The argument-based approach to validity: theory, assumptions, evidence, and consequences
Melanie Hawkins, Richard Sawatzky, Kevin Weinfurt, Sharla Cartner, Scott Gill, Richard Osborne, Nancy Mayo, Kara Schick-Makaroff, Mirjam Sprangers, R J Wirth, Gerald R Elsworth, Sandra Nolte · 2026
Read The argument-based approach to validity: theory, assumptions, evidence, and consequences by Melanie Hawkins, Richard Sawatzky, Kevin Weinfurt, Sharla Cartner, Scott Gill, Richard Osborne, Nancy Mayo, Kara Schick-Makaroff, Mirjam Sprangers, R J Wirth, Gerald R Elsworth, Sandra Nolte (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13242494.txt.
Description
Melanie Hawkins, Richard Sawatzky, and Kevin Weinfurt set out the theory behind the argument-based approach to validity in health measurement. Their paper appeared in Quality of Life Research in 2026. People often call a questionnaire a valid measure, but the authors stress that validity belongs to an interpretation of scores in a setting, not to the tool itself. The paper pursues two aims: explaining the theory and examining its assumptions about fairness.
The approach starts by stating plainly how scores will be read and used. Assumptions under that statement then direct what evidence to gather and how to judge it. The authors give special weight to equitable consequences, since the same questionnaire can behave differently across groups and settings. A validity argument, in their account, weighs threats and side effects openly. The paper is a reference for anyone defending a measurement choice.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Melanie Hawkins, Richard Sawatzky, Kevin Weinfurt, Sharla Cartner, Scott Gill, Richard Osborne, Nancy Mayo, Kara Schick-Makaroff, Mirjam Sprangers, R J Wirth, Gerald R Elsworth, Sandra Nolte |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 53 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |