Question

The University of Oklahoma's Office of Research is interested in the relationship between year in college and parking satisfaction among OU students. They randomly sample 1000 freshmen, 1000 sophomores, 1000 juniors, and 1000 seniors. They ask all 4000 students to complete a parking satisfaction survey. They find that parking satisfaction decreases as one increases in year in school. How does this affect the internal and external validity?

Answer 1

Internal validity is increased through random sampling, but external validity may be limited to one university.

Step-by-step explanation:

Internal validity refers to the extent to which a study accurately measures the relationship between variables without any confounding factors. In this case, the random sampling of students from different years in college helps increase internal validity. By randomly selecting students, the researchers are reducing the likelihood of any systematic differences between the groups that could affect parking satisfaction.

External validity, on the other hand, refers to the generalizability of the study findings to the broader population. In this case, the external validity may be limited because the study only focuses on one university, the University of Oklahoma. Therefore, the findings may not be applicable to students at other universities or colleges.