Clarifying the concept of validity : From measurement to everyday language
Faculty/Professorship: | Foundations in Education |
Author(s): | Borgstede, Matthias ![]() |
Publisher Information: | Bamberg : Otto-Friedrich-Universität |
Year of publication: | 2020 |
Pages: | 15 |
Source/Other editions: | Theory & psychology, 27 (2017) 5, S. 703–710. |
is version of: | 10.1177/0959354317702256 |
Year of first publication: | 2017 |
Language(s): | English |
DOI: | 10.20378/irb-47242 |
Licence: | Creative Commons - CC BY-NC-ND - Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives 4.0 International |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:473-irb-472429 |
Abstract: | Test validity is widely understood as the degree to which a test measures what it should measure (cf. Cattell, 1946). We argue that this conceptualization does not refer to a psychometric problem but to the correspondence between scientific language and everyday language. Following Steven’s (1946), test results give an operational definition of attributes, qualifying any test as valid by definition. Following the representational theory of measurement (Krantz, Luce, Suppes & Tversky, 1971), an attribute is defined by an empirical relational structure and a corresponding measurement model. Since measurement depends on the specified empirical structure, if a test measures anything, it must be valid. However, the question of validity can be asked in a meaningful way, if one interprets test results in the context of everyday language. We conclude that validity can be understood as the degree to which the variable measured by a test corresponds to concepts of everyday language. |
GND Keywords: | Validität ; Test ; Wissenschaftssprache ; Umgangssprache |
Keywords: | Concept formation; Everyday language; Measurement theory; Psychometrics; Validity |
DDC Classification: | 150 Psychology |
RVK Classification: | CM 3000 |
Peer Reviewed: | Ja |
International Distribution: | Ja |
Type: | Article |
URI: | https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/47242 |
Release Date: | 27. February 2020 |
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originated at the
University of Bamberg
University of Bamberg