A friend tells you that he learned that a test was valid if it measures what it was designed to measure. Provide an explanation and example of why this isn’t always true.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• When test developers refer to a test as being valid because the test measures what it was designed to measure, test users are likely to assume that a valid test is good for measuring almost anything. However, there may be some unintended results.

• Here is an example. A personnel manager finds a personality test, sees the claim that it is valid, and decides to use it to help select salespeople. The manager reasons that all salespeople need a personality, and more personality should be better than less personality. The personnel manager wants to use the test scores to make an inference about likely future sales performance of job applicants who take the test. However, such an inference or conclusion would be inappropriate because the test developer or publisher cannot provide evidence that the test would be valid for predicting which test takers would be good salespeople.