If you were studying the effects of success and failure on feelings of depression and all of the participants experienced the failure condition on a rainy Monday and the success condition on a sunny Wednesday, ______ might be a threat to internal validity.
A) maturation
B) history
C) subject selection
D) mortality

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The difference in weather conditions between the failure and success conditions could be a potential confounding variable, known as history, that affects the dependent variable (feelings of depression) and threatens internal validity. The change in weather conditions could have influenced participants' moods, directly or indirectly, and affected the results. Maturation refers to changes that occur naturally over time, subject selection refers to biases in choosing participants, and mortality refers to attrition or losing participants during the study. These are not directly relevant to the weather condition confound.

If You Were Studying the Effects of Success and Failure