Unlike many other measures of content, the Gottschalk-Gleser Content Analysis scales and the content analysis scales developed independently by either Gottschalk or Gleser or their colleagues have undergone thorough construct validation studies.
Construct validation is a systematic process that requires repeated reexamination and retesting in new situations of the constructs being evaluated.
After initial validation studies were completed on the content analysis measures of anxiety, hostility outward, hostility inward, ambivalent hostility, social alienation-personal disorganization, cognitive impairment, depression, and hope, many additional investigations were done using these verbal behavior measures. These new data have provided further evidence as to how the constructs measured by these verbal behavior procedures relate to other empirical data. Supportive criterion measures for validating the constructs assessed by these content analysis scales have involved not only psychological criteria (for example, expert clinician evaluations of patients, observer rating scales, self-report scales, neuropsychological tests), but also
(See Gottschalk, 1995 for more details.)