Which term refers to how well a study measures what it was designed to measure?

• A. Validity
• B. Reliability
• C. Secondary Data Analysis
• D. Population

Answer: (A)

Validity is about the accuracy of measurement: does the instrument actually capture the concept it was designed to measure and yield truthful conclusions about that concept? If a survey aims to assess political ideology but the questions end up tapping general political interest rather than ideology, the study isn’t valid because it isn’t measuring what it intends to measure. There are different forms to consider, such as content validity (the measure covers all parts of the concept), construct validity (the measure behaves as theory predicts with related variables), and criterion validity (the measure aligns with an external standard). Reliability is about consistency—getting similar results across items, occasions, or raters—so a measure can be reliable yet not valid if it’s consistently measuring the wrong thing. The other options describe methods or the group being studied, not the accuracy of the measurement itself. So the best term for how well a study measures what it was designed to measure is validity.