The Chronic Crisis in Psychological Measurement and Assessment

The Chronic Crisis in Psychological Measurement and Assessment: A Historical Survey provides a historical survey of relevant concepts in psychological measurement and assessment. It does not delve into intimate details and complexities, but traces measurement and assessment controversies over time and across psychological domains. The main goal has been to approach the problems of measurement and assessment from the perspective of psychological theory. The book begins with an overview, a broad picture of how psychological measurement and assessment have evolved. Separate chapters present descriptions and interpretations of measurement issues that have been important over the lifespan of psychological science. Traditional approaches along with newer concepts and procedures are are discussed, along with an attempt to integrate the major themes that emerge from the historical survey with the ultimate purpose of reviewing and proposing new directions. This book is offered as a complement to existing texts in psychological measurement and assessment.

1 History

The Seeds of Conflict

The Desire to Be Scientific

The Desire to Be Relevant

Consequences of the Success of Psychological Measurement

Prediction over Explanation

Handling Error

Loss of Experimental Methods

The Gain of Traits and Loss of Situations

Loss of Precision

Consequences of the Problems of Psychological Measurement

Scientific Crises

The Neglect of Measurement

The Wisdom and Tyranny of Tradition

Measurement and Theoretical Advances

Summary and Implications

2 Consistency of Measurement Across and within Individuals

Consistency of Measurement across Individuals

Large Samples and Individual Differences Equals Nomothetic Measurement

Consistency of Measurement within Individuals

A Brief History of Traits

Systematic Measurement Errors: Sources of Inconsistency

Human Judgment Ratings

Response Strategies

Factors Related to Strategy Selection

Cognitive Influences

Motivational and Affective Influences

Behavioral Influences

Examples of Generative Response Strategies

Error Simulations

Consistency within Human Response Modes: Desynchrony of Behavior, Affect, and Cognition

History

Evidence for Mode Inconsistency

Causes

Psychological Interventions

Summary and Implications

3 Consistency across Raters and Rating Procedures

Inconsistencies across Raters

Employment Interviews

Clinical Interviews

Rater Errors

Halo Errors

Leniency and Criticalness Errors

Range Restriction Errors

Improving Interviews and Raters

Whose Rating is Most Valid?

Inconsistency across Rating Procedures

Statistical versus Clinical Prediction

Clinical Observation of Test Behavior

Scientist as Observer

Summary and Implications

4 Consistency within and across Situations: Trait versus Environment

History

The Controversy of Mischel and Peterson

Reinforcing the Trait Argument

The Rejection of Traits: Behavioral Assessment

Person-Environment Interactions

Aptitude-by-Treatment Interactions (ATIs)

Environmental Assessment

Moderators of Cross-Situational Consistency

States and Traits

Process Research

Summary and Implications

5 Consistency across Constructs: Lack of Discriminant Validity

History

Types of Validity

Constructs, Theories, and Valid Measurement

Multitrait-Multimethod Matrices

Campbell and Fiske

Criteria for Construct Validity

Ubiquitous Method Variance

Inconsistency across Constructs

A Multitrait-Multimethod Example

Problems with Construct Validation

Summary and Implications

6 Promising Approaches

Traditional Approaches

Measurement of Personality and Temperament

Act-Frequency Analysis

The Big Five

Predicting Occupational Criteria

Clinical Measures

Cognitive Abilities and g

Neuropsychological Testing

Aggregation

Summary

Statistically Oriented Approaches

Item Response Theory (IRT)

Generalizability Theory (GT)

Does Measurement Equal Statistics?

Do the Measurement Properties of Objects Affect the Type of Statistical Procedure Employed?

Summary

Cognitive Approaches

Task Decomposition

Protocol Analysis

Item Characteristics

Constructivist Assessments

Summary

Behavioral Approaches

Assessment in Mental Health Institutions

Behavioral Physics

Simulations, Structured Assessments, and Work Assessment Centers

Summary

Computer-Based Approaches

Response Latency

Human Speech

Simulations

Summary

Summary and Implications

7 Integration

The Implications of Measurement History

Constructing Tests

Measurement for Selection

Measurement for Explanatory Theory Building

Measurement for Intervention

Administering Tests

Selection

Theory Building

Intervention

Scoring Tests

Selection

Theory Building

Intervention

Interpreting Tests

Selection

Theory Building

Intervention

Summary and Implications

8 Conclusions and Speculations

Appendix

References

Author Index

Subject Index