PSYC 215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: External Validity, Pilot Experiment, Internal Validity

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 215
• Professor: Lauren Human

Document Summary

Independent variable =/ experimental condition (correlational study). (experimental study) Can have skewed sample, some people are more likely to have interested, or have noticed in a research, creates sampling bias. Generalizability: how well a sample represents the population (can the study be done with a different sample?) External validity: how well an experimental result can be applied to different contexts. Field experiment: conducted in the real world, participants are unaware they are in a study, sometimes has a confederate Natural experiment: examine naturally occurring events, no assigning participants (situations that are very similar to what would be examined in experimental conditions) Internal validity: how well a experiment studies the causation relationship. Reliability: participant performance should be relatively same under conceptually similar conditions. Internal and external validity somewhat opposite related, experiments with good control and manipulation--high internal validity, less external validity. Longitudinal study: studies that track participants for a longer time, usually have more valid causation.