Which form of validity concerns generalizing findings to different populations?

Which form of validity concerns generalizing findings to different populations?

• A. External validity
• B. Population validity
• C. Ecological validity
• D. Face validity

Answer: (B)

The key idea is how well the study’s results apply to people beyond the group that was studied. That focus is population validity. It asks whether findings would hold for different groups, such as people of different ages, cultures, or demographics. External validity is the broader umbrella for generalization, but when the specific question is about generalizing to different populations, population validity is the precise term. Ecological validity concerns whether results generalize to real-world settings, not to different populations, and face validity is about whether a measure appears to assess what it should, not about generalizability. So population validity best fits the question.

The key idea is how well the study’s results apply to people beyond the group that was studied. That focus is population validity. It asks whether findings would hold for different groups, such as people of different ages, cultures, or demographics. External validity is the broader umbrella for generalization, but when the specific question is about generalizing to different populations, population validity is the precise term. Ecological validity concerns whether results generalize to real-world settings, not to different populations, and face validity is about whether a measure appears to assess what it should, not about generalizability. So population validity best fits the question.