Validity (psychometric)

In psychometrics a valid measure is one which is measuring what it is supposed to measure. Validity implies reliability (accuracy). A valid measure must be reliable, but a reliable measure need not be valid.

Validity may be assessed by correlating measures with a criterion measure known to be valid. When the criterion measure is collected at the same time as the measure being validated the goal is to establish concurrent validity; when the criterion is collected later the goal is to establish predictive validity. A measure has construct validity if it is related to other variables as required by theory. Content validity, or face validity, is simply a demonstration that the items of a test are drawn from the domain being measured; it does not guarantee that the test actually measures phenomena in that domain.

Predictive or concurrent validity cannot exceed the square of the correlation between two versions of the same measure.