Concurrent Validity

What is Concurrent Validity?

Lead consultant at Test Partnership, Ben Schwencke, explains concurrent validity.

In psychometric testing, concurrent validity is a form of construct validity, which involves highlighting that scores on assessments are positively associated with scores on different assessments that measure the same psychological construct. The objective of concurrent validation is to show that a specific assessment does indeed measure the intended psychological construct and expresses this by showing a positive association with another, pre-validated assessment which is also measure that same psychological construct.

For example, if candidates that score highly on a numerical reasoning test also score highly on other numerical reasoning tests, this is evidence of concurrent validity, suggesting these assessments measure the same psychological construct. However, if the assessment shows no association with the other numerical reasoning tests (but you expected them to), this suggests the original assessment lacks concurrent validity, and is thus unlikely to measure numerical reasoning. Concurrent validation is an essential element of psychometric test development, and a significant proportion of any research and development process will involve concurrent validation.