Name: Cristian Ale

Course: Bachelor of Science Major in Psychology

Subject: Field Methods in Psychology

1.Define individual differences and explain how individual differences between groups and confounding
from environmental variables can threaten the internal validity of a between-subjects design.

Individual differences refer to the personal characteristics that vary from each person to another. It is
considered as a potential threat to the internal validity of research since it could be possible for it to
become the reason behind the changes in the performance or the results gathered from a group. For
instance, in a study that tries to determine the effects of learner-centered approach on the academic
performance of the high school students, it would be possible for the performance of the experimental
group to be enhanced by the treatment, compared to the control group who would not experience being in
the program, which would explain the difference between their results. However, due to the existence of
individual differences, it would not be impossible that the difference in their performance was not really
due to the program, but rather, due to the fact that the individuals in the experimental group are smarter
than those in control group since the majority of them are among the top students in the school.

Furthermore, environmental variables are the characteristics of an area that may differ from one location
to another. It is possible for it to threaten the internal validity of a study in a way that if the area where the
experimentation occurs between the two groups are different from each other, there is a potential risk that
it might possibly affect the results that would be gathered from each group. For instance, if the Group A
was tested in a cold room while they are answering their tests and the Group B was evaluated in a warmer
room, it could potentially ruin the internal validity of the experimentation since it would be possible that
due to the discomfort from the temperature the first group was not able to focus on the test while the
second group performed well because their environment was comfortable enough for them to stay
focused during the evaluation.

2.Describe how differential attrition and communication between participants can threaten the internal
validity of between-subjects design and how would you identify these problems when they appear in a
research study?
Attrition refers to the act of the participants in which they withdraw from a study without finishing the
entire session first. Under minimal degree, it is not crucial enough to be considered as a threat to internal
validity. However, there are instance wherein it becomes crucial in a study which is called differential
attrition. Differential attrition refers to an increasing degree of attrition that differs from between groups
in which the difference between the rates of withdrawal of the participants from the experimental and the
control group would finally induce a significant effect on the results of the study. To specify further,
groups that are present in a research study are created with equal number of participants to avoid issues
with the accuracy of the results in relation to the balance of respondents that are included in them.
However, if the participants in a group decreases in a significantly noticeable manner, it would have
negative effects on the data the researchers would be gathered since it would no longer support the idea
that the results from each group have been collected from the same number of individuals which would be
an issue for the internal validity of a study since we would no longer be able to conclude that the
differences between the results of the groups are due to the presence of intervention in the experimental
group, but rather, differential attrition could possibly act as a confounding variable that could become the
reason for the difference in the results regarding the individual performance of each group present in a
research.

On the other hand, communication between participants, more commonly known as diffusion, is also
considered a potential threat to the internal validity of a research study since this could act as confounding
variable that could provide an explanation regarding the results of the performance of the two groups. To
explain further, sharing of information between the experimental and control group could potentially
threaten the validity of a study in a way that it would significantly decrease the difference between the
two conditions. For instance, a study that aims to determine the effects of learner-centered approach on
the academic performance of the students may be affected by diffusion since by letting the participants
from the experimental and control group share their experiences regarding the experimentation, the
information that would be gathered from them at the end of the experiment would no longer be accurate
since if there was no difference between their performance during the post-test, it might not be because
the program did not have any effects on the experimental group, but rather, because the individuals from
the aforementioned group has been consistently sharing the information regarding the treatment to those
in the control group which would no longer validate the results gathered from the research.

In conclusion, both differential attrition and diffusion could potentially become a threat to internal
validity. In order to be able to identify the existence of these variables in research, it would be necessary
for the researchers to compare the participants who stay in the study and those who drop out for them to
have a consistent surveillance of their number. If there is a significant difference between the number of
participants from the two groups, then it would mean that differential attrition is present. On the other
hand, when it comes to diffusion, it would be crucial for the researchers to never let both groups know
that each of them has different treatment conditions which would lessen the tendency of each group
sharing their experiences in the experimentation. Additionally, the researchers could also avoid giving
information regarding each group to one another so that they would not be able to determine which
among them are from the group with different treatment compared to what they experience.