Psychological Measurement and Evaluation: Models and History
Measurement
Measurement is the operation of comparing an attribute of an object or subject with a previously defined measurement unit, an operation that allows representing the magnitude of the attribute. It can be understood as a quantitative observation, as long as it follows the magnitude of certain features based on the observation measurements are practicing.
Psychological Evaluation
Psychological evaluation is the data collection of systematic information about an attribute or group of human attributes for the purpose of estimating the presence and magnitude using some type of measurement. It is the process analysis of individuality through the evaluation of sensory characteristics, perceptual, motor, or higher functions through a series of techniques for estimating the relative magnitude of these attributes using a numerical scale.
It is used in diagnosis, counseling, and treatment. It is mainly done through tests but also includes procedures such as observation, scales, checklists, etc.
First Phase: Positivism and the Psychophysical
Bacon (17th Century)
The purpose of science is to improve the living conditions of man, which is accomplished through the gathering of facts via observation, and this led to organized theories. The inductive method is based on the observation of facts, rising gradually to the more general, reaching universal axioms, and explaining these new phenomena.
Discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton (19th Century)
Introduction of a model of science covered in the Natural Sciences. Psychology is driven to become a purely empirical discipline, concerned with measurement and prediction, and less on the explanation (without the notion of soul-substance). Fechner, Ribot, Wundt.
The first scientific psychology was a branch of physiology, aimed at measuring basic psychological phenomena. The interest of these early researchers focused on the formulation of general laws that would allow predicting behavior, rather than in the study and explanation of the underlying processes.
Second Stage: From Empiricism to Theory
Logical Positivism (Vienna Circle)
- Shared a philosophical position based on traditional empiricism (Comte) and Mathematical Logic.
- Scientific knowledge could only be based on sense experience, so it should be verifiable by empirical experience.
- Objective and absolute sensory observation (realism).
- To reach true knowledge, a research tool was needed, not subjective.
- Reality is conceived objectively, independent of the observer; through the scientific method, one can reach true knowledge.
- No room for large abstract theoretical statements and no direct reference to reality.
Binet and Simon
First intelligence scale. IQ.
Rorschach
Projective techniques prototype qualitative evaluation of theoretical models related to psychotherapy.
Spearman
Theory of two factors: test scores can be explained by a factor g and a specific (unique to function as).
Factor Analysis (Spearman / Thurstone)
- Method for grouping variables that correlate strongly with one another and to a lesser extent with other groups.
- Statistical method in which variations in the scores of a number of variables are explained by a smaller number of dimensions or constructs. A series of latent variables explain the clustering of the components of a test.
- E.g., a large number of items are reduced to personality dimensions (Extraversion, responsibility, kindness, openness, neuroticism).
Third Stage: Post-empiricism and Evaluation of Theoretical Attributes
- Revaluation of the role of directly observable variables such as cognitive mediators, expectations, etc.
- Rethinking the role of theoretical terms, the establishment of an explanatory psychology.
- Chomsky, Piaget, Hebb, Bandura.
Post-empiricism (Kuhn, Toulmin, Feyerabend)
Science explains reality from theories, which make cuts in reality, which is not real or objective but differentially captures reality according to assumptions underlying the eye of the beholder.
Contributions of the Technology Revolution
Constructivism
Enhancing the role of the subject in the construction of knowledge. The linear causality is replaced by the conception that takes into account the different anticipatory processes that shape knowledge and determine reality, addressing the complexity of the subject. In the field of evaluation, instruments will be built for measuring latent traits (cognitive attributes, unobserved).
Models of Evaluation in Contemporary Psychology
Attribute Model
- The aim is to study the differences between people in a variety of attributes to predict their behavior in certain situations (work, school).
- Behavior is determined by personal variables, genotypes, inferred by other behaviors.
Psychodynamic Models
- Behavior is understood as a manifestation of internal intrapsychic variables.
- Molar analysis of personality structure.
- Minimum predictive.
Medical Model
- Classifies people according to disease entities and diagnostic classifications.
- Behavior is explained by endogenous variables.
- Behavioral disorder is determined by the etiology of the disease entity.
Behavioral Model
- The objective of evaluation is the analysis of functional relationships between the behaviors under study and those variables that control its appearance and functioning (personal and environmental variables).
- Molecular analysis of behavior and situational.
- Use observation techniques, self-reports, records of self-observation, and so on.
Cognitive Model
- Behavior is explained by variables or internal mental structures such as expectations, memory storage, which mediate between stimulus and response (behavior).
- The techniques used are self-reports, scales, registers, etc.