Ecological Validity In Psychological Research Essay

This essay discusses the role of ecological validity in psychological research and pointing out the importance of it. I will also be demonstrating a balanced view on the points in favour and those against the claim that ecological validity is important in psychological research drawing on the material from previous research.

Ecological validity is a term used by psychologist when they refer to the behaviours that are being studied and recorded and how they reflect on real life settings. This is what makes ecological validity important in psychological research – psychologists are able to conduct their experiments to close proximity of everyday life situations. However, it is also important to consider the ecological validity when analysing

the results of an experiment. Subsequently, it is important to consider the ecological validity of the study as participants are required to give their consent when taking part in the experiment, yet if they know it is an experiment they may give false reports leaving the study with false results. Experimenters have to ensure they abide by the ethics guidelines as well as ensuring they do not cause an unnecessary situation that could result in participants undergoing stressful situations whilst doing their best to achieve high ecological validity. (Brace and Byford, pg. 383)
To begin with, the study conducted by Sir Frederic Bartlett was to see how well people remember information. He asked his participants to read and remember a tale called ‘war of the ghosts’, they were then asked to answer questions relating back to the story to test how much they remember. Upon reviewing his findings, it was revealed that the participants had failed to recall the story correctly as well as parts of the tale being recited incorrectly and there were parts of the tale that participants had recalled that were not in the tale. This task was said to have not been ecologically valid as it doesn’t relate back to everyday memory. (Brace and Byford, pg. 373) Alternatively, if an experiment was to be carried out to test what people had witnessed during a staged crime they would be questioned by investigating officers who would ask what they remembered on that particular day, what they witnessed and then later called back to the police station to help identify the perpetrator this would be seen as having high ecological validity as it mimics what the process would be if it happened in real life. (Brace and Byford pg. 382)
Similarity, in the experiment conducted by Albert Bandura and colleagues who conducted an experiment to see at what extent do children imitate aggressive behaviour.

Basing their study across different sources, one being the influence of a film, a model (male and female). The children that participated in the study were those who attended the university nursery, it is vital to the study that the environment was an everyday place to the children this is what makes it ecologically valid. Continuing the study Bandura separated the children into groups of twenty - four. Making up a total of four groups. Each group observed different interaction group one saw a live model behaving aggressively to a blown up doll named bob, group two observed a film that showed the live model behaving aggressively towards Bobo, group three observed a film of a made up model behaving aggressively towards the doll and finally group four did not observe any aggressive behaviour towards the doll. The results showed the exposure to violent model did increase the amount of aggression shown by the children, however, the children that viewed the model on film, whether it be human or fantasy it made no difference to the levels of aggression showed by the children. Through the results it was also uncovered that the boys had shown more aggression that the girls. (Brace and Byford

116).
Yet another reason why ecological validity is important is run alongside the study taken up by Edward Thorndike who was interested in the learning of animals, he began his study on behaviour and how behaviour is rewarded with positive reinforcement and punishment. For example, the experiment conducted with a hungry cat placed in a cage and a bowl with food placed on the outside of the cage, in order for the cat to get the food it had to manipulate the latch on the cage. Despite this the cat did manage to manipulate the latch and reach the food, this was observed over a number of times and the results showed the cat escaping quicker than the previous timing. Although this was based in the laboratory and not the usual environment for the cat it was ecologically valid as conducting this experiment in the normal environment of the cat may have caused the experimenters to face limitations. Furthermore, in the laboratory setting all variables could be controlled and recorded accurately.