socw 6301 assignment

Running Head: Internal and External Validity 1

Internal and External Validity 4

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL VALIDITY

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Validity refers to the extent to which a particular concept is measured accurately in a quantitative research. There are two major concepts that help to determine whether the results of a particular study were meaningful and trustworthy, internal and external validity. Internal validity refers to the extent to which a particular study develops a trustworthy in the cause-and-effect relationship between the outcome and the treatment. on the other hand, external validity is the extent of how well an outcome of a study can well be used or applied to other settings (Patino & Ferreira, 2018). This is a form of validity that helps in determining how generalizable the results are. For instance, the findings can be applied to settings, time periods or people.

It is important to note that internal validity depends more on the study’s procedure as well as how rigorous the study will be performed. Thar are various major differences between the two types of validity. In internal validity, the conclusions are usually warranted while in external validity the findings are normally generalized. Internal validity eliminates alternative explanations while in external validity the results are applied to the entire world. Internal validity mainly focuses on strong research methods and accuracy while external validity majorly focuses on results that are able to be translated to various aspects in the world.

There are various threats to internal validity. The first one is history which refers to an event other than the particular independent variables that occur in or out of the experiment and may affect the results. History involves effects of various events that are common to subjects in daily lives. For instance, events that may have happened in the weather, in the subject’s personal life or news can easily change their performance in a particular experiment (Matthay & Glymour, 2020). The second threat is known as testing. Testing is what happens to a test performance if a test is carried out again. Familiarity with the test can easily influence the performance on the second test. Changes may occur to the final scores due to repeated testing.

After analyzing all control designs, it is evident that post-Test only control group design can help to control all the threats to internal validity. This is a design that follows all steps and omits the pre-test. This is because there are numerous occasions where pre-test is not possible since the participants are already exposed to the treatment and doing it could be time consuming and expensive. This design is suitable also for a large group since it helps in controlling most of the threats to internal validity as the classic controlled design (Flannelly et al., 2020). For instance, this design helps in eliminating pre-testing hence decreasing the issue of experimental mortality and shorten the length of the study. The other control design is the Solomon four-group design. This is a prestigious design since it reduces threats to internal threats as well as control the reactive effects brought by pre-test.

References

Flannelly, K. J., Flannelly, L. T., & Jankowski, K. R. (2020). Threats to the internal validity of experimental and quasi-experimental research in healthcare. Quantitative Research for Chaplains and Health Care Professionals, 88-111. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429435690-10

Matthay, E. C., & Glymour, M. M. (2020). A graphical catalog of threats to validity. Epidemiology, 31(3), 376-384. https://doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000001161

Patino, C. M., & Ferreira, J. C. (2018). Internal and external validity: Can you apply research study results to your patients? Jornal Brasileiro de Pneumologia, 44(3), 183-183. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1806-37562018000000164