Validity

Submitted To: Dr. Intzar hussain

Submitted By: Amna rana

 Validity
• Validity simply means that a test or instrument is accurately measuring
what it’s supposed to.
• Validity in data collection means that your findings truly represent the
phenomenon you are claiming to measure. Valid claims are solid claims
 Criterion Validity

• Criterion validity (or criterion-related validity) measures how well one measure
predicts an outcome for another measure. A test has this type of validity if it is
useful for predicting performance or behavior in another situation (past, present, or
future). For example:
• A job applicant takes a performance test during the interview process. If this test
accurately predicts how well the employee will perform on the job, the test is said
to have criterion validity.
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 Concurrent validity
• Concurrent validity is a type of Criterion Validity. If you create some type
of test, you want to make sure it’s valid: that it measures what it is
supposed to measure. Criterion validity is one way of doing that.
Concurrent validity measures how well a new test compares to an well-
established test. It can also refer to the practice of concurrently testing two
groups at the same time, or asking two different groups of people to take
the same test
 Example of Concurrent validity
• Concurrent validity can also occur between two different groups. For example,
let’s say a group of nursing students take two final exams to assess their
knowledge. One exam is a practical test and the second exam is a paper test. If
the students who score well on the practical test also score well on the paper
test, then concurrent validity has occurred. If, on the other hand, students who
score well on the practical test score poorly on the paper test (and vice versa),
then you have a problem with concurrent validity. In this particular example,
you would question the ability of either test to assess knowledge.
•
 Predictive Validity
• A research study is useless unless it has some kind of predictive value.
Predictive validity tells you how well a certain measure can predict future
behavior. One of the most common uses for predictive validity is in
University Admissions. Grade Point Average, SAT/ACT scores and other
criterion are used to predict a student’s likely success in higher education.
To test this theory, university students have been studied by their
thousands and it’s been confirmed by hundreds of studies that there is a
correlation between GPA/ACT/SAT and educational success. Therefore,
the predictive validity is high for these measurements.
 Example
• Pre-employment tests can predict whether a person is likely to be
successful in that career path. The pre-employment tests have often been
tested for predicitve validity by following employees after employment to
see if a correlation exists between test scores and career success.
 Content Validity

•
• When you create a test or questionnaire for a particular subject, you want
the questions to actually measure what you want them to. For example,
the AP Physics exam should cover all topics actually taught to students
and not unrelated material like English or biology. This matching between
test questions and the content the questions are supposed to measure is
called content validity. If some of the test questions are measuring
something else, this can create bias.
 Construct Validity

• Construct validity is one way to test the validity of a test; it’s used in
education, the social sciences, and psychology. It demonstrates that the
test is actually measuring the construct it claims it’s measuring. For
example, you might try to find out if an educational program increases
emotional maturity in elementary school age children. Construct validity
would measure if your research is actually measuring emotional maturity.
 Convergent Validity
• Convergent Validity is a sub-type of construct validity. Construct validity
means that a test designed to measure a particular construct (i.e.
intelligence) is actually measuring that construct. Convergent validity
takes two measures that are supposed to be measuring the same construct
and shows that they are related. Conversely, discriminant validity shows
that two measures that are not supposed to be related are in fact, unrelated.
Both types of validity are a requirement for excellent construct validity.
 Example

• Let’s say you were researching depression in college students. In order to

measure depression (the construct), you use two measurements: a survey
and participant observation. If the scores from your two measurements are
close enough (i.e. they converge), this demonstrates that they are
measuring the same construct. If they don’t converge, this could indicate
they are measuring different constructs (for example, anger and
depression or self-worth and depression).
 Face Validity

• Face Validity
• It is a measure of how representative a research project is ‘at face value,'
and whether it appears to be a good project. While face validity, sometime
referred to as representation validity, is a weak measure of validity, its
importance cannot be underestimated.
• Face validity is an informal way to check for validity; anyone could take a
test at it’s “face value” and say it looks good.