construct validity

the degree to which a test or instrument is capable of measuring a concept, trait, or other theoretical entity. For example, if a researcher develops a new questionnaire to evaluate respondents’ levels of aggression, the construct validity of the instrument would be the extent to which it actually assesses aggression as opposed to assertiveness, social dominance, and so forth. A variety of factors can threaten the basic construct validity of an experiment, including (a) mismatch between the construct and its operational definition, (b) various forms of bias, and (c) various experimenter effects and other participant reactions to aspects of the experimental situation. There are two main forms of construct validity in the social sciences: convergent validity and discriminant validity.

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Psychology term of the day

December 23rd 2024

scientific explanation

an account of an event, behavior, or thought that is couched in terms of an established set of scientific principles, facts, and assumptions. Typical forms of explanation may be reductionistic, analyzing a phenomenon into components and describing how they combine to produce the phenomenon; ontogenic, relating the phenomenon to a universal set of developmental stages; empiricistic, describing a phenomenon in terms of the conditions that have been observed to produce it; or metaphoric or categorical, identifying a phenomenon as similar in some important respects to other phenomena already understood. Such an explanation stated systematically is generally known as a theory.