What is a confound and how is it related to interval validit

What is a confound and how is it related to interval validity?

Solution

A confounding variable is an extraneous variable that does indeed influence the dependent variable.A confounding variable systematically varies or influences the independent variable and also influences the dependent variable.

Threats to internal validity compromise our confidence in saying that a relationship exists between the independent and dependent variables.

Internal validity is a crucial measure in quantitative studies, where it ensures that a researcher\'s experiment design closely follows the principle of cause and effect.

The easy way to describe internal validity is the confidence that we can place in the cause and effect relationship in a study. The key question that you should ask in any experiment is:

“Could there be an alternative cause, or causes, that explain my observations and results?”

Looking at some extreme examples, a physics experiment into the effect of heat on the conductivity of a metal has a high internal validity.

The researcher can eliminate almost all of the potential confounding variables and set up strong controls to isolate other factors.

At the other end of the scale, a study into the correlation between income level and the likelihood of smoking has a far lower internal validity.