Is Psychometrics Pathological Science?
- 29 May 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives
- Vol. 6 (1-2), 7-24
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15366360802035489
Abstract
Pathology of science occurs when the normal processes of scientific investigation break down and a hypothesis is accepted as true within the mainstream of a discipline without a serious attempt being made to test it and without any recognition that this is happening. It is argued that this has happened in psychometrics: The hypothesis upon which it is premised, that psychological attributes are quantitative, is accepted within the mainstream, and not only do psychometricians fail to acknowledge this, but they hardly recognize the existence of this hypothesis at all. It is suggested that certain social interests, identifiable within the history of modern psychology, have produced this situation because of the ideological and economic secondary gains derived from presenting psychology as a quantitative science. The question of whether modern item response models are exempt from this critique is considered, and it is concluded that they have not yet faced up to the challenges of seriously testing the relevant hypothesis or even bothered to recognize its existence.Keywords
This publication has 30 references indexed in Scilit:
- The logic of measurement: A realist overviewMeasurement, 2005
- Riding natural scientists' coattails onto the endless frontier: The SSRC and the quest for scientific legitimacyJournal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 2004
- Stevens's theory of scales of measurement and its place in modern psychologyAustralian Journal of Psychology, 2002
- Sensitivity of preferences and ratings to ordered metric structure in attitudesAustralian Journal of Psychology, 1998
- Quantitative science and the definition of measurement in psychologyBritish Journal of Psychology, 1997
- The Axioms of Quantity and the Theory of Measurement: Translated from Part I of Otto Hölder's German Text “Die Axiome der Quantität und die Lehre vom Mass”Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 1996
- Test TheoryAnnual Review of Psychology, 1967
- Measurement structures and linear inequalitiesJournal of Mathematical Psychology, 1964
- The Logic of the Normal Law of Error in Mental MeasurementPublished by University of Illinois Press ,1920
- I.—WHAT DO WE MEAN BY THE INTENSITY OF PSYCHICAL STATES?Mind, 1895