Ecological Validity - GCSE Psychology Definition

Ecological validity refers to how well a study's findings apply to real-life settings. In GCSE Psychology, it's important because it tells us whether the results of an experiment or study can be used to understand behaviour in everyday life.

For a study to have high ecological validity, the conditions of the research should closely resemble the real world. This means that tasks performed and the environment observed in the study should be similar to what people experience outside the lab. If a study lacks ecological validity, the findings might not be as useful for predicting how people behave in real life.