Dominick has been hired to assess a new version of a college entrance exam. He r

Question

Dominick has been hired to assess a new version of a college entrance exam. He randomly assigns 100 high school juniors to take the new exam and 100 high school juniors to take the old exam. He then asks them if they thought the exam they took was a good measure of their abilities. He discovers that the participants overwhelmingly agreed that both exams were a good measure of their ability. He reports that the college is free to adopt this new exam as it appears to be comparable to the old exam.

There is a problem with validity. Which validity is weak in this example? internal validity, external validity, statistical validity, or construct validity

Explanation / Answer

Let us first understand the different types of validity -

a) Internal Validity - It is a measure which ensures that a researcher's experiment design closely follows the principle of cause and effect. When the relationship between variables is causal. This type refers to the relationship between dependent and independent variables. It is associated with the design of the experiment and is only relevant in studies that try to establish a causal relationship. For example, it can be used for the random assignment of treatments.

b) External Validity - It is about generalization: To what extent can an effect in research, be generalized to populations, settings, treatment variables, and measurement variables? When there is a causal relationship between the cause and effect that can be transferred to people, treatments, variables, and different measurement variables which differ from the other.

c) Statistical Validity - The conclusion reached or inference drawn about the extent of the relationship between the two variables. For instance, it can be found when we aim at finding the strength of relationship between any two variables that have been under observation and analysis. If we do reach the correct conclusion, then it is said to be statistical conclusion validity.

d) Construct Validity - It defines how well a test or experiment measures up to its claims. A test designed to measure depression must only measure that particular construct, not closely related ideals such as anxiety or stress. It is extent that a measurement actually represents the construct it is measuring.

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As the sample size here is greater than 30, so we can generalize the conclusions drawn from the sample to the population. So, this doesn't indicate weakness of an external validity.

As the participants overwhelmingly agreed that both exams were a good measure of their ability, so this acted as cause and the effect was the conclusion that the college is free to adopt this new exam as it appears to be comparable to the old exam. So, this also indicates that there is no weakness of an internal validity.

Now, as the conclusion made by Dominick was just based on a question asked from students - if they thought the exam they took was a good measure of their abilities. This question doesn't actually give us the data for getting conclusion. The conclusion must have been drawn based on the marks obtained by the students in two different tests and then using an appropriate significance test for difference in score of two exams. Right now, there is possibility of making a type II error. So, the statistical validity is weak.

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