Validity in psychological research involves a thoroughness and precision when drafting a research study, truly considering all the strengths and weaknesses of the study before engaging in it, and how previous studies have failed before. "Validity is important because it tells you if the measure actually measures what it's supposed to measure and not something else (Goodwin, 2010). When structuring and executing a given psychological study, one needs to take into account the fact that all people are individuals and given to a certain deviation and uniqueness of thought and behavior. At the same time the study should be designed to attempt to capture a certain amount of the universality and trends of human behavior. Validity in psychological research protects the anonymity and privacy of all participants, treats all participants with dignity and respect and discloses all the details and aspects of the study to participants so that they can give their consent with confidence. In my opinion, the most important type of validity to have in a psychological study is a large sample. A large sample instantly gives a greater amount of credibility to the results. A large sample demonstrates that certain trends or absences of trends point to a greater aspect about society at large or about human nature and give real guidance to further research. It seems that often times studies that push for subsequent studies or which conclude that "further research needs to be conducted" are often studies with small samples.
Having conclusive results or a strong pattern of results with a psychological study can act like a beacon, shining the light for further research that needs to be conducted. For example, if on a study of eating disorders, researchers discover that the majority of the women afflicted with this issue are left-handed and have a history of alcoholism in their family -- that gives subsequent researchers concrete guideposts to use to trace the relationships and connections between these elements. Thus, real validity in psychological research orbits around a robust sample size. The second most important aspect of validity would in many cases be to have a well-rounded and diverse sample, unless the study was specializing in a particular ethnic group. The least important aspect that works towards validity of a psychological research study would be predictive validity and whether what the staff team thought was going to happen actually happened.
Discussion 2: Methods Section
What is the hardest part about writing the Methods Section of a research paper?
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