HSOC 408 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Internal Validity, Construct Validity, Social Science
18 Nov 2016
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The more a social scientist intervenes in natural settings (ie. using a laboratory) the more likely that findings will be ecologically invalid: internal validity is whether a proposed causal relationship between variables is actually true. Unfortunately, although these criteria are typically appropriate for quantitative research, they can be rather inappropriate for qualitative research. Intervention studies are planned experimental studies that consist of two or more groups - a control group (which you do nothing to) and an intervention group (which you do something to). The two types of intervention studies are rcts and quasi-experimental studies. The difference between the two is that the intervention is randomly assigned in rcts and actively assigned in non-random ways to groups in quasi-experimental studies. Example of qes: fluoridation is the intervention, but fluoride cannot be randomized to different houses. Instead, you look at houses from different areas that have and do not have fluoridated water - which is not randomly assigned.
