Evaluating Research
As a potential consumer of behavioral research, you should follow the dictum of caveat emptor—let the buyer beware! In evaluating any research study, you need to ask three questions.4
Is it valid? Is the study actually measuring what it claims to be measuring? A number of psychological tests have been discarded by employers in recent years because they have not been found to be valid measures of the applicants’ ability to do a given job successfully. But the validity issue is relevant to all research studies. So, if you find a study that links cohesive work teams with higher productivity, you want to know how each of these variables was measured and whether it is actually measuring what it is supposed to be measuring.
Is it ...
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