Construct or Variable?
Age, years of education, high school graduate status, and scores on a test, for examples
Variables
Validity (n.)
The extent to which conclusions based on a variable, construct, or study are this.
Accurate
In studies of cause and effect, the proposed cause would be considered this variable.
Independent
This type of research design includes random assignment of participants, manipulation of variables, and a control group.
Experimental
This is the name for an uncontrolled third-variable operating within a study, intertwined with the controlled variables, making it impossible to distinguish which variable is truly operating in the situation.
Confounding Variable
Personality traits, self-esteem, emotions, mental health, for example.
Constructs
This is the extent to which the operational definition of a construct can accurately capture the theoretical variable of interest.
Construct Validity
In a study, any behavior, thought, feeling, situation, characteristic, or event that changes and can be measured.
Variable
In this type of research, causal attributions are not made about any observations.
Non-experimental
This occurs when when all extraneous variables are controlled by being held constant, eliminating confounding variables.
Experimental control
By observing these, researchers can help predict behaviors.
Constructs
This is the extent to which a study can draw conclusions about cause and effect, or that any changes in one variable cause changes in another, and increases with increased control in a study.
Internal Validity
A term used to describe the procedure in non-experimental research wherein covariation is observed between variables.
Correlational Method
These types of studies are structured like experiments, but they lack some of the control that true experiments have in that they lack manipulation by the experimenter or random assignment to conditions.
Quasi-experimental
This is done to ensure that an extraneous variable is just as likely to affect one experimental group as it is to affect the other group.
Randomization
By directly measuring these, researchers can record different values for different participants or observations.
Variables
As the study setting becomes more realistic, this increases; the extent to which observations made in a study generalize beyond that specific study.
External Validity
When determining the direction of cause and effect becomes a challenge in a study, so does establishing this important aspect of causal inferences.
Temporal precedence
This type of study tends to have limited internal validity but high external validity, due to its more likely reflection of the "real world."
Nonexperimental
Nonexperimental variables that can not be manipulated, only measured, including; age, gender, and ethnicity.
Participant variables
This describes the variable or construct, including a list of how the observations will be measured.
Operational definition
This refers to the accuracy of the statistical conclusions drawn from statistical analysis or a research study.
Statistical Validity
When an extraneous variable may propose an alternative explanation between two observed variables, this is known as this problem.
Third-variable
In this experiment, the independent variable is manipulated in a natural setting, though the researcher loses control of many aspects of the situation.
Field
This is the correlating relationship in this scenario;
Increased partying behavior is associated with lower grades.
Negative