Measurement in Psychology: Assumptions, Ideology and Alternatives

Efforts at equating measurement with scientificity of a discipline have been made since long in the history of psychology. Alongside the initial pioneering attempts by psychologists, the new science of psychometrics instilled renewed interest in the measurement issues resulting in the growth of modern psychology and thus establishing psychology from mere philosophical speculation to a more structured discipline. Although much progress has been made at quantifying psychological attributes, psychometrics has not remained insulated from criticism. Building on the earlier critiques, this paper contests some of the core assumptions of psychometrics such as (a) psychological attributes are measurable; (b) “measurement is the assignment of numerals to objects and events according to rule (Stevens, 1946, p. 667)”. Further, the ideology behind the promotion and implications of such quantifying endeavours on the part of psychologists to the field of personality assessment are critically assessed.