Back to Glossary
Glossary
Evidence that an assessment correlates strongly with other measures of the same construct.
Convergent validity is evidence that an assessment correlates strongly with other measures of the same construct. A new depression scale shows convergent validity if it correlates highly with the PHQ-9, the Beck Depression Inventory, and clinician ratings of depression.
Convergent validity is one of two complementary pieces of evidence for construct validity — the other being discriminant validity, which shows that the scale does NOT correlate strongly with measures of unrelated constructs. Strong convergent without discriminant is suspicious: a scale might be picking up general distress rather than the specific construct it claims to measure.