Which type of validity refers to whether respondents can tell what the items are measuring?

• A. Construct validity
• B. Face validity
• C. Content validity
• D. Criterion validity

Answer: (B)

Face validity is the type of validity that looks at whether the items appear to measure what they are intended to measure, from the perspective of respondents. If people can look at the items and recognize the construct being assessed, the test has strong face validity. This is about surface appearance and intuition, not about how well the test truly measures the construct or predicts outcomes. Constructs like how well a measure aligns with theory are addressed by construct validity, while content validity concerns whether the items fully cover the domain of the construct, and criterion validity concerns predictive or external benchmarks. So the idea that respondents can tell what the items are measuring aligns with face validity.