doi:10.1037/h0076301. Rotter, Julian B (1990). "Internal versus external control of reinforcement: A case history of a variable". American ...
In qualitative research, a member check, also known as informant feedback or respondent validation, is a technique used by researchers to help improve the accuracy, credibility, validity, and transferability (also known as applicability, internal validity, [1] or fittingness) of a study. [2]
Also known as external or criterion group method, empirical test construction attempts to create a measure that differentiates between different established groups. For example, this may include depressed and non-depressed individuals, or individuals high or low in levels of aggression.
Validity has two distinct fields of application in psychology. The first is test validity (or Construct validity), the degree to which a test measures what it was designed to measure. The second is experimental validity (or External validity), the degree to which a study supports the intended conclusion drawn from the results.