Validity concerns the truth of the inferences about the relationships between the independent variable and the dependent variable. Which term best captures this description?

Validity concerns the truth of the inferences about the relationships between the independent variable and the dependent variable. Which term best captures this description?

• A. Experimental validity
• B. Internal validity
• C. External validity
• D. Construct validity

Answer: (A)

The idea here is about whether the study can support a causal claim that the manipulation of the independent variable produced changes in the dependent variable. This is captured by internal validity. Internal validity asks how confident we can be that the observed relationship is due to the experimental manipulation itself and not to other confounding factors or alternative explanations. Strengthening internal validity involves practices like random assignment to groups, using a proper control condition, keeping procedures consistent across groups, and reducing potential biases from participants or researchers. External validity, by contrast, is about generalizability to other people, settings, or times. Construct validity concerns whether the measurements truly capture the intended constructs. The term often described as experimental validity isn’t the standard label for this specific issue; the precise concept described is internal validity.

The idea here is about whether the study can support a causal claim that the manipulation of the independent variable produced changes in the dependent variable. This is captured by internal validity. Internal validity asks how confident we can be that the observed relationship is due to the experimental manipulation itself and not to other confounding factors or alternative explanations. Strengthening internal validity involves practices like random assignment to groups, using a proper control condition, keeping procedures consistent across groups, and reducing potential biases from participants or researchers.

External validity, by contrast, is about generalizability to other people, settings, or times. Construct validity concerns whether the measurements truly capture the intended constructs. The term often described as experimental validity isn’t the standard label for this specific issue; the precise concept described is internal validity.