To examine the effectiveness of empathy training on children's sharing behaviour, 2 months of training are provided to 3-year-old children living in rural Saskatchewan. Six months later, the children's sharing behaviours are measured and compared to their pre-training sharing behaviour. Improvements are considered the result of the empathy training. Which factor is a potential source of internal invalidity?
A) All the children were from rural Saskatchewan.
B) Children's sharing behaviour may improve with the simple passage of time.
C) The observers of the sharing behaviour may disagree.
D) Children who were the best sharers before the training were not necessarily the best after the training.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The simple passage of time may affect children's sharing behaviour, making it difficult to determine if any improvement is due to the empathy training or natural maturation. This is a potential source of internal invalidity known as "history." A and C are concerns related to external validity, and D is related to the issue of regression to the mean.

To Examine the Effectiveness of Empathy Training on Children's Sharing