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Resources Additional Reading Construct Validity
This is a classic article on construct validity that has formed the basis for how most researchers conceptualize validity. Of course, Messick's work is constantly interpreted and updated. But the fact remains that he set the parameters within which we currently think in this paper, drawing on the previous work Cronbach and others who we also consider in the book. However, this is a very difficult paper to read. It is one that needs reading and re-reading a number of times over many years. Most people find that they get something new from it each time they go back to it. It begins with probably the most quoted sentence in language testing and educational measurement: "Validity is an integrated evaluative judgment of the degree to which empirical evidence and theoretical rationales support the adequacy and appropriateness of inferences and actions based on test scores or other modes of assessment" (Italics in the original). Messick goes on to expound the unified concept of validity, explaining how this relates to social and educational issues, consequences for test takers and stakeholders, and placing the entire discussion within a deep understanding of philosophy and epistemology. Time spent on this article is never wasted.
As you will have learned from our book and its references, there is a significant overlap between the discipline of language testing and psychology. Our selection of a paper by Cronbach and Meehl for study in Unit B1 did not happen by chance; not is it surprising that the Guidelines we frequently refer to in our book are called the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. We think that it is very important for students of language testing to understand some of the principles of psychological testing, and this is an excellent starting point. Cronbach coined the term 'construct validity', even though he originally conceived it as an approach to investigating score meaning in situations where no criterion was available. This book is a general introduction to psychological testing. It introduces terminology and concepts, processes and practices, and exemplifies them with reference to specific texts. Although produced in 1984, the text is startlingly modern in its breadth and depth. Take this brief quotation from page 155: "The person investigating a test concentrates on refuting the counter-hypotheses a critic could make plausible. The job of validation is not to support an interpretation, but to find out what might be wrong with it. A proposition deserves some degree of trust only after it has survived serious challenge." As we have shown in the book, this would be understood perfectly by John Stuart Mill on the one hand, and could have come out of a paper by Kane (see Unit B10). You can read more of Cronbach's groundbreaking work in psychology and assessment here:
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