Measurement Validity is Fundamentally a Matter of Definition, Not Correlation

Abstract

Correlations between sets of measurements produced by several measures can be determinative of the validity of these measures only insofar as theories about how these measurements relate in correlation and regression terms are already known to be true. However, scientific theories can only be known to be true insofar as they have already been demonstrated to be true by valid measurements. Therefore, only the nature of a measure that produces the measurements for representing a dimension can justify claims that these measurements are valid for that dimension, and this is ultimately exclusively a matter of the normative definition of that dimension in the science that involves that dimension. Thus, contrary to the presently prevailing theory of construct validity, a measure's measurements themselves logically cannot at all indicate their own validity or invalidity by how they relate to other measures' measurements unless these latter are already known to be valid and the theories represented by all these several measures' measurements are already known to be true. It is only the conformity of a measure to the normative conceptual analysis and so definition of a dimension that can make the measurements it produces valid measurements on that dimension. This makes it essential for each basic science to achieve normative conceptual analyses and definitions for each of the dimensions in terms of which it describes and causally explains its phenomena.