From Measurement Theory to Psychological Theory, in Reverse

摘要

As investigators who work in personality and social psychology, rather than on questions of measurement per se, our primary response to the target articles is to applaud. The authors are deeply and significantly correct in saying that many psychologists implicitly embrace an operationalism that obscures measurement problems from view (Borsboom), conflate notions of concept and construct in a way that blurs a valuable distinction (Markus), and merely assume that their constructs are quantitative while also reproducing this too-easy way of thinking in the next generation by providing students with little training in measurement theory (Michell). The overall goal of these papers is to put questions of measurement "on psychology's methodological agenda" (Haig & Borsboom, this issue, pp. 2-3); the goal is achieved via target articles of relevance to psychology and "the human sciences more generally" (Haig & Borsboom, this issue, p. 3). Two routes may lead toward the stated goal. One begins at foundations of measurement and works towards substantive theory and methods in psychological science.