Pretend you’ve created a test to measure something (doesn’t matter what). Since you’ve invested in creating this instrument, you want to demonstrate that your instrument measures what it’s supposed to measure (validity) so that people will buy and use it. To provide validity evidence for your new instrument, respond to the questions below. Our goal is to explain how we’d demonstrate each of the following types of validity for our test. We don’t need actual questions, just a description of what we’d do to prove the test works.
Instructions:
- HOW will you establish CONTENT validity?
- Don’t describe what content validity is; instead, tell me how you’ll prove your test demonstrates it.
- To help you get started, consider the goal of content validity and how we’d reach that goal for your test. What could you do to establish that the content of your test is valid, and that it’s asking the right questions?
- Also to help you get started, remember that there were several videos and some instructional materials preceding this assignment. Those videos and materials are there to help you understand the concepts you’re applying in this assignment.
- When you’re finished, your description should communicate the things you’ll do to prove that your test contains the appropriate content and only the appropriate content.
- HOW will you establish CONSTRUCT validity? Include both convergent validity and discriminant validity in your response because you’ll need to demonstrate both to prove that your instrument works.
- Don’t describe what construct validity is; instead, explain how you’ll prove your test demonstrates construct validity.
- Include convergent validity in your response.
- Include discriminant validity in your response.
- When you’re finished, your description should communicate the things you’ll do to prove that your test demonstrates convergent validity and discriminant validity.
- HOW will you establish CRITERION-RELATED validity? Include both concurrent validity and predictive validity in your response because you’ll need to demonstrate both to prove that your instrument works.
- Don’t describe what criterion-related validity is; instead, explain how you’ll prove your test demonstrates it.
- Include concurrent validity in your response.
- Include predictive validity in your response.
- When you’re finished, your description should communicate the things you’ll do to prove that your test demonstrates concurrent validity and predictive validity.
- An example of criterion-related validity:
- A test that measures mindfulness gets higher scores from people who have taken courses on meditation and mindfulness practices, and lower scores from people who haven’t.
Note that we only need a few paragraphs at most to accomplish the goal of this assignment. I’m saying this so that you don’t do too much. These are conceptually broad and vague things to understand so it’s easy to overexplain. For example, the first question could be answered in a single sentence once you understand the concept, so if you find that you’re doing a lot of explaining then it may not be quite clear enough to you yet.
Remember to revisit this week’s instructional materials for guidance.
Grading:
Grades for this assignment will be based on a rubric. Responses to each of the 3 prompts in the instructions above will be measured by the rubric. Each response to the prompts is worth up to 3 points, for a total of 9 points earned by responding accurately to the prompts.
