reliability and validity of psychometric tests

The definition of measurement in the social sciences has a long history. Tucker and Arthur Jensen.ĭefinition of measurement in the social sciences Thurstone, Georg Rasch, Johnson O'Connor, Frederic M. Proponents of psychometric techniques can reply, though, that their critics often misuse data by not applying psychometric criteria, and also that various quantitative phenomena in the physical sciences, such as heat and forces, cannot be observed directly but must be inferred from their manifestations.įigures who made significant contributions to psychometrics include Karl Pearson, L. 'For example, an employer wanting someone for a role requiring consistent attention to repetitive detail will probably not want to give that job to someone who is very creative and gets bored easily.' As with psychometric personality tests used in employment procedures, Critics, including practitioners in the physical sciences and social activists, have argued that such definition and quantification is impossibly difficult, and that such measurements are often misused. Measurement of these unobservable phenomena is difficult, and much of the research and accumulated art in this discipline has been developed in an attempt to properly define and quantify such phenomena. More recently, psychometric theory has been applied in the measurement of personality, attitudes and beliefs, academic achievement, and in health-related fields. In addition, Spearman and Thurstone both made important contributions to the theory and application of factor analysis, a statistical method that has been developed and used extensively in psychometrics. Thurstone later developed and applied a theoretical approach to the measurement referred to as the law of comparative judgment, an approach which has close connections to the psychophysical theory developed by Ernst Heinrich Weber and Gustav Fechner.

Charles Spearman, a pioneer in psychometrics who developed approaches to the measurement of intelligence, studied under Wilhelm Wundt and was trained in psychophysics.

However, the origin of psychometrics also has connections to the related field of psychophysics. Francis Galton is often referred to as the father of psychometrics, having devised and used mental tests. Much of the early theoretical and applied work in psychometrics was undertaken in an attempt to measure intelligence.

2 Definition of measurement in the social sciences.

Reliability and validity of psychometric tests