Читать книгу The Research Experience - Ann Sloan Devlin - Страница 131

The validity of research refers to the degree to which the research evaluates what we claim it does. When we talk about the internal validity of research, we are talking about the degree to which the research was conducted in a manner that allows us to rule out alternative explanations; in other words, we are talking about the quality of the research process. Researchers are always vigilant to the occurrence of what are called threats to internal validity (additional types of validity related to measures are discussed in Chapter 5). A well-known list of these threats was produced by the researchers Donald Campbell and Julian Stanley in 1963.

Table 3.1

Source: Adapted from Campbell, D. T., Stanley, J. C., & Gage, N. L. (1963). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Hougton Mifflin.

Threats to internal validity: Factors that undermine the ability of your research to ascertain the influence of an independent variable (IV) on a dependent variable (DV).

Table 3.1 presents these threats to internal validity discussed by Campbell and Stanley (1963).

Let’s expand on each one of these threats and identify some others. In truth, some of these threats are beyond your ability to control, but at least you will be aware of them.