A critique of validity analysis from instruments assessing the affective domain

Schools and colleges of pharmacy need to show evidence that their students have internalized professional values, and many choose to do so through quantitative instruments. A review of the literature was completed to identify the evidence of validity of the scores from instruments designed to assess pharmacy students in the affective domain.

Electronic databases were searched to identify instruments. Basic information regarding the instruments, the facets of validity assessed, and the evidence for validity were reviewed.

Of the studies identified, 25 focused on assessing the affective domain and reported evidence of at least one facet of validity. Most reported evidence of validity from two or more sources, and most reported evidence concerning test content and internal structure (i.e. internal consistency reliability or factor analysis). Other sources of validity were missing from most studies.

More research is needed to investigate the validity of the scores of instruments developed to assess pharmacy students within the affective domain, especially regarding relations to other variables, response processes, and consequences of use.