Define face validity and content validity. Provide an example of how we can develop questions or procedures that would address each type of validity. Then highlight at least one disadvantage and advantage for each type of validity.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Face validity: The type of validity that exists when an inspection of the items used to measure a concept suggests that they are appropriate "on their face." Example-If we want to measure drinking patterns, we may ask a question such as how often a person drinks and how much they drink when they do drink. Rather than asking them directly about their drinking patterns, you ask specific questions per decided and based on the concept of interest. If someone does not report how much they drink adequately, we may not be able to ascertain the full range of drinking patterns, especially among those that use heavily if they are more likely to misreport. An advantage is that at least we can make sure that a measure for a concept is appropriate on the surface, but it is not enough to establish validity.
Content validity: The type of validity that establishes a measure covers the full range of the concept's meaning. For example, if we were interested in substance abuse, we would make sure that all the questions capture the full range of possibilities identified by scholars in the field. An advantage is to make sure that all questions could have response choices that are exhaustive and mutually exclusive. A disadvantage to only using this is that there may be a gap in the literature that experts may not be familiar with, giving us a false sense that our measure is completely valid.