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Cognitive Study
| Published: March 18, 2019
Measurement in Psychology: Assumptions, Ideology and Alternatives
(Ph.D) Assistant Professor, University Department of Applied Psychology, University of Mumbai, India Google Scholar More about the auther
Research Scholar, University Department of Applied Psychology, University of Mumbai, India Google Scholar More about the auther
DIP: 18.01.096/20190701
DOI: 10.25215/0701.096
ABSTRACT
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.
Keywords
Measurement, Assumptions, Scientificity, Psychometrics, Psychological Attributes, Personality Assessment
This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© 2019, U L Bharte, N A Sarang
Received: February 02, 2019; Revision Received: March 12, 2019; Accepted: March 18, 2019
Article Overview
ISSN 2348-5396
ISSN 2349-3429
18.01.096/20190701
10.25215/0701.096
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Published in Volume 07, Issue 1, January-March, 2019