Define construct validity and substantive validity.  How can you
conclude a relationship is substantively valid?

Dear chickstix,

Constructive validity is a truth that is inferred from the evidence at
hand. The evidence may not it in itself show the validity, but by
proceeding along careful lines of reasoning we can construct a
statement of validity. The value of such a statement is measured by
the strength of the reasoning as well as the strength of the
underlying evidence. Thus, a constructively valid argument is one that
is persuasively presented.


"A proof is called constructive when the evidence it denotes can be
computed from it. A sentence is constructively valid when it has a
constructive proof."

PRL Project: Robert L. Constable: "Assigning Meaning to Proofs: A
Semantic Basis for Problem Solving Environments"
http://www.nuprl.org/documents/Constable/AssigningMeaningToProofs.html


Substantive validity is not a measure of truth but a measure of
importance, of substance. A substantively valid argument is one whose
conclusions are of great value to society or to a field of research.
In principle, substantive validity is independent from constructive
validity, although of course an important result should be
persuasively argued in order to reach the greatest possible number of
people.


"[W]e take up the fourth claim of substantive validity: that the
results are of substantive significance. The claim here is that we
want to know these results for reasons beyond the sheer accumulation
of curious facts. In other words, researchers would like to claim that
the results make some important difference to the way we view (or act
within) the social world."

University of Minnesota: Stephen Chilton: "Definitional Validity: The
Concept and a Case Study"
http://www.d.umn.edu/~schilton/Articles/Def_vali.html


There is no surefire way to establish the substantive validity of a
relationship. The least equivocal method is the test of time. If,
after one finds that a relationship obtains, the finding is taken up
by other researchers, commented on, its ramifications pursued, then it
is surely an important, a significant, and therefore a substantively
valid relationship. Then again, a relationship certainly has
substantive validity if it answers an open problem of considerable
importance. If, for example, one is able to demonstrate or argue for a
clear relationship between taxation policies and degrees of inflation,
then the result has substantive validity because it addresses one of
the great questions of economic study.


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Regards,

leapinglizard