Experimentation and Validity

According to the chapter on Experimentation and Validity, how many main types of validity do researchers focus on to assess whether an experiment is sound?

Which type of validity refers to the extent to which the way a study was conducted supports the conclusion that the independent variable caused any observed differences in the dependent variable?

Why are experiments generally considered to be high in internal validity?

What is external validity?

In the context of external validity, what is the term for the degree to which a study's participants and situations are similar to those that researchers want to generalize to and that are encountered in daily life?

What is construct validity in the context of an experiment?

The process of converting a research question, like 'does helping behavior become diffused?', into a specific experimental design is known as what?

What is the primary focus of statistical validity?

A common critique of an experiment is that it 'did not have enough participants.' According to the chapter, this critique primarily addresses which type of validity?

What is the purpose of conducting a power analysis when designing a study?

Which statement best describes the relationship between the four types of validity in research design?

A study conducted in a laboratory with undergraduate students judging colors on a computer screen to predict cereal choices in a grocery store would be high in psychological realism but low in what?

In the Darley and Latané study, they operationalized 'diffusion of responsibility' by manipulating the number of potential helpers. This decision is central to evaluating the study's:

If a researcher finds that people who exercise regularly are happier but cannot conclude that exercise causes happiness because it might be that happiness causes people to exercise, this reflects a failure to establish which type of validity?

Robert Cialdini's field experiment on towel reuse in hotels, where a message was manipulated on cards left in hotel rooms, is presented as an example of a study that is likely high in which type of validity?

What does the chapter suggest about the external validity of experiments that seem artificial, like the Fredrickson 'swimsuit study'?

If a researcher designs an experiment with only two conditions (e.g., one or two helpers) instead of five to test for diffusion of responsibility, the chapter suggests this could lower the study's:

Many psychology studies are described as having high internal and construct validity but sometimes sacrificing what?

Which type of research design is described as being low in internal validity because variables are measured but not manipulated by the experimenter?

A study that uses the same mental process (e.g., visual processing of colors) in the lab as would be used in the real world is said to have high:

What is the key logical assumption behind an experiment's ability to support causal conclusions?

When considering the proper type of statistical test to use for a study's data, which type of validity are researchers primarily concerned with?

A researcher conducts a study and finds a correlation between better physical health and happiness. The possibility that a third factor, like socioeconomic status, causes both health and happiness is a threat to which validity?

The chapter discusses four 'big validities'. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

If an experiment on memory uses only undergraduate students, this might be a criticism of its generalizability. This is an issue of:

Why might a researcher intentionally design a study that is low in mundane realism?

The logic of an experiment is based on creating highly similar conditions and manipulating the independent variable to produce just one difference between them. This approach is primarily designed to maximize:

What does the chapter imply about the relative priority of external validity in field experiments versus typical lab experiments?

If a study's manipulations are a poor representation of the research question (e.g., testing 'diffusion of responsibility' in a way that could be confused with 'social inhibition'), which validity is most compromised?

Threats to statistical validity include using an improper statistical test and what other major issue discussed in the chapter?

An empirical study is said to be high in ______ if the way it was conducted supports generalizing the results to people and situations beyond those actually studied.

The phrase 'Correlation does not imply causation' is a reminder of the limitations of non-experimental research in establishing which type of validity?

Which of the following is NOT listed as one of the four 'big validities' researchers use to assess if an experiment is sound?

When researchers prioritize creating a tightly controlled experiment to establish a clear cause-and-effect relationship, they are focusing on maximizing ______, potentially at the expense of ______.

According to the text, a researcher's use of random assignment to minimize confounds provides strong support for:

The main reason it's important to consider construct validity is to ensure that:

A study that has high mundane realism would most likely involve:

If a researcher wants to know if their findings about memory in college students apply to older adults, they are primarily questioning the study's:

Which of the 'four big validities' is most concerned with the soundness of the methods used to measure and manipulate variables?

A discrepancy in Cialdini's study on towel usage, where external validity was high but statistical validity was more modest, demonstrates what key principle?

An experiment that successfully demonstrates that its independent variable, and not some other factor, caused a change in the dependent variable is said to be high in what?

The need to manipulate an independent variable and control extraneous variables in an experiment often leads to criticism that the study is:

Which validity would be most in question if a researcher claimed to be measuring 'intelligence' but used a test that only measured vocabulary size?

If a study has high internal validity, it means that:

According to the chapter, which of the following is NOT a component of statistical validity?

A key difference between mundane realism and psychological realism is that:

What type of validity is primarily threatened when an experiment's results may be due to a confounding variable?

The practice of operationalization is most central to establishing which of the four validities?

An experiment's design supports a strong causal conclusion, but it was conducted on a small, unrepresentative sample. This study would be considered:

According to the chapter, which two components are fundamental to the way experiments are conducted that allows them to be high in internal validity?