Validating Psychological Constructs

This book critically examines the historical and philosophical foundations of construct validity theory (CVT), and how these have and continue to inform and constrain the conceptualization of validity and its application in research. CVT has had an immense impact on how researchers in the behavioural sciences conceptualize and approach their subject matter. Yet, there is equivocation regarding the foundations of the CVT framework as well as ambiguities concerning the nature of the “constructs” that are its raison d’etre. The book is organized in terms of three major parts that speak, respectively, to the historical, philosophical, and pragmatic dimensions of CVT. The primary objective is to provide researchers and students with a critical lens through which a deeper understanding may be gained of both the utility and limitations of CVT and the validation practices to which it has given rise. 

“Slaney’s Validation Psychological Constructs is an impressive and long-overdue monograph on a central and implicit aspect of psychology’s methodological metaphysics. … This book is well worth the price and portions of it could easily be used for upper-year undergraduate and graduate classes, as well as lab readings for stimulating some overdue reflections.” (Ian James Davidson, Psychometrika, Vol. 83, 2018)“The author does a great job of developing the historical, philosophical, and practical aspects of Construct Validity Theory. This book will give the reader a more substantial basis for understanding the importance of psychological testing and how to better use these important tools. The text is written at a level that would be accessible to professionals, graduate students, and even advanced undergraduates. I would certainly use this book as supplemental reading to my course in psychological assessment.” (Karl N. Kelley, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 62 (51), December, 2017)​

Kathleen Slaney is Associate Professor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University, Canada. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and a co-editor of A Wittgensteinian Perspective on the Use of Conceptual Analysis in Psychology (2013) and The Wiley Handbook of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (2015).