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Validity

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Definition

Validity refers to the degree to which (empirical) evidence and theory support the interpretation(s) of test scores for the intended uses of those or the degree to which empirical evidence and theory support the interpretation of results derived from experiments.

Introduction

Within psychology, the concept of validity is used in two different yet related areas. First, validity is an important aspect of the psychometric quality of scores derived from diagnostic measures (e.g., psychological tests, questionnaires, interviews, and behavior observations). Second, validity is also used to gauge the quality of result interpretations of psychological experiments. The definition presented above is based on the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA and APA 2014) but extents it in order to also accommodate the second area where validity is relevant, i.e., experiments.

Validity in Psychological Experiments

In psychology, experiments are used with the aim of testing...

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Correspondence to Matthias Ziegler .

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Ziegler, M., Lämmle, L. (2020). Validity. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1354

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