Technical Report - International Military Testing Association

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of the occupation or job? Xn proportton a6 the level of job perfornanco
(achievemant of job standards) are accurately represented in the test,
the test is valid. The proceso‘of obtaining thio proportfon of job
performance to test contant is aesentfally a rational or judgmental
one. This 8nalyofa 10 aometLmea spoksn of as rationai or 1ogLcal validity.
Since the analyefs fr largely in terms of the content of the test, the
term contenr validity fs sometimes used.
We should not think of content too narrowly, because we arc Fnterestod
in process as much aa fn atipla content. Thuo, in the test of a
mechanic ve are concerned vl:h euch “content” elements a6 forms for
requioftioning materfal8, of what materials rivets or bolts should be
constructed, rules of safety, priwiples of expanrfon and contraction
and remote reading gages. WC &r-e also interested in such “proceoa”
eklllr as troubleohootFng and correcting defects of equipment, the
ability to solve work aerignment problems, the ability to organize a
repair crew for a particular job, and the use of correct procedurea in
solvfng many other specific job proglanr.
Thus, I submit the therlr that the problan of appraising content
validity of a test starts vith the detailed listfng of the standards of
job performance, and includes rucceo~lvaly ranking the content of the
job standards, and canparing thl..a vith the blueprint of the test. After
thFe task Lu completed, the item mu6t be compared vfth the test outline
and thus vith the job rtandardu.
The extent to vhfch the test outline areas (and thus the ‘CL standards)
arc tapreoan: td in the teat 10 a crueLa fndicator of the validity of the
te6t.
Rovaver , ve cannot ignore predictfve and concurrent valfdity. Before
ve consider techniques or methods of obtatning content validity of tests,
it ir noteworthy to conbider the empirical method of valibting te(ltl),
which Thorndike and Wagen (1961) clasrLfy a6 predfctive validity.
As Thorndike and Hagen (1961) state, and I quote them verbatim, I’...
predlctlve validity can be estimated by determining the correlation betvecn
test scores and a euitablc criterion measure of euccesu on the job. The
joker here ia the phraoe ‘suitable criterion maasure’....One of the moat
difficult problems that the pcruonnel psychologist or educator faces is
that of locating or creating a satisfactory mtaaure of job aucceae to
eervc as � criterion mearure for test valLdation....All criterion measures
are only partial fn that they measure only a part of success on the job,
or only prelfminaries to actual job performances . . .an ultLmate criterion
ir fnaccerrfble to us . ..and substitutes (intermediate criteria) are only
partial and are never completely satisfactory . ..The problems of effectiva
ratfng of paro3nnel arc dfscuasc,! in detafl in Chapter 13. It suffices
to indfcate here that ratings are often unstable and are influenced by
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