The need for an evolving concept of validity in industrial and personnel psychology: Psychometric, legal, and emerging issues

The Trinitarian view of validity (namely content, criterion-related, and co nstruct) has dominated psychology for almost a half century. In industrial and personnel psychology especially, content and criterion-related (in part icular) forms of validity have served as workhorses. Such a limited focus h as lead to a stagnation of the area and the inability to incorporate more t heory into the research and practice of personnel psychology. Therefore, we review the evolution of the concept of validity in the psychology discipli ne, with a particular emphasis on industrial and personnel psychology. We t hen review the legal and statutory history within industrial and personnel psychology that has helped to shape the concept of validity over the years. Finally, we examine some emerging trends in industrial and personnel psych ology, including the issue of graduate training, which may have important c onsequences on how we conceptualize validity in the future in both our rese arch and practice of personnel psychology.