Content validity

In psychometrics, content validity (also known as logical validity) refers to the extent to which a measure represents all facets of a given social construct. For example, a depression scale may lack content validity if it only assesses the affective dimension of depression but fails to take into account the behavioral dimension. An element of subjectivity exists in relation to determining content validity, which requires a degree of agreement about what a particular personality trait such as extraversion represents. A disagreement about a personality trait will prevent the gain of a high content validity.^[1]

Content validity is different from face validity, which refers not to what the test actually measures, but to what it superficially appears to measure. Face validity assesses whether the test "looks valid" to the examinees who take it, the administrative personnel who decide on its use, and other technically-untrained observers. Content validity requires more rigorous statistical tests than face validity, which only requires an intuitive judgement. Content validity is most often addressed in academic and vocational testing, where test items need to reflect the knowledge actually required for a given topic area (e.g., history) or job skill (e.g., accounting). In clinical settings, content validity refers to the correspondence between test items and the symptom content of a syndrome.

One widely used method of measuring content validity was developed by C. H. Lawshe. It is essentially a method for gauging agreement among raters or judges regarding how essential a particular item is. Lawshe (1975) proposed that each of the subject matter expert raters (SMEs) on the judging panel respond to the following question for each item: "Is the skill or knowledge measured by this item 'essential,' 'useful, but not essential,' or 'not necessary' to the performance of the construct?" According to Lawshe, if more than half the panelists indicate that an item is essential, that item has at least some content validity. Greater levels of content validity exist as larger numbers of panelists agree that a particular item is essential. Using these assumptions, Lawshe developed a formula termed the content validity ratio: CVR = (n_e − N / 2) / (N / 2) where CVR = content validity ratio, n_e = number of SME panelists indicating "essential", N = total number of SME panelists. This formula yields values which range from +1 to -1; positive values indicate that at least half the SMEs rated the item as essential. The mean CVR across items may be used as an indicator of overall test content validity.

The minimum values of the CVR to ensure that agreement is unlikely to be due to chance can be found in the following table:

Number of Panelists	Minimum Value
5	.99
6	.99
7	.99
8	.85
9	.78
10	.62
11	.59
12	.56
13	.54
14	.51
15	.49
20	.42
25	.37
30	.33
35	.31
40	.29

See also

• Validity (statistics)
• Criterion validity
• Construct validity
• Test validity

References

1. ^ Pennington, Donald (2003). Essential Personality. Arnold. p. 37. ISBN 0340761180. 

This social psychology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Validity (statistics) Social psychology stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу 972 Fifth Avenue Dicentra spectabilis Look at other dictionaries: content validity — turinio pagrįstumas statusas T sritis biomedicinos mokslai atitikmenys: angl. content validity ryšiai: platesnis terminas – matavimo pagrįstumas šaltinis Pagrindinės epidemiologijos sąvokos : mokomasis žodynas / Kauno medicinos universitetas ;… …   Lithuanian dictionary (lietuvių žodynas) content validity — verification that the method of measurement actually measures what it is expected to measure, covering all areas under investigation reasonably and thoroughly …   Medical dictionary Content Validity — ⇡ Validität …   Lexikon der Economics Validity (statistics) — In psychology, validity has two distinct fields of application. The first involves test validity, a concept that has evolved with the field of psychometrics but which textbooks still commonly gloss over in explaining that it is the degree to… …   Wikipedia Content analysis — or textual analysis is a methodology in the social sciences for studying the content of communication. Earl Babbie defines it as the study of recorded human communications, such as books, websites, paintings and laws. According to Dr. Farooq… …   Wikipedia validity — An index of how well a test or procedure in fact measures what it purports to measure; an objective index by which to describe how valid a test or procedure is. concurrent v. an index of criterion related v. used to predict performance in a real… …   Medical dictionary External validity — is the validity of generalized (causal) inferences in scientific studies, usually based on experiments as experimental validity. [ Mitchell, M. Jolley, J. (2001). Research Design Explained (4th Ed) New York:Harcourt.] Inferences about cause… …   Wikipedia Internal validity — is the validity of (causal) inferences in scientific studies, usually based on experiments as experimental validity [ Mitchell, M. and Jolley, J. (2001). Research Design Explained (4th Ed) New York:Harcourt.] . Details Inferences are said to… …   Wikipedia Ecological validity — is a form of validity in a research study. For a research study to possess ecological validity, the methods, materials and setting of the study must approximate the real life situation that is under investigation.Brewer, M. (2000). Research… …   Wikipedia Criterion validity — A valid measure actually measures what it says it will measure. To define a measure as valid, one can assess different types of validity. The type of validity of measurement assessed depends on what the researcher wants to know. Criterion… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”