What is construct validity?

What is construct validity?

• A. the degree to which a test measures what it claims to be measuring
• B. the stability of a test's scores over time
• C. the correlation between two different tests
• D. the internal consistency of a test

Answer: (A)

Construct validity asks whether a test truly measures the theoretical construct it was designed to assess. It goes beyond simply checking what the items claim to cover and looks at whether the overall pattern of evidence supports that the test reflects the intended concept. In practice, this means the test should relate to other measures of the same construct in expected ways (convergent validity) and not relate strongly to measures of different constructs (discriminant validity); the test’s internal structure should fit the theorized dimensions, and it should predict or differentiate outcomes that theory would predict for that construct. Stability of scores over time is about reliability (test-retest reliability), not validity. A correlation between two different tests can reflect validity evidence (convergent validity) but isn’t itself the definition of construct validity. Internal consistency refers to reliability of the items within the test, not to whether the test captures the intended construct.

Construct validity asks whether a test truly measures the theoretical construct it was designed to assess. It goes beyond simply checking what the items claim to cover and looks at whether the overall pattern of evidence supports that the test reflects the intended concept. In practice, this means the test should relate to other measures of the same construct in expected ways (convergent validity) and not relate strongly to measures of different constructs (discriminant validity); the test’s internal structure should fit the theorized dimensions, and it should predict or differentiate outcomes that theory would predict for that construct.

Stability of scores over time is about reliability (test-retest reliability), not validity. A correlation between two different tests can reflect validity evidence (convergent validity) but isn’t itself the definition of construct validity. Internal consistency refers to reliability of the items within the test, not to whether the test captures the intended construct.