Construct Validity - Assignment Example

Construct validity Researchers create constructs to facilitate measure of variables in studies. The Big Five Personality Test tool is an example of aconstruct and measures personality traits. The construct has a series of structured questions that a participant responds to, and responses are computed, based on predetermined categories, to identify elements of personality traits. Some responses are measured on ordinal scale while other are measured on a nominal scale. Construct validity is the level of accuracy with which a construct measures an element that it is expected to measure.

Ability to measure a variable of intention identifies construct validity and comparing test results, derived from a tool, can help assess the tool’s validity. I could assess construct validity of the Big Five Personality Tool by using the tool, repeatedly, and comparing results. A longitudinal study, repeated with same participants, under similar conditions, would help in the assessment. In the assessment, periodic data collection, using the tool, would generate data sets that could be analyzed using statistical tools.

I would code nominal data, organize data on each measure by participants, and use results from four replications to test existence of significant differences, across repeated measures, of scores of each variable per person. Existence of a significant difference would show lack of construct validity of the tool. The tool is however valid, based on results from the study by Hurts and Donovan (2000). Reliability refers to consistency in a variable’s value (Elmes, Kantowitz, & Roediger, 2011) and therefore influences accuracy of measure.

Participants’ reliability in evaluating and the tool’s questions, in all the periodic measures, induces accuracy at each time, to yield construct validity. Consequently, a direct relationship exist between reliability and validity. ReferencesElmes, D., Kantowitz, B., & Roediger, H. (2011). Research methods in psychology. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Hurtz, G. & Donovan, J. (2000). Personality and job performance: The big five revisited. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(6), 869–879