Construct irrelevance, as the name might suggest, refers to measuring phenomena that are not included in the definition of the construct. This is generally considered to be one of the two biggest threats to the validity of an assessment, along with construct underrepresentation. Although construct underrepresentation involves an assessment not adequately measuring all aspects of the construct of interest, construct irrelevance (sometimes referred to as construct irrelevant variance) occurs when an assessment is measuring more than just the construct of interest. This entry examines how construct irrelevance occurs and its implications and then provides illustrative examples of construct irrelevance.

Construct Irrelevance in Practice

The underlying assumption of all assessments is that the score that is produced reflects a test taker’s ability on the construct of interest. ...

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