The relevance of reliability and validity for behavioral assessment

The differences between traditional and behavioral assessment are primarily conceptual, not methodological, and reliability and validity considerations therefore apply to both. Insufficient attention has been given these concepts by behavioral assessors. Classical reliability and validity issues are rephrased in terms of generalizability theory, and six universes of generalization are described. The relevance of each university for traditional and behavioral assessment is suggested, and a prototypical minimal generalizability study for the purveyors of new instruments is outlined.

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