Maturation effects and internal validityIf the experiment in your dissertation focuses on people (i.e., people are the population you are interested in), maturation is likely to threaten the internal validity of your findings. This has to do with time and the effect that time has on people. After all, experiments do not happen overnight, but often over a period of time, whether days, weeks, a few months, or in some cases, years. Whilst experiments at the undergraduate and master's dissertation level tend to last no longer than 2-3 months (at least the data collection phase), there are a number of changes that can take place within such short timeframes. During such periods of time, people change, and such change can affect your findings. This is the case for all types of experiment, whether in the physical or social sciences, psychology, management, education, or another field of study. Let's look at some examples of maturation effects in the short-term and long-term: Show Short-term changes and their effects Longer-term changes and their effects The question arises: How confident are you that the observed changes in the dependent variable are due to the treatment (i.e., intervention) and not maturation? In principle, such confidence will decrease as the experiment goes on. However, it is not as simple as saying that the longer an experiment, the greater the potential maturation effect. You need to look at the nature of your research, and examine whether maturation is likely to be a problem. Testing effects and internal validityTesting effects, also known as order effects, only occur in experimental and quasi-experimental research designs that have more than one stage; that is, research designs that involve a pre-test and a post-test. In such circumstances, the fact that the person taking part in the research is tested more than once can influence their behaviour/scores in the post-test, which confounds the results; that is, the differences in scores on the dependent variable between the groups being studied may be due to testing effects rather than the independent variable. Some of the reasons why testing effects occur include learning effects (practice or carry-over effects) and experimental fatigue. Each is discussed in turn:
Testing effects are not a problem in all studies. For example, as a "general rule of thumb", testing effects are less likely to be a threat to internal validity where there has been a large time period between the pre-test and post-test compared with experiments having a short interval between tests. You need to ask yourself: To what extent are learning effects a problem for the post-test in my experiment? Instrumentation and internal validityInstrumentation can be a threat to internal validity because it can result in instrumental bias (or instrumental decay). Such instrumental bias takes place when the measuring instrument (e.g., a measuring device, a survey, interviews/participant observation) that is used in a study changes over time. Instrumentation becomes a threat to internal validity when it reduces the confidence that the changes (differences) in the scores on the dependent variable may be due to instrumentation and not the treatments (i.e., the independent variable). It sometimes helps to think about instrumental bias arising either because of the use of a physical measuring device or the actions of the researcher. Each is discussed in turn:
Instrumentation is more likely to become an issue over time since there is greater potential for instrumental decay to occur. What is internal validity in a research study?Internal validity is defined as the extent to which the observed results represent the truth in the population we are studying and, thus, are not due to methodological errors.
What determines internal validity?It is related to how many confounding variables you have in your experiment. If you run an experiment and avoid confounding variables, your internal validity is high; the more confounding you have, the lower your internal validity. In a perfect world, your experiment would have a high internal validity.
What is internal validity in research quizlet?Internal validity means. the observed differences in the dependent variable are directly related to the independent variable and not due to some other unintended variable.
What is internal validity considered to be quizlet?The degree to which observed differences on the dependent variable are directly related to the independent variable, not to some other unintended variable.
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