Extent to which findings can be generalized to real-world settings is known as what?

• A. External validity
• B. Internal validity
• C. Construct validity
• D. Face validity

Answer: (A)

External validity is about how well findings generalize to real-world settings. It asks whether results observed in a study can be applied to other people, places, and times outside the exact conditions of the experiment. This is what researchers mean by generalizability to real-life contexts.

Internal validity is about whether the study shows that the observed effect is truly due to the manipulation, not confounds. Construct validity concerns whether the measures actually capture the theoretical constructs intended. Face validity is a superficial check of whether a measure appears to assess what it should.

So, external validity best fits the idea of applying results beyond the specific study conditions. To boost it, researchers use diverse, representative samples, conduct studies in naturalistic or varied settings, and test whether findings replicate across different contexts.