Final answer:
Sonya is assessing concurrent validity by demonstrating that her new social anxiety measure correlates with an established measure. Validity indicates how accurately a measure represents what it's designed to measure, and is different from reliability, which refers to consistency.
Step-by-step explanation:
Sonya is developing a new measure of social anxiety and demonstrates its validity by showing its relationship to a well-established measure of social anxiety. In this context, Sonya is assessing concurrent validity, which is a type of validity that is established by comparing the new measure with an already validated one. When the new measure produces results similar to the established measure, concurrent validity is indicated, supporting the accuracy of the new measure in gauging social anxiety.
It's important to note that a measurement can be reliable without being valid. Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure, but validity is concerned with whether the measure accurately represents what it is designed to measure. For example, clinical scales may include validity scales such as the Lie Scale to determine if subjects are presenting themselves in an unrealistically positive manner, which can affect the accuracy of the results.
By demonstrating that her measure correlates with a known assessment, Sonya is not only striving for reliability but also for the validity of her tool, ensuring that it measures social anxiety effectively and accurately. Researchers prioritize tools that are both highly reliable and valid to ensure precision in psychological measurements.