Assessing Construct Validity: The Utility of  Factor Analysis

Cheng-Hsiung Lu

Graduate Institute of Curriculum and Instruction

National Hualien University of Education

Abstract
According to validity standards of American Psychological Association in 1954,  four  types  of  validity  were  identified  for  accomplishing  different  aims  of  research,  namely content validity, predictive validity, concurrent validity, and construct validity.  For  the  justification  of  the  construct  validity,  this  study  utilizes  exploratory  factor  analysis  and  confirmatory  factor  analysis  to  examine  factors  of  the  empirical  data.  Through the operation of the empirical data analysis, important results are accordingly  illustrated by the exploratory factor analysis such as factor loading, the rotated simple structure,  the  plot  of  scree  test;  also  by  the  confirmatory  factor  analysis  such  as  specifying a priori factor pattern, and indices for goodness of model fit. Consequently,  the  obtained  solutions  from  the  factor  analysis  procedures  provide  reasonable  justification to construct validity of the researched.


http://gsems.ntcu.edu.tw/center/public-year2-pdf/year15/15_1_5_Assessing_construct_validity(final).pdf