Kevin McDaniel (WindRiver Strategies): Emergenetics’ Validity
The validity of a test refers to how well a test measures what it is supposed to measure. Validity is measured in multiple ways to ensure that your Emergenetics responses are accurate, indicative and sound. This multiple measure of validity is another reason that Emergenetics stands out in the field of personality testing.
Participants who take the Emergenetics Profile almost universally agree the test accurately measures four Thinking Attributes and the three Behavioral Attributes.
The several different types of validity include:
Face Validity Face validity refers to whether a test-taker perceives the test to be credible. If thinking styles and behaviors were to be measured, for example, asking questions about bank deposits or religious affiliations would seriously threaten face validity. Irrelevant questions may stimulate respondents to question the validity of the entire test and thereby produce unreliable answers. Questions on the Emergenetics Profile were specifically written to be relevant to everyday events and behaviors.
Content Validity Content validity refers to the adequacy of the Emergenetics Profile to measure the behavior it is supposed to measure. A typing test, for example, has a clear relationship between what the test measures and a specific skill; i.e. the test is “content valid”. Content validity is more difficult to obtain for a general communication instrument. It must rely on personal feedback from people who agree or disagree that the test describes common thinking or behavioral attributes and on the face validity of its
questions.
Criterion Validity Criterion validity is a measure correlating a person’s score with performance in some other area. Using our earlier example, if a high score on the typing test could be later seen as high performance, the typing test could be considered criterion valid. Because the Emergenetics Profile was not developed to predict or measure performance in specific jobs, we have not collected general information about criterion validity.
Construct Validity The final form of validity is construct validity. A construct can be described as a deep-seated mental “construction”or characteristic. Construct validity refers to whether Emergenetics measures thinking preferences and three kinds of behaviors. No attempt was made to “peel open” participants’ minds to evaluate intelligence, separate deep-seated emotional affects or clinical or physiological aspects.
Construct validity is often determined using measures similar to those used in determining reliability. That is, the seven Emergenetics factors were statistically examined to see whether they were independent or co-varied with each other.