DIRECTIONS: READ THE FOLLOWING STUDENT RESPONSE AND RESPOND. CITE REFERENCES USING APA FORMAT.
Discussion: Use or Don't Use
Validity scales are one type of response style measure. Validity scale is "a subscale of a test designed to assist in judgments regarding how honestly the testtaker responded and whether observed response were products of response style, carelessness, deliberate efforts to deceive, or unintentional misunderstanding" (Cohen,Swerdilk, &Sturman, 2013, p. 406). Validity scales help to determine if the test taker took their time to self-reflect and was honest in answering the questions.
However, validity in itself is not determined on the test taker but the test itself. When looking for validity one has to assess if the test measures what it aims to measure in a particular context (Cohen et al., 2013). Validity scales are "not designed to measure validity in a technical, psychometric sense" (Cohen et al., 2013, p, 424). An example of a validity scale is "fake good."
An individual can "fake good" when first meeting a person on a date, skewing their personal information to make them look good. A person can also distort a validity scale if they "fake bad". When an individual "fakes bad," there are still skewing the information for their best interest. For example, an individual faking to be sick so they can get out of work or receive worker's compensation payments. On psychological testing, validity scale attempts to measure the responses that the individual gives.
An individual psychological assessment usually includes a multi-approach to have a better measurement in validity scale. For example, a psychologist may interview the test taker or observe the test taker in the proper setting. In addition, "reviewing educational, health, psychological, and other relevant records; and integrating these findings with other information that may be provided by third parties" by help in the measuring accuracy in the test taker's responses to the psychological testing (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 2014, p. 151-152).
For a professional to make valid inferences about a test taker they should learn about the client's history and test multiple times. Additionally, professionals need to be careful when measuring the psychological test when given to a test taker because if they use incomplete literature they can have incorrect inferences and this can cause inaccurate validity scale scores. This is why it is important that psychological testing is done by someone who is competent, is educated in the testing they are providing with proper training, and has obtained the appropriate credentials (AERA, 2014).
When reading Chapter 10, "Psychological Testing and Assessment," from our textbook Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, I did not find in the text any explicit mention of validity scales nor any direct citation of validity scales. However, in Cohen et al., (2013) it states that "validity scale in a personality test is definitely an issue that must be dealt with" (p. 416). This comment led me to believe that for AERA standards there are no standards to permit, reject, or provide guidance on integrating validity scales in a report.
An advantage of using validity scales is that they "can provide a kind of shorthand indication of how honestly, diligently, and carefully a test taker responded to test items" (Cohen et al., 2013, p. 406). Another advantage of validity scales is that many tests contain more than the basic scales.
For example, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) contains 16 basic scales in addition to 6 supplementary scales, 15 content scales, 28 Harris-Lingoes scales, and 3 Social Introversion scales "in order to make percentile scores comparable across scales" (Cohen et al., 2013, p 434).
On the other hand, there are disadvantages of using validity scales. Validity scales on psychological testing, should have a person who is trained and educated in administering tests. Another disadvantage is that the test taker can lie, not fully understand the questions and/or not take the test seriously. For this reason, assessments like personality tests should have some validity scales in place to detect inconsistency.