Chapter 8: External Validity Research Methods Notes
Autor: Sara17 • February 10, 2019 • 902 Words (4 Pages) • 827 Views
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- Include generalization factors such as sex or race of the participant in the study’s design
- An interaction would indicate a limitation on generalizability
- Design research projects to systematically replicate findings as a test of their generalizability when the appropriate factors cannot be included in a single design
- Test hypothesis under different conditions
- Interpret the results of research in light of the limits design places on generalization
- Just because an IV has same outcome under different conditions does not mean that the same psychological processes were operating under both sets of conditions
Assessing Ecological Validity
- Components of ecological validity: assess the degree to which the research exhibits conceptual, functional and structural verisimilitude
- Success criteria (p 229)
Lab Research & Ecological Validity
- In defense of traditional lab procedures:
- Ecological validity, when defined solely in terms of structure, is irrelevant to, and in some cases may hinder, the purposes of research
- Testing of causal hypotheses, falsification of theoretical propositions, discovery of new phenomena, and dissection of complex phenomena would be impossible in natural settings
- Ecological validity is an empirical question
- Conducting research in natural settings does not guarantee its external validity in the sense of generalizability
- The structural component of external validity is inappropriately given priority over the functional and conceptual components (which can both be achieved in the lab)
- Analog research: research that attempts to extract essential aspects of natural setting and reproduce them in the lab
External & Internal Validity
- Both desirable characteristics but impossible to maximize both simultaneously
- Enhancing the internal validity by carefully controlling all possible sources of extraneous variance increases its artificiality which can limit the generalizability and ecological validity of its results
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