Construct Validity and Face Validity
Construct validity/validity measures the usefulness of a
test for specific purposes. For instance, tests of depression, such as the Beck
Depression Inventory (BDI), correlate well with clinician assessments of
depression, so they can be considered valid measures of depression. On the
other hand, the BDI does not predict job performance well, so it would be invalid
for that purpose. Types of validity include criterion-related, content,
construct, and face validity.
A description of the construct of face validity is important
but is not validity in the technical sense. A test has face validity if it
appears to measure what it purportedly measures. For instance, a math test for
truck drivers should ask questions about gas mileage and load weight. If it
contained questions about cake recipe proportions, it would lack face validity.
Explain how you might assess the construct validity of a measure of that
construct. Explain the influence of reliability of your measure on the
magnitude of its validity.





