Definition
Criterion validity refers to the degree to which a test score is related to a meaningful outcome or criterion of interest.
Introduction
In its most basic form, criterion validity refers to a construct’s or test score’s relatedness to a relevant outcome of interest, the criterion. Criterion validity is conceptualized as a between-person comparison important component of the validation process of a test score. Without criterion validity, the application of a test score may not be useful.
Criterion validity can be examined with criteria assessed before (retrospective validity), during assessing (concurrent validity) or after (predictive validity) obtaining the test score that is to be validated. Retrospective validity would be established if the test score was related to a previously assessed characteristic of a person, such as earlier scholastic performance. While this is still a common practice, the usefulness of this approach is at least questionable. Concurrent validity...
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Horstmann, K.T., Knaut, M., Ziegler, M. (2019). Criterion Validity. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1293-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1293-1
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