Marco (Dongil) Jang - Philosophy of Measurement

Philosophy of Measurement

"Remember that a picture, before being a battle horse, a nude, an anecdote, or whatnot, is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order."

― Maurice Denis, New Theories of Modern and Sacred Art (1914)

"Operationalism, as a general methodological doctrine, is motivated by the fear of being mistaken. Its aim is to restrict scientific claims as far as possible, to a mere description of scientific observational practice. It is against speculation. Of course, such a spirit is not scientific. Anyone who fears being mistaken and for this reason seeks a “safe” or “certain” scientific method, should never enter upon any scientific inquiry. To do science is to speculate about how things work and to follow up one’s speculations with observations."

― Joel Michell, The Theory of Measurement in Psychology (2014)

The current syllabus highly relies on the great course of Professor Niels Waller (although I changed the order and added some papers here). I will try to supplement more materials about thought-provoking measurements made in management studies (TBD), to make it more applicable and understandable for management students.

Week 1 Issue

Meehl, P. E. (1990). Why summaries of research on psychological theories are often uninterpretable. Psychological Reports, 66(1), 195-244.

Sutton, R. I., & Staw, B. M. (1995). What Theory is Not. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(3), 371–384.

Muthukrishna, M., & Henrich, J. (2019). A problem in theory. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(3), 221–229.

“The present methodological and statistical solutions to the replication crisis will only help ensure solid stones; they don’t help us build the house.” (Muthukrishna & Henrich, 2019)

Week 2 Invention

Michell, J. (2014). Making the Myth of Mental Measurement. In An introduction to the logic of psychological measurement. Psychology Press.

Narens, L., & Luce, R. D. (1986). Measurement: The theory of numerical assignments. Psychological Bulletin, 99(2), 166–180.

Cliff, N. (1992). Article Commentary: Abstract Measurement Theory and the Revolution that Never Happened. Psychological Science, 3(3), 186–190.

Week 3 Validity

Cronbach, L. J., & Meehl, P. E. (1955). Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52(4), 281–302.

Meehl, P. E. (1990). Appraising and amending theories: The strategy of lakatosian defense and two principles that warrant it. Psychological Inquiry, 1(2), 108–141.

Week 4 Operationalism

Langford, Boring, Bridgman, Feigl, Israel, Pratt, & Skinner. (1945). Symposium on Operationism. Psychological Review.

Maccorquodale, K., & Meehl, P. E. (1948). On a distinction between hypothetical constructs and intervening variables. Psychological Review, 55(2), 95–107.

Michell, J. (1999). Campbell’s theory of fundamental and derived measurement. In Measurement in Psychology: A Critical History of a Methodological Concept. Cambridge University Press.

Week 5 Category

Meehl, P. E. (1992). Factors and taxa, traits and types, differences of degree and differences in kind. Journal of Personality, 60(1), 117–174.

Borsboom, D., Mellenbergh, G. J., & van Heerden, J. (2003). The theoretical status of latent variables. Psychological Review, 110(2), 203–219.

(Thurston scale..)

Week 6 Modern Approaches

Borsboom, D., Cramer, A. O. J., Kievit, R. A., Scholten, A. Z., & Franić, S. (2009). The end of construct validity. In R. W. Lissitz (Ed.), The concept of validity: Revisions, new directions, and applications, (pp (Vol. 263, pp. 135–170). IAP Information Age Publishing, vi.

Fried, E. I. (2020). Lack of theory building and testing impedes progress in the factor and network literature. Psychological Inquiry, 31(4), 271-288.

Week 7 Fairness

Borsboom, D., Romeijn, J.-W., & Wicherts, J. M. (2008). Measurement invariance versus selection invariance: is fair selection possible? Psychological Methods, 13(2), 75–98.

Week 8 TBD

References

Borsboom, D., Mellenbergh, G. J., & van Heerden, J. (2004). The concept of validity. Psychological Review, 111(4), 1061–1071.

Borsboom, D. (2013). Problems in Causation and Validity: Formative Measurement, Networks, and Individual Differences. In Frontiers of Test Validity Theory (pp. 191–213). Routledge.

Borsboom, D., Mellenbergh, G. J., & van Heerden, J. (2003). The theoretical status of latent variables. Psychological Review, 110(2), 203–219.

Borsboom, D., Romeijn, J.-W., & Wicherts, J. M. (2008). Measurement invariance versus selection invariance: is fair selection possible? Psychological Methods, 13(2), 75–98.

Cliff, N. (1992). Article Commentary: Abstract Measurement Theory and the Revolution that Never Happened. Psychological Science, 3(3), 186–190.

Cronbach, L. J., & Meehl, P. E. (1955). Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52(4), 281–302.

Cronbach, L. J., & Gleser, G. C. (1953). Assessing similarity between profiles. Psychological Bulletin, 50(6), 456–473.

Fried, E. I. (2020). Theories and models: What they are, what they are for, and what they are about. Psychological Inquiry, 31(4), 336-344.

Fried, E. I. (2020). Lack of theory building and testing impedes progress in the factor and network literature. Psychological Inquiry, 31(4), 271-288.

Joas, H., & Knöbl, W. (2009). What is theory? In Joas, H., & Knöbl, W., Social theory: Twenty introductory lectures (pp. 1-19). Cambridge University Press.

Langford, Boring, Bridgman, Feigl, Israel, Pratt, & Skinner. (1945). Symposium on Operationism. Psychological Review.

Maccorquodale, K., & Meehl, P. E. (1948). On a distinction between hypothetical constructs and intervening variables. Psychological Review, 55(2), 95–107.

McGrane, J. A. (2015). Stevens’ forgotten crossroads: the divergent measurement traditions in the physical and psychological sciences from the mid-twentieth century. Frontiers in Psychology, 6.

Meehl, P. E. (1990). Appraising and amending theories: The strategy of lakatosian defense and two principles that warrant it. Psychological Inquiry, 1(2), 108–141.

Meehl, P. E. (1990). Why summaries of research on psychological theories are often uninterpretable. Psychological reports, 66(1), 195-244.

Meehl, P. E. (1992). Factors and taxa, traits and types, differences of degree and differences in kind. Journal of Personality, 60(1), 117–174.

Meehl, P. E. (1993). Philosophy of Science: Help or Hindrance? Psychological Reports, 72(3), 707–733.

Meredith, W. (1993). Measurement invariance, factor analysis and factorial invariance. Psychometrika, 58(4), 525–543.

Michell, J. (1999). Campbell’s theory of fundamental and derived measurement. In Measurement in Psychology: A Critical History of a Methodological Concept. Cambridge University Press.

Michell, J. (2005). The logic of measurement: A realist overview. Measurement, 38(4), 285–294.

Michell, J. (2014). The Theory of Measurement in Psychology. In An introduction to the logic of psychological measurement. Psychology Press.

Michell, J. (2014). Making the Myth of Mental Measurement. In An introduction to the logic of psychological measurement. Psychology Press.

Narens, L., & Luce, R. D. (1986). Measurement: The theory of numerical assignments. Psychological Bulletin, 99(2), 166–180.

Sutton, R. I., & Staw, B. M. (1995). What Theory is Not. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(3), 371–384.