PSYC 2360 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Internal Validity, Statistical Conclusion Validity, Type I And Type Ii Errors

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2360
• Professor: Gloriagonzalez-morales

Document Summary

There are many threats to the validity of research may lead to wrong conclusions. Scientists do not intend to make the wrong conclusions, yet often research published is invalid. Validity is not an all or nothing phenomenon some research is just better because it is more valid than other research. By understanding the threats to validity we are able to make the correct decisions about the conclusions that can or cannot be drawn from a research project. Four threats to the validity of research are: threats to construct validity: Occurs when the measured variables used in the research are invalid because they do not adequately assess the conceptual variables they were designed to measure. Conclusions regarding the research may be incorrect because a. Type 1 or type 2 error was made. Type 1 error occurs when the researcher mistakenly rejects the null hypothesis: use alpha as a method to reduce type 1 errors.