How to Control Threats to Internal and External Validity in Literature Review

Literature reviews are the reviews of studies performed for a variety of areas, such as psychological studies, social work studies, sociology studies, studies of customers in business, medical studies or any other study. When a study is performed, there are controlling factors added to minimize the threats of validity in the study. Minimizing and controlling the threats makes the study legitimate and lowers the chance of inaccurate results.

Instructions

1. Include several people from a large variety of groups in the study. Unless a study focuses on a specific group, like college students or workers in a specific field, the study needs to incorporate as much diversity as possible. Otherwise, results are inaccurate and the validity is questionable.

2. Set up a placebo group. A placebo group is the group in the study that does not receive treatment. In a medical study, these individuals would receive a sugar pill instead of a medication. In a psychological study about specific behaviors under specific stressors, the placebo group would not receive any stressors. Placebos are the control to prevent assumptions and make the study valid.

3. Divide the groups of the study into a variety of areas, such as placebo, age groups or specific problems to get the most accurate results. Having division among a variety of groups gives a well-rounded study.

4. Minimize outside factors. Some outside factors, such as relatives to the participants in a study, are unavoidable while others, like the medications taken during the study, are controllable. Minimize as many outside factors as possible depending on the study.

References

• Medscape: Establishing Validity of Experimental Studies
• Ohio State University: Internal and External Validity in Economics Research
• Penn State: Practice Research