Diana C. Mutz
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144511
- eISBN:
- 9781400840489
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144511.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
This chapter talks about the significance of generalizability. Experimentalists often go to great lengths to argue that student or other convenience samples are not problematic in terms of external ...
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This chapter talks about the significance of generalizability. Experimentalists often go to great lengths to argue that student or other convenience samples are not problematic in terms of external validity. Likewise, a convincing case for causality is often elusive with observational research, no matter how stridently one might argue to the contrary. The conventional wisdom is that experiments are widely valued for their internal validity, and experiments lack external validity. These assumptions are so widespread as to go without question in most disciplines, particularly those emphasizing external validity, such as political science and sociology. But observational studies, such as surveys, are still supposed to be better for purposes of maximizing external validity because this method allows studying people in real world settings.Less
This chapter talks about the significance of generalizability. Experimentalists often go to great lengths to argue that student or other convenience samples are not problematic in terms of external validity. Likewise, a convincing case for causality is often elusive with observational research, no matter how stridently one might argue to the contrary. The conventional wisdom is that experiments are widely valued for their internal validity, and experiments lack external validity. These assumptions are so widespread as to go without question in most disciplines, particularly those emphasizing external validity, such as political science and sociology. But observational studies, such as surveys, are still supposed to be better for purposes of maximizing external validity because this method allows studying people in real world settings.
Elina Birmingham, Jelena Ristic, and Alan Kingstone
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195315455
- eISBN:
- 9780199979066
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195315455.003.0010
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
Gaze following, a key component of social attention, has received substantial research interest over the past few decades. There has been an increasing trend to study gaze following using controlled ...
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Gaze following, a key component of social attention, has received substantial research interest over the past few decades. There has been an increasing trend to study gaze following using controlled computer-based laboratory tasks. While these methods offer more control over the experimental setting, they remove much of what is unique about real-world social situations. This chapter argues that the use of highly simplified, structured social attention experiments may be reducing the natural variance in behavior that is expected in real-world social settings, thus limiting what social attention researchers can discover. Examples are drawn from research with healthy individuals and individuals with known social attention difficulties (i.e., autism spectrum disorders [ASD]). These examples illustrate that the most interesting and robust social attention findings may come from an approach that seeks to incorporate the complexity and ambiguity of real-world social situations. This approach, Cognitive Ethology, is discussed.Less
Gaze following, a key component of social attention, has received substantial research interest over the past few decades. There has been an increasing trend to study gaze following using controlled computer-based laboratory tasks. While these methods offer more control over the experimental setting, they remove much of what is unique about real-world social situations. This chapter argues that the use of highly simplified, structured social attention experiments may be reducing the natural variance in behavior that is expected in real-world social settings, thus limiting what social attention researchers can discover. Examples are drawn from research with healthy individuals and individuals with known social attention difficulties (i.e., autism spectrum disorders [ASD]). These examples illustrate that the most interesting and robust social attention findings may come from an approach that seeks to incorporate the complexity and ambiguity of real-world social situations. This approach, Cognitive Ethology, is discussed.
