Historical and Conceptual Foundations of Measurement in the Human Sciences

Derek C. Briggs is Professor in the Research and Evaluation Methodology Program in the School of Education and Director of the Center for Assessment Design Research and Evaluation at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA. A former editor of the journal Educational Measurement: Issues & Practice, he is the 2021–2022 President of the National Council on Measurement in Education.

Chapter 1: What is Measurement?

1.1 Keating’s War and Thorndike’s Credo

1.2 What is (and What is Not) Measurement?

1.3 Educational and Psychological Measurement

1.4 Overview of this Book

Chapter 2. Psychophysical Measurement: Gustav Fechner and the Just Noticeable Difference

2.1 Overview

2.2 The Origins of Psychophysics

2.3 The Method of Right and Wrong Cases (The Constant Method)

2.4 Criticisms

2.5 Fechner’s Legacy

2.6 Sources and Further Reading

Chapter 3. Whenever you Can, Count: Francis Galton and the Measurement of Individual Differences

3.1 Overview

3.2 Galton’s Background

3.3 Three Influences on Galton’s Thinking

3.4 The Concept of Relative Measurement

3.5 Galton’s Conceptualization of Measurement

Chapter 4. Anthropometric Laboratories, Regression, and the Cautionary Tale of Eugenics

4.1 Galton’s Instrumental Innovations

4.2 The Discovery of Regression and Correlation

4.3 The Horror of Eugenics

4.4 Galton’s Legacy

4.5 Sources and Further Reading

Chapter 5. Mental Tests and Measuring Scales: The Innovations of Alfred Binet

5.1 Overview

5.2 Binet’s Background

5.3 The Binet-Simon Measuring Scale

5.4 Binet’s Conceptualization of Measurement

5.5 Criticisms

5.6 Binet’s Legacy

5.7 Sources and Further Reading

Chapter 6. Measurement Error and the Concept of Reliability

6.1 Overview

6.2 Spearman’s Background

6.3 Disattenuating Correlation Coefficients

6.4 Replications, Occasions, and Measurement Error

6.5 Varying Test Items and the Spearman-Brown Prophecy Formula

6.6 The Development of Classical Test Theory

Chapter 7. Measurement Through Correlation: Spearman’s Theory of Two Factors

7.1 Formalization of the Theory of Two Factors

7.2 Method of Corroborating the Theory

7.3 Building a Model of Human Cognition

7.4 The Interpretation of g

7.5 The Utility of the Two-Factor Theory

7.6 Spearman’s Conceptualization of Measurement

Chapter 8. Theory vs. Method in the Measurement of Intelligence

8.1 Challenges to the Theory of Two Factors

8.2 Godfrey Thomson’s Sampling Theory of Ability

8.3 Edwin Wilson and the Indeterminacy of g

8.4 Louis Thurstone’s Multiple Factor Method

8.5 Spearman On Defense

8.6 Spearman’s Legacy

8.7 Sources and Further Reading

Chapter 9. The Seeds of Psychometrics: Thurstone’s Subjective Units

9.1 Overview

9.2 Thurstone’s Background

9.3 Toward Psychological Measurement

9.4 Constructing a Psychological Continuum

9.5 Thurstone’s Conceptualization of Measurement

9.6 Likert Scales

9.7 Thurstone’s Legacy

9.8. Sources and Further Reading

Chapter 10. Representation, Operations, and the Scale Taxonomy of S. S. Stevens

10.1 Overview

10.2 Stevens’s Background

10.3 Norman Campbell and the Representational Approach to Measurement

10.4 Stevens’s Conceptualization of Measurement

10.5 The Process of Operational Measurement

10.6 Criticisms

10.7 Stevens’s Legacy to Measurement

10.8 Sources and Further Reading