Problem
Professor Sullivan is a developmental psychologist who is building a new test to measure children's motor coordination. She decided to give the children ice cream cones with two scoops as a method of measuring coordination. Her motor coordination indicator is the elapsed time between when the ice cream cone is placed in the child's hand and when the ice cream falls to the floor. Standardizing her test, she is alarmed to discover that the children in the Northern Ontario samples are much less coordinated than all of the children in the Southern Ontario sample.
i. Psychologist Sullivan, who lives in Toronto, argues in favor of the construct validity of the test, while her colleague from Laurentian University in Sudbury opposes the validity of the test. Choose one of the positions and present the argument for (or against) the construct validity of the test.
ii. Explain how Professor Sullivan failed to consider the concept of validity when constructing this motor coordination test?
iii. How could Professor Sullivan increase the validity of her test?