Which method of validity assesses the degree to which questions represent a given construct comprehensively?

Content validity refers specifically to the extent to which the items or questions on a test represent the entire range of the construct being measured. It ensures that the test covers all aspects of the construct adequately. For example, if a test is designed to measure mathematical ability, content validity would assess whether the test includes questions from all relevant areas of mathematics, such as algebra, geometry, and statistics. This comprehensive representation is essential for the test to be considered a valid measure of the construct in question.

Face validity, while also relevant, relates to whether the test appears to measure what it claims to at a superficial level, which is less rigorous than content validity. Criterion validity looks at how well one measure predicts an outcome based on another measure, and construct validity deals with whether a test truly measures the theoretical construct it is intended to assess, often through relationships with other established measures. However, none of these other forms of validity specifically focus on the comprehensive representation of the construct by the test items as directly as content validity does.