Exam 4: Validity and Reliability: Threats to Research Integrity

Many researchers make a useful analogy to help understand validity and reliability when developing a case by comparing them to a target and marksmanship. The tightness of the bullet holes reflects validity.

Because of statistical regression, it is important to analyze the data for outliers and consider their effects.

__________ is a threat to internal validity that occurs in sampling process when random assignment to research groups is not properly conducted.

To improve the reliability of an instrument, researchers may use the same exam or questionnaire more than one time, which is known as __________.

__________ is the ability to measure what one is intending to measure.

__________ is measured when research participants are given slightly different questions of the same concept.

__________ is the ability to consistently produce the same results over time.

__________ is a threat to internal validity when control group participants learn of potential benefits of the experimental group's treatment and then alter their own behavior based o the information.

__________ occurs when research participants become so familiar with the survey instruments that their answers are influenced.

__________ is a threat to research when a respondent's scores move closer to mean values overtime.

The best way to overcome selection bias is to use randomization when assigning research participants to different groups.

Validity is closely related to the principle of operationalization, which addresses how variables are measured.

__________ is the attempt to statistically account for all of the variables that could influence the variable of interest.

Among various threats to internal validity, __________ refers to any events that happen during the course of a study that may affect the study outcomes.

Among threats to internal validity, __________ refers to any physical or psychological changes taking place within participants that occur with the passing of time regardless of the experimental manipulation.

__________ occurs when respondents become so familiar with the survey instrument that it influences the findings.

__________ is a collection of questions to measure a research concept.

__________ occurs when the research participants in the experimental group are not similar to those in the control group.

The research participants in the control group may get the information on the treatment that the participants in the experimental group receive, which can contaminate the study outcome. This threat to internal validity refers to

__________ is a statistical procedure to measure scale reliability. It produces a numerical value indicating how good the scale is actually measuring what it intended.