On Validity

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Employing criterion validation procedures in cases where constructs are being assessed has resulted in contamination of many validation efforts by mono-operation bias. One result of this mistake is that self-reports, which are typically validated against behavioral measures, appear to have poor validity, leading to disenchantment with self-report techniques. Results of several investigations, wherein criterion measures are multiply operationalized, have demonstrated that self-report measures are more valid than the behavioral indices which were employed as criterion measures in previous studies to validate those self-reports. The relative strengths and weaknesses of introspective versus extraspective assessment approaches are then discussed.