Causal validity

[OliverSchultheiss]

Hi,

first of all thanks for writing this wonderful, up-to-date and very accessible textbook and making it available for free! This is a tremendous service to all of the behavioral sciences, and I will be sure to use it in my teaching in the future.

When I read chapter 2 on experimental design and particularly the section on validity, I could not help but miss one crucial concept, which I would term causal validity and which was defined by Borsboom, Mellenbergh & van Heerden (2004, Psychological Review) roughly as follows: A measure of an attribute is valid if and only if (a) the attribute exists and (b) manipulations of the attribute lead to corresponding changes in the measure. Think heat and the thermometer here. This is a natural-science definition of validity and was in fact already used more than 50 years earlier in McClelland and colleagues' derivation of motive measures (see, for instance, McClelland, 1958, 1987, chapter 6). Borsboom et al (2009) later argued that construct validity is no longer a tenable concept (e.g., because it tends to fluctuate over time, such as in the case of the phlogiston concept). While it may not be prudent to purge all textbooks of the concept of construct validity (yet), I think your text would benefit tremendously from incorporating Borsboom et al's (2004) definition of validity and contrasting it with construct validity.

Best wishes, Oliver

references: Borsboom, D., Cramer, A. O. J., Kievit, R. A., Zand Scholten, A., & Franic, S. (2009). The end of construct validity. In R. W. Lissitz (Ed.), The concept of validity: Revisions, new directions, and applications (pp. 135-170). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Borsboom, D., Mellenbergh, G. J., & van Heerden, J. (2004). The concept of validity. Psychological Review, 111(4), 1061-1071. doi: 2004-19012-010 [pii] 10.1037/0033-295X.111.4.1061 McClelland, D. C. (1958). Methods of measuring human motivation. In J. W. Atkinson (Ed.), Motives in fantasy, action, and society: A method of assessment and study (pp. 7-42). Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand. McClelland, D. C. (1987). Human motivation. New York: Cambridge University Press.

[tomfaulkenberry]

Thanks for your comment Oliver, and I appreciate the kind words. I will be updating the text at the end of my current teaching term (around December), so I will be happy to include this in the update.

I'll keep this issue open until the revision is done.

Thanks! Tom

[OliverSchultheiss]

Hi Tom,

thank you so much for your responsiveness. I look forward to the next revision of the textbook!

Best wishes, oliver

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Oliver C. Schultheiss, Dr. phil. Professor of Psychology Chair for Experimental Psychology, Motivation, and Affective Neuroscience Institute of Psychology Friedrich-Alexander University Nägelsbachstr. 49 b 91052 Erlangen Germany Email: Oliver.Schultheiss@fau.demailto:Oliver.Schultheiss@psy.phil.uni-erlangen.de Phone: +49 9131 85-20880 Secretary: +49 9131 85-20879 URL: http://www.psych2.phil.uni-erlangen.de/~oschult/humanlab/index.htm

Dyslexics of the World Untie!

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Von: Thomas J. Faulkenberry notifications@github.com Gesendet: Mittwoch, 16. Oktober 2019 22:52 An: tomfaulkenberry/JASPbook JASPbook@noreply.github.com Cc: Schultheiss, Oliver oliver.schultheiss@fau.de; Author author@noreply.github.com Betreff: Re: [tomfaulkenberry/JASPbook] Causal validity (#1)

Thanks for your comment Oliver, and I appreciate the kind words. I will be updating the text at the end of my current teaching term (around December), so I will be happy to include this in the update.

I'll keep this issue open until the revision is done.

Thanks! Tom

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