Construct, Internal, and External Validity

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Internal validity, unlike external and construct validity, deals with causal relationships. In other words, the question is whether any additional research that is found is actually associated with the study that is being conducted. The question, again, is whether we can be confident that the outcome of the study is a result of the experiment itself. What this means is that internal validity is the extent to which a change in a given variable is caused by the change in another variable.
According to Jimenez-Buedo (2011), it is difficult to make a valid reference that there is a causal relationship when conducting an experiment in a laboratory-style setting. Jimenez-Buedo (2011) also states that both internal and external validity are being inferred without adequate evidence to support the claims being made in many cases. Jimenez-Buedo (2011) also states that generalization of results in the case of external validity should not be taken lightly. In other words, it appears that she feels that neither internal nor external validity should be inferred in many cases associated with experiments that are done in a laboratory setting versus the real world. This appears to mean that in all circumstances Jimenez-Buedo (2011) favors conducting experiments that are as representative as possible of the real world in order to be able to validate the results and in order to infer a causal or generalizable relationship.
Likewise, in order to validate construct validity, Malhotra et al. (2012) recommends that in conducting research, researchers should use multi versus single-item scales to validate data from experiments, depending upon the complexity of the experiment. Malhotra et al. (2012) also recommends using a step-by-step approach ...

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...nclude Mono-Operation bias, according to Trochim & Donnelly (2008), which is a threat to construct validity that happens when there is a problem with your operationalization of your independent variable versus the construct on which it was based. Another design threat is that of the Mono-Method bias and this threat to construct validity refers to the use of only one method of measurement i.e. (you can’t provide proof that you are measuring what you say you are measuring) (Trochim & Donnelly, 2008). In addition, and according to Trochim & Donnelly (2008), a threat to construct validity is that of Interaction of Different Treatments, which means that experiences outside of those being controlled by your experiment effect the outcome of the study. An additional threat to construct validity that is related to design is Interaction of Testing and Treatment, which is

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