external validity

Examples of external validity in the following topics:

• Biases in Experimental Design: Validity, Reliability, and Other Issues

  • A study that is externally valid is one in which the data and conclusions gathered from the results of an experiment can be applied to the general population outside of the experiment itself.
  • A study's external validity can be threatened by such factors as small sample sizes, high variability, and sampling bias.
  • This will impact whether the data is externally valid, meaning that it can be applied to the general public.
  • Explain the factors that can threaten the external validity of a study

• Observation

  • Researchers may also use this type of data to verify external validity, allowing them to examine whether study findings generalize to real world scenarios.

• Experimental Research

  • If this is the case, the experiment is said to have poor external validity, meaning that the situation the participants were exposed to bears little resemblance to any real-life situation.

• Managing Stress Through Conventional and Alternative Medicine

  • While external stressors can produce valid and measurable stress in the body, this reaction is entirely dependent on the appraisal formed by the stressed person.

• The Psychology of Recruiting and Selecting Employees

  • Measures have different types of validity that capture different qualities.
  • There are three major types of validity: content validity, construct validity, and criterion validity.
  • Content validity refers to how comprehensively the measure assesses the underlying construct that it claims to assess.
  • Construct validity refers to whether the measure accurately assesses the underlying construct that it claims to assess.
  • An example of a measure with debatable construct validity is IQ testing.

• Group Differences in Intelligence

  • Since the advent of reliable and valid IQ testing methods, psychologists have demonstrated, and the APA has declared, that differences in group intelligence are undeniable.
  • Potential environmental causes of differences in group intelligence levels vary greatly and are further complicated by the relationship that external factors have with internal genetics.

• Validity and Reliability of Personality Assessments

  • When it comes to examining the validity and reliability of personality measures, some have better psychometric properties than others.
  • Because of this, objective tests are said to have more validity than projective tests.
  • The result is that the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire has excellent reliability and validity.
  • This is one reason why horoscopes continue to be popular and trusted despite their lack of reliability or validity.
  • Evaluate the concepts of validity and reliability in the context of personality assessment

• Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic Therapy

  • IPT is a structured, supportive approach that strives to connect the external, such as interpersonal struggles, with the internal, such as an individual's mood.
  • The study found that this could be used as a basis to make psychodynamic psychotherapy an "empirically validated" treatment.

• Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

  • Throughout the preconventional level, a child's sense of morality is externally controlled.
  • A child with pre-conventional morality has not yet adopted or internalized society's conventions regarding what is right or wrong, but instead focuses largely on external consequences that certain actions may bring.
  • Laws are valid only insofar as they are grounded in justice, and a commitment to justice carries with it an obligation to disobey unjust laws.

• Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies

  • While some researchers write that CBT is more effective than other treatments, many other researchers and practitioners have questioned the validity of such claims.
  • Specifically, critics argue that since CBT holds that external stimuli from the environment enter the mind, causing different thoughts that lead to emotional states, there is no room in CBT theory for agency, or free will.