You conduct a study in which you correlate the scores of a newly developed measure of job satisfaction with scores on an existing well-validated measure of job satisfaction. You find that scores on the two measures correlate r = .73 for men and r = -.03 for women. The OUTCOME of this study is an example of
A) discriminant validity
B) differential validity
C) structural validity
D) convergent validity

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fact that the correlation is strong for men but weak (and in the opposite direction) for women suggests that there may be differential validity of the newly developed measure for the two genders. In other words, the new measure may not be a good indicator of job satisfaction for women. This could be due to a variety of factors, such as differences in the types of questions asked, the language used in the questions, or differences in the way men and women perceive and express job satisfaction. Discriminant validity would suggest that the new measure is measuring something different from the existing measure, but that is not what the data suggest. Structural validity refers to whether the new measure is measuring what it is intended to measure, and this issue is not addressed by the correlation coefficients provided. Convergent validity would require other measures of job satisfaction to be included in the analysis, which is not indicated in the prompt. Therefore, differential validity is the best explanation for these results.

You Conduct a Study in Which You Correlate the Scores