Which type of validity is demonstrated when measuring hope and anxiety with negatively related scores?

Divergent validity is a type of construct validity that occurs when two measures that are theoretically expected to be unrelated are actually found to be different from each other. In the context of measuring hope and anxiety, which are expected to be negatively related, demonstrating divergent validity means that as hope increases, anxiety decreases, reflecting that these constructs do not correlate highly with each other. This support for the concept of divergent validity helps to establish that the measures capture distinct concepts, reinforcing the idea that hope and anxiety are indeed different constructs despite being negatively related.

The other concepts of validity focus on different relationships or characteristics. Face validity assesses whether a test appears to measure what it claims to measure, which does not pertain to the relationship between constructs. Concurrent validity compares a new measure with an existing measure at the same time, which is not the focus here. Predictive validity refers to how well a test predicts outcomes in the future, which also does not apply to the relationship in question. Understanding divergent validity is essential in distinguishing between constructs to ensure that measures used in research accurately reflect theoretical differences.