Internal and External Validity

Running head: Internal and External Validity
Internal and External Validity

Students Name
Institutional Affiliation
Discuss the importance of external and internal validity and some of the threats to each of
these.
Validity means a measurement quality indicating the extent to which the measure
replicates the underlying construct, to be precise, whether it measures what it claims to measure.
Internal validity may be important in determining the accuracy of the results. Given that samples
may not be selected randomly, the results may perhaps be inaccurate. External validity may be
important in determining the generalizability of the population findings (Bernard, 2000). For
instance, if the selected sample is only African-Americans under the age of 35, then it may be
difficult to generalize the results to the entire U.S. population.
Internal validity threats include:
1
Testing: this relates to the potential effects of a pre-test on the participants performance in
a study on the post-test. This may alert participants to the fact that they are being
intentionally studied (Beyer-Westendorf and Bu ller, 2011).

Statistical regression: this refers to the affinity of extreme scores to regress (or move) in
the direction of the mean score on succeeding re-testing. For instance, students scoring on
an IQ test, below twenty five percent (lowest extreme) may be given a post-test. A high
post-test score may be expected.

Mortality: this refers to loss of subjects from a study owing to the initial non-availability
or consequent withdrawal from the study For instance, most high-scoring people may
drop-out from the experimental group than from the control group
External validity threats include:
Experimenter effects: refers to the likelihood of the experimenter un-intentionally
influencing the performance of participants in a study

Multiple-treatment interference: this pertains to the situation in which subjects in a study
may get more than one treatment. In this case, the results of the multiple-treatments may
interrelate.
Experimental arrangement Effects: this pertains to situations where subjects become
conscious that they may be involved in a study, as a effect of that awareness, their
performance or response may be different.
What is the impact of having one type of validity but not the other?
To start with, unless your research may be internally valid, it can never be externally
valid. Additionally, an internally valid design lacking external validity may be worthless. If one
cannot apply the results externally from the laboratory (or the results cannot generalize a
population except those studied), in that case it may not be valuable; hence an exercise in futility
(Green, 1977). For instance, if one had an ideal experiment set-up, that evaluates something
faultlessly, then it may have internal validity. However, one has not shown that one would get
similar results in diverse cultures, or in dissimilar periods of times; hence, the experiment may
lack external validity.
If you could only have one type of validity in your experiment, which would it be and why?
The two dissimilar characterizations of the connection involve the applicability and
generalizability. Internal Validity relies much on applicability while external validity may be
more on generalizability. In addition, with internal validity one may have more control than with
external validity (Walwyn and Roberts, 2010). However, I would prefer to use external for the
reason that: even through it may be harder to maintain the control; at least the entire facts may be
present when you setting-up an experiment and one doesn't have to presuppose something that
may lead to bias .
References
Bernard H. (2000). Social Research Methods. Thousands Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. Print.
Beyer-Westendorf J., and Bu ller H. (2011).External and internal validity of open label or
double-blind trials in oral anticoagulation: better, worse or just different? J Thromb
Haemost; 9: 21538.
Calder B., Phillips L., and Tybout A. (1983). The concept of external validity. J Consum Res.
10 (1).
Green L. (1977). Evaluation and measurement: some dilemmas for health education. Am J
Public Health. 1977; 67: 155161. [PMC free article] [PubMed] Retrieved March 18,
2013; from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1653552/pdf/amjph004770045.pdf
Walwyn R., and Roberts C., (2010). Therapist variation within randomised trials of
psychotherapy: implications for precision, internal and external validity. Statistical
Methods in Medical Research 2010; 19: 291315.

Internal and External Validity

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Internal and External Validity

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Internal and External Validity

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Running head: Internal and External Validity