Question 1: What is the difference between criterion validity and construct validity?
A measurement technique has criterion validity if its results are closely related to those given by some other, definitive technique, a ‘gold standard’. In the validation of non-physical measurements we cannot use agreement as a measure of criterion validity, because there is no objective reality for which we can set a criterion. We can compare questionnaire scores with clinical assessments, and with established questionnaire scales.
A measurement technique has construct validity if it is related to things to which we expect the concept we are trying measure to be related, and independent of those things of which the concept should be independent.
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Last updated: 5 March, 2007