Construct Validity

Students will evaluate the construct validity for the article “Effectiveness of solution focused therapy for affective and relationship problems in a private practice context.” Hi writer, I will download the articles in my file. For the purpose of evaluating construct validity, the first step is to identify all the variables being studied. How do researchers define their variables? How do they measure these variables? For example, if researchers are studying the effectiveness of cognitive therapy on depression, then they need to clearly specify cognitive therapy (use a manual; identify the competence and adherence of therapists to the manual). They also need to define depression. Do the researchers use their own measures for depression? If so, did they convince you they have measured depression well? The second step of evaluating construct validity is to describe how well the researchers measured their variables of interest. You could use the ten threats to construct validity: 1. Inadequate preoperational explication – don’t clearly define all relevant variables 2. Mono-operation bias – Single measure is used for the independent and dependent – measure 3. Evaluation apprehension – Faking good 4. Experimenter expectancies – Investigators communicate their expectancies to participants which biases outcomes 5.Confounding constructs and levels of constructs – A specific level of a construct is measured which effects the outcome of the study 6. Restricted generalizability across constructs – By narrowly defining constructs, one risks missing important relationships among the constructs 7.Mono-method bias – Using the same method of measuring a construct –Self report measure 8. Hypothesis guessing in the experimental condition – Participants try to figure out what the investigation is about and either conform or rebel. 9. Interaction of different treatments – There is a potential confound when participants are exposed to multiple treatments –The outcome of the study could be a result from the last treatment in the sequence or a combination of the treatments 10. Interactions between testing and treatment – The pretest may educate and sensitize the participant to the post-test, therefore, improved performance may be the result of training on the pretest The final aspect of evaluating construct validity is to detail your opinion as to the researchers’ methods. That is, do you think they did a good job based on step 2? Students should use steps 1-3 as headers for their papers, specifically listing each item under step 2. The paper should be in Times New Roman, 12 point font and adhere to APA 6th Ed. guidelines. No abstract is needed. The paper should be 2-4 pages in length. GRADING RUBRIC:
A 100 %
Discusses all 10 CV threats and their relationship to the article. Note: Not all of the threats will apply, still need to be mentioned.