Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T16:37:54.580Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Implications of Convergent and Discriminant Validity Data for Instrument Validation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Merton S. Krause
Merton S. Krause*
Affiliation:
Institute for Juvenile Research, Chicago
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It seems intuitively compelling to many investigators that measurements, on the same subjects by different methods, purportedly of the same given trait are somehow better evidenced to be mutually valid measurements of that trait to the degree that they are intercorrelated. It is similarly compelling that measurements on the same subjects of purportedly different and uncorrelated traits are somehow better evidenced to be valid measurements to the degree that they are not intercorrelated. Further, a demonstration of hetero-method mono-trait intercorrelation (convergence) jointly with one of hetero-method, or preferably mono-method, hetero-trait independence (discrimination) is more compelling than either single demonstration alone [see Campbell & Fiske, 1959]. I hope to show in what follows that this intuition is misleading unless certain rather demanding prerequisites are satisfied. Then I hope to show that contrary demonstrations are generally too indecisive to consitute validity disconfirmations. Finally, I shall consider some issues in the practical use of the indecisive multitrait-multimethod data.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , June 1972 , pp. 179 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 The Psychometric Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Midwestern Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology meetings of May 1969 in Chicago. Some explication of the concept of measuring instrument has also been presented elsewhere [Krause, 1969].

†

A factor vector defined by these m sets of measurements is properly interpretable as a best estimate of i only insofar as the pij projections on it are maximized. The centroid or principal component of the m vectors m appropriate if all their pij are taken to be equal, perhaps on some sort of indifference principle.

References

Althauser, R. P., & Heberlein, T. A. Validity and the multitrait-multimethod matrix. In Borgotta, E. F. & Bohrnstedt, C. W. (Eds.), Sociological methodology 1970. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1970, 151–169Google Scholar
Boruch, R. F. Extensions of a multitrait-multimethod model to experimental psychology. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1970, 5, 351–368CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boruch, R. F., & Wolins, L. A. A procedure for estimation of trait, method, and error variance attributable to a measure. Educational & Psychological Measurement, 1970, 30, 547–574CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, D. T., & Fiske, D. W. Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 1959, 56, 81–105CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, D. T., & O'Connell, E. J. Method factors in multitrait-multimethod matrices: multiplicative rather than additive?. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1967, 2, 409–426CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hicks, J. M. Comparative validation of attitude measures by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Educational & Psychological Measurement, 1967, 27, 985–995CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, L. G. Note on the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 1960, 57, 86–88CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, D. N. Multimethod factor analysis in the evaluation of convergent and discriminant validity. Psychological Bulletin, 1969, 72, 30–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krause, M. S. Note on the effects of failures of assumption on the correction for attenuation. Psychological Reports, 1960, 7, 323–324CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krause, M. S. Disconfirmative results and prior commitments. Philosophy of Science, 1964, 31, 237–240CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krause, M. S. The logic of theory-testing with construct validated measures. Journal of General Psychology, 1967, 77, 101–109CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krause, M. S. The construct validity of measuring instruments. Journal of General Psychology, 1967, 77, 277–284CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krause, M. S. The theory of measurement reliability. Journal of General Psychology, 1969, 80, 267–278CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krause, M. S. Corroborative results and subsequent research commitments. Journal of General Psychology, 1971, 84, 219–227CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krause, M. S., & Vaitkus, A. Codimensionality without high correlation. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 1970, 5, 125–132CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed