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Based on the trade-offs of research settings, explain why conducting this research as a field study in a busy cafe decreases the study's internal validity and makes it less appropriate for making causal claims, compared to a laboratory experiment.
Case context: A psychology researcher wants to study how background noise affects students' reading comprehension. They decide to conduct a field study by observing and testing students in a busy university library cafe. Although they know this natural environment will represent everyday studying conditions, they also realize they will have less control over environmental factors (such as sudden loud conversations, changes in lighting, or foot traffic).
Question: Based on the trade-offs of research settings, explain why conducting this research as a field study in a busy cafe decreases the study's internal validity and makes it less appropriate for making causal claims, compared to a laboratory experiment.
Sample answer: Conducting the research as a field study in a cafe decreases internal validity because the experimenter has less control over the real-world environment and potential extraneous variables, such as sudden noises or interruptions. Because these extraneous variables are not controlled, it is less appropriate to arrive at causal conclusions about how background noise directly causes changes in reading comprehension.
Key points:
- Field studies take place in natural environments where the experimenter has less control over potential extraneous variables.
- A lack of control over the environment and extraneous variables decreases the study's internal validity.
- Decreased internal validity makes the study less appropriate for arriving at causal conclusions.
Rubric: The response must demonstrate comprehension of how the cafe setting impacts internal validity and causal claims. It should explain that conducting the study in a real-world environment means the experimenter has less control over extraneous variables. Finally, it must connect this lack of control directly to a decrease in internal validity and explain why this makes it less appropriate to establish causal conclusions.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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Field Experiment
External Validity
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Based on the trade-offs of research settings, explain why conducting this research as a field study in a busy cafe decreases the study's internal validity and makes it less appropriate for making causal claims, compared to a laboratory experiment.
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