Clinical Psychology Vocabulary Practice Test

Discriminant (divergent) validity is about showing that a measure is distinct from constructs it should not be related to. The key idea is that the instrument should have low correlations with dissimilar or unrelated constructs, demonstrating that it isn’t just tapping into something else by accident. This stands in contrast to convergent validity, where a measure should correlate highly with related constructs, showing it aligns with what it’s meant to capture. If a measure correlated highly with a dissimilar construct, it would suggest lack of specificity and potential contamination of what’s being measured. Predictive validity is a separate form of evidence, focused on how well the measure predicts future or outcomes, not on whether it distinguishes between different constructs.