Year 12 Transition to Year 13 Vocabulary Development
Key term Definition Example/context
Utility The ‘usefulness’ of a theory, It is hard to apply
study, or therapy. Differential Association
Theory to therapy, and so it
lacks utility in the real
world.
Efficacy The ‘effectiveness’ of a therapy. The superior improvement
of SSRIs compared with
placebo demonstrates the
efficacy of drug therapy for
OCD.
Credibility The believability or The psychodynamic
trustworthiness of a study or approach rejects most
theory. features of science and so,
on balance, it lack
credibility.
Validity The truthfulness of a finding or Perry argued that many
argument. ppts ‘saw through’ the
setup. Therefore, the
validity of Milgram’s
conclusions about
obedience is doubtful.
Internal validity The extent to which the test or Since Baddeley’s LTM
study measures what it claims to measure was only 20
measure. minutes, it arguably lacks
internal validity.
Face validity The extent to which a concept, The inkblot tasks used by
theory, or measure/test ‘makes some psychodynamic
sense’. researchers to investigate
personality arguably lack
face validity.
External validity The extent to which a study or As Asch’s study was
theory applies outside of its conducted in artificial,
immediate context. controlled lab conditions,
critics argue that it lacks
external validity.
Population validity A type of external validity – the Piaget’s cognition work was
extent to which a finding or carried out on middle-class
theory applies to people or European children, and so it
groups other than the one initially is doubtful that his
tested. conclusions apply to other
social classes and cultures.
Temporal validity A type of external validity – the Since Asch’s study was
extent to which a finding or carried out in a conformist
theory applies to time periods time (McCarthyism in the
Key term Definition Example/context
Utility The ‘usefulness’ of a theory, It is hard to apply
study, or therapy. Differential Association
Theory to therapy, and so it
lacks utility in the real
world.
Efficacy The ‘effectiveness’ of a therapy. The superior improvement
of SSRIs compared with
placebo demonstrates the
efficacy of drug therapy for
OCD.
Credibility The believability or The psychodynamic
trustworthiness of a study or approach rejects most
theory. features of science and so,
on balance, it lack
credibility.
Validity The truthfulness of a finding or Perry argued that many
argument. ppts ‘saw through’ the
setup. Therefore, the
validity of Milgram’s
conclusions about
obedience is doubtful.
Internal validity The extent to which the test or Since Baddeley’s LTM
study measures what it claims to measure was only 20
measure. minutes, it arguably lacks
internal validity.
Face validity The extent to which a concept, The inkblot tasks used by
theory, or measure/test ‘makes some psychodynamic
sense’. researchers to investigate
personality arguably lack
face validity.
External validity The extent to which a study or As Asch’s study was
theory applies outside of its conducted in artificial,
immediate context. controlled lab conditions,
critics argue that it lacks
external validity.
Population validity A type of external validity – the Piaget’s cognition work was
extent to which a finding or carried out on middle-class
theory applies to people or European children, and so it
groups other than the one initially is doubtful that his
tested. conclusions apply to other
social classes and cultures.
Temporal validity A type of external validity – the Since Asch’s study was
extent to which a finding or carried out in a conformist
theory applies to time periods time (McCarthyism in the
