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Face Validity
Face validity is a test of internal validity. As the name implies, it asks a very simple question: “On the face of things, do the investigators reach the correct conclusions?” It requires investigators to step outside of their current research context and assess their observations from a commonsense perspective. A typical application of face validity occurs when researchers obtain assessments from current or future individuals who will be directly affected by programs premised on their research findings. An example of testing for face validity is the assessment of a proposed new patient tracking system by obtaining observations from local community health care providers who will be responsible for implementing the program and getting feedback on how they think the new program may work in their centers.
What follows is a brief discussion on how face validity fits within the overall context of validity tests. Afterward, documentation of face validity's history is reviewed. Here, early criticisms of face validity are addressed that set the stage for how and why the test returned as a valued assessment. This discussion of face validity concludes with some recent applications of the test.
The Validity of Face Validity
To better understand the value and application of face validity, it is necessary to first set the stage for what validity is. Validity is commonly defined as a question: “To what extent do the research conclusions provide the correct answer?” In testing the validity of research conclusions, one looks at the relationship of the purpose and context of the research project to the research conclusions. Validity is determined by testing (questions of validity) research observations against what is already known in the world, giving the phenomenon that researchers are analyzing the chance to prove them wrong. All tests of validity are context-specific and are not an absolute assessment. Tests of validity are divided into two broad realms: external validity and internal validity. Questions of external validity look at the generalizability of research conclusions. In this case, observations generated in a research project are assessed on their relevance to other, similar situations. Face validity falls within the realm of internal validity assessments. A test of internal validity asks if the researcher draws the correct conclusion based on the available data. These types of assessments look into the nuts-and-bolts of an investigation (for example, looking for sampling error or researcher bias) to see if the research project was legitimate.
History of Face Validity
For all of its simplicity, the test for face validity has had an amazing and dramatic past that, until recently, has re-emerged as a valued and respected test of validity. In its early applications, face validity was used by researchers as a first-step assessment, in concert with other tests, to assess the validity of an analysis. During the 1940s and 1950s, face validity was used by psychologists when they were in the early stages of developing tests for use in selecting industrial and military personnel. It was soon widely used by many different types of researchers in different types of investigations, resulting in confusion on what actually constituted face validity. Quickly, the confusion over the relevance of face validity gave way to its being rejected by researchers in the 1960s, who took to new and more complex tests of validity.
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