What is the property of a measure that indicates it measures what it intends to measure?

• A. Validity.
• B. Reliability.
• C. Sensitivity.
• D. Specificity.

Answer: (A)

Validity is about whether a measure truly captures what it is intended to measure. It asks if the scores and the conclusions drawn from them reflect the actual concept or trait being studied. There are different ways to think about validity, such as content validity (the measure covers all aspects of the concept), construct validity (the measures relate as expected to other related constructs), and criterion validity (the measure predicts relevant outcomes).

Reliability, on the other hand, is about consistency—giving similar results under consistent conditions. A test can be reliable but not valid if it consistently measures something other than the intended concept. Sensitivity and specificity describe how well a diagnostic test detects a condition and rules out non-cases; they relate to diagnostic performance rather than the broader accuracy of the measurement for its intended purpose. So the property described is validity.