VALIDITY

Introduction:
The validity of an instrument is determination of the extent to which the
instrument actually reflects the abstract construct being examined. Validity, like
reliability, is not an all- or- nothing phenomenon but rather the degree of matter.
Unless measurement tools validly and drawn from the empirical study will be
invalid. Any time you translate a concept or construct into a functioning and
operating reality (the operationalization), you need to be concerned about how
well you did the translation i.e. validity.

Validity:
Validity refers to “whether a measurement instrument accurately measures
what it is supposed to measure”. When an instrument is valid, it truly reflects the
concept, it is supposed to measure.

Classification:
There are three kinds of validity that vary according to the kind of
information provided and the purpose of the investigations is:
I. Content validity
a) Face validity
b) Consensual validity
II. Criterion validity
a) Concurrent validity
b) Predictive validity
III. Construct validity
a) Convergent validity
b) Divergent validity
 IV. Other type:
a) External validity
b) Internal validity

1. Content validity
Content validity refers to the adequacy of the sampling of the domain
being studies, i.e. it represents the universe of content or the domain of a given
construct. The universe content provides the framework and basis for formulating
items that will adequately represent the content. When an investigator is
developing a tool and issues of content validity arise, the concern is whether the
measurement tool and the items it contains are representative of the content
domain the researcher intends to measure. The researcher begins by defining the
concept and identifying the dimensions that are the components of the concept.
Those items that reflect the concept and its dimensions are formulated. After
formulation, the items are submitted to a panel of judges/ experts, who know about
the concepts by requesting to indicate their agreement with the scope of the items
and the extent to which the items reflect the concept under consideration.
A subtype of content validity is face validity and consensual.
a) Face validity refers to rudimentary type of validity that verified basically that
the instrument gives the appearance of measuring concepts. In which the
colleagues or subjects can give their opinion about instrument.
b) Consensual validity is a process by which a panel of experts judges the
validity.

II. Criterion validity

Criterion validity represents the relationship between one measure and
another measure of the same phenomena. It indicates so what degree the subject’s
performance on the measurement tool and the subject’s actual behaviour are
related. The criterion is usually second measure, which assists the same concept
under study. This approach to validation represents a challenge in nursing, because
of the newness of some concepts and the lack of instruments to measure them.the
two forms are
a) Concurrent validity refers to the degree of correlation of two measures of the
same concept administered at the same time. A high correlation indicates
agreement between the two measures.
b) Predictive validity refers to the degree of correlation between the measure of
the concept and some future measure of the same concept. Because of the passage
of time, the correlation coefficients are likely to be somewhat lower for predictive
validation studies. Both types of validity are estimated with simple correlation
coefficients.
Eg- we might theories that a measure of math’s ability should be able to predict
how well a person will do in Engineering based profession i.e. we could give our
measure /tool to experienced engineers and see if there is a high correlation
between scores on the measure and their salaries as Engineers.

III. Construct validity

Construct validity is based on the extent to which a test measures a
theoretical construct or trait. It involves attempting to validate a body of theory
underlying the measure and testing hypothesized relationship. The major focus of
construct validity is on the abstract concept that is being measured and its
relationships to other concepts. Construct validation is a cyclical process that
unites psychometric procedures with theory development. Construct are specified
and then inter related with other in empirical testing. Empirical testing confirms or
fails to confirm or fails to confirm the relationship that would be predicted
among concept. It is a complex process, often involves several studies.
Two strategies for assessing construct validity include
a) Convergent validity
b) Divergent validity
a) Convergent validity: it refers to search for other measures of the construct.
When two or more tools that theoretically measure the construct are
identified, they are both administered to the same subject. A cor- relational
relationship is performed. If the measures are positively cor- related, is
called convergent validity.
Eg- convergent validity of a test of arithmetic skills, we might correlate the
scores on our test with scores on other tests that purport to measure basic
math’s ability where high correlations would be evidence of convergent
validity.

b) Divergent validity: it searches further instrument that measures the

opposite of the construct. It refers to ability to differentiate the construct
from other that may be similar. If the divergent measures are negatively
related to other measures, validity of the measure is strengthened.
Other type:
a) External validity
Refers to the extent to which the results of the study can be generalized to
the larger population. It has to do with possible bias in the process of generalizing
conclusions from a sample to a population, to other subject populations, to other
settings, &/or to other time periods.
b) Internal validity
Refers to the likelihood that experimental manipulation indeed was
responsible for the differences observed
Interpretation of validity:
Like reliability, validity is not an all- or- nothing characteristic of an
instrument. An instrument does not posses or lack validity; it is a question of
degree. Instrument validity is not proved, established, or verified but rather is
supported to a greater or lesser extent by evidence.
Strictly speaking, researchers do not validate an instrument but rater an
application of it. A measure of anxiety may be valid for pre surgical patient on the
day of an operation but do not valid for nursing student on the day of test. Of,
course some instrument may be valid for wide range of uses with different type of
sample. But each use requires new supporting evidence. The more evidence that
can be gathered that an instrument is measuring what it is supposed to be
measuring; the more confidence researcher will have in its validity.

Conclusion:
Validity refers to “whether a measurement instrument accurately measures
what it is supposed to measure”. When an instrument is valid, it truly reflects the
concept, it is supposed to measure. Reliability and validity are not independent
qualities of an instrument. A measuring device that is unreliable cannot possibly
valid. An instrument cannot validity measures an attribute if it is in consistent and
inaccurate.

Bibliography:
- Nancy burns, Susan K grove. Understanding nursing research. 2nd edition.
Harcourt private limited. 2007.
- Polit F Denise, Dernadette P Hungler. Research principles and methods. 6th
edition. Lippincot publisher. 1999.
- Basavanthappa BT. nursing research. 1st edition. Jaypee brothers medical
publishers P ltd. 2005.
 NITTE USHA INSTITUTE OF NURSING
SCIENCES

BIOSTATISTIC

PRESENTATION TOPIC:

“VALIDITY”

SUBMITTED TO:
MRS. VANDANA
LECTURER
NUINS
SUBMITTED TO:
MS. SUCHITHRA B.S
1ST YEAR M.Sc NURSING
NUINS