The social sciences largely have not achieved successes of the same stature as the natural sciences. This may be due in large part to failures in the theory and practice of measurement. Rather than modelling the mechanism of measurement, which remains a black box, assigned numerals are interpreted as measures. More advanced methods have been available for many years but have been adopted slowly and often been applied inadequately. While some models may indeed shed light on the black box, more elaborate conceptual theories are required also in order to eventually lift social measurement to the level of physical measurement.
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