On the Validity of Relative Validity Studies of "Final-Say" Measures of Marital Power

The self-report final-say decision measure of marital power has been declared invalid on the basis of low levels of interrelationships between this and other measures of marital power. However, there are alternative explanations for the poor performance of this measure to which little attention has been given previously: improper analytical procedures and computational errors. Data from 51 pairs of parents are used to show the results of miscalculations and inadequate procedures (similar to those encountered in previous marital power validity research) on the assessment of the relative validity of thefinal-say measure. In addition, these data are used to demonstrate that, even when analytical procedures are carefully selected, external criterion variables must be used if the meaning of interrelationships among measures is to be correctly interpreted.