Explain why the researchers would argue that their findings are likely to generalize to the broader population, despite the critic's concern about the small sample size.
Case context: A research group is investigating a new behavioral training method for spatial navigation in a single-subject design with only three participants (). A critic argues that the study lacks external validity and cannot generalize to the general population due to the extremely small sample size. However, the researchers find that the intervention produces an immediate, massive, and highly stable improvement in spatial navigation across all three participants.
Question: Explain why the researchers would argue that their findings are likely to generalize to the broader population, despite the critic's concern about the small sample size.
Sample answer: The researchers would argue that the intervention produced a strong and consistent effect across all three participants. In single-subject research, when an effect is highly robust (strong) and stable (consistent), researchers defend its generalizability by asserting that such powerful effects are likely to apply to others in the broader population, even when initially demonstrated in a very small sample.
Key points:
- Recognize that the study demonstrated a strong and consistent effect (massive and stable improvement).
- Explain that single-subject design logic defends generalizability based on the strength and consistency of the effect.
- Relate the strength of the effect to its likelihood of generalizing to the broader population despite the small sample size ().
Rubric: The student must explain that the observed effect is strong (massive improvement) and consistent (across all participants), and connect this to the defense that strong, consistent effects in single-subject research are expected to generalize to the broader population despite small sample sizes.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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