The Concept of Validity and the Process of Validation

Abstract

This chapter sets the stage by focusing on the concept of validity, documenting key changes over time in how the term is used and examining the specific ways in which the concept is instantiated in the domain of personnel selection. It then moves from conceptual to operational and discusses issues in the use of various strategies to establish what is termed the predictive inference, namely, that scores on the predictor measure of interest can be used to draw inferences about an individual’s future job behavior or other criterion of interest. Finally, the chapter addresses a number of specialized issues aimed at illustrating some of the complexities and nuances of validation.