History of Measurement

"The history of science is the history of measurement" (Cattell 1893). This is the first column of a series intended to provoke discussion about the history of measurement in the social sciences. Some issues I invite you to explore with me are:

* What are the major measurement problems in social science? How have our views and approaches changed? (Reliability, Validity, Invariance, Dimensionality, Objectivity...)
* Have we made progress in measurement theory and practice? What is "progress"?
* Who are the major measurement theorists? What are their contributions? (Thorndike, Lazarsfeld, Thurstone, Rasch, Guttman, Coombs, Loevinger...)
* What is a "history" of social science measurement? By whom and for whom written? In what way different from the philosophy of measurement?

Constructing the History of Measurement:
A possible discussion framework is Michael M Sokal's (1984) "eleven- part recipe" for the history of testing. His first recommendation is that histories be empirical, i.e. make use of manuscript collections which include unpublished correspondence such as the Terman papers at Stanford or the Wood papers at ETS.

Next, he recommends a thorough treatment of technical issues. To make the evolution of measurement theory and practice understandable requires study and presentation of the statistical and quantitative details, as in comparative studies of theorists (Andrich 1978, 1985), and the development of a history of invariance (Engelhard 1984, 1990).

Third, he recommends detailed descriptions and discussions of the terms used. Merely referring to general concepts, such as objectivity, reliability or validity, without further definition is not enough. Wood (1923) views "objectivity" as the reliability of scoring that is obtained with true-false and multiple-choice ("objective") items. E L Thorndike's definition (1919) is broader: "a perfectly objective scale is a scale in respect to whose meaning all competent thinkers agree".

Sokal points out that measurement issues and practices develop in different contexts. There are societal, disciplinary, and international contexts. The societal problems faced by Terman in the measurement of intelligence in the US during WWI were different from those faced by Binet in France. Educational researchers, psychologists and sociologists attack similar measurement problems with different methods, and use similar methods to manage different problems. Even though psychology has dominated the work on testing, historians need an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the contributions of sociologists, economists, anthropologists, political scientists and statisticians.

Sokal calls for a personal approach, focussing on how a measurement theorist's individual experiences shaped his or her ideas about the theory and practice of testing, like the biographical analyses of Rasch (Wright 1980), Thelma Thurstone (Bashaw & Bashaw 1988) and E L Thorndike (Clifford 1984).

Although some histories may concentrate on narrow issues, the history of measurement must also be presented broadly in terms of subject and period (Linden & Linden 1968, Dubois 1970).

Lastly, Sokal calls for dispassionate and objective treatments. He criticizes Gould (1981) as too polemical. Emotional treatments of sensitive issues, like the nature versus nurture debates, invite distortion.

Sokal's recipe is far-reaching, but some ingredients are missing. He considers only an audience of historians, not measurement theorists or practitioners. He does not relate the philosophy of science to the history of measurement. He overlooks the impact of technology, especially the computer. Finally, he does not say who will write these histories: insiders (Seagoe 1975, Stigler 1986) or outsiders (Sokal 1987, Porter 1986)?

My hope is that histories of measurement will not be left to historians, but that psychometricians will also contribute. There are many "histories" of measurement.

"It is really strange that human beings are normally deaf to the strongest arguments while they are always inclined to overestimate measuring accuracies."
Albert Einstein in a letter to Max Born, quoted in Paul Feyerabend, "Against Method", 1975, p. 75

History of Measurement, G Engelhard Jr … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 1990, 4:2 p. 110

Rasch Books and Publications
Invariant Measurement: Using Rasch Models in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, 2nd Edn. George Engelhard, Jr. & Jue Wang	Applying the Rasch Model (Winsteps, Facets) 4th Ed., Bond, Yan, Heene	Advances in Rasch Analyses in the Human Sciences (Winsteps, Facets) 1st Ed., Boone, Staver	Advances in Applications of Rasch Measurement in Science Education, X. Liu & W. J. Boone	Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences (Winsteps) Boone, Staver, Yale
Introduction to Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets), Thomas Eckes	Statistical Analyses for Language Testers (Facets), Rita Green	Invariant Measurement with Raters and Rating Scales: Rasch Models for Rater-Mediated Assessments (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Stefanie Wind	Aplicação do Modelo de Rasch (Português), de Bond, Trevor G., Fox, Christine M	Appliquer le modèle de Rasch: Défis et pistes de solution (Winsteps) E. Dionne, S. Béland
Exploring Rating Scale Functioning for Survey Research (R, Facets), Stefanie Wind	Rasch Measurement: Applications, Khine	Winsteps Tutorials - free Facets Tutorials - free	Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets) - free, J.M. Linacre	Fairness, Justice and Language Assessment (Winsteps, Facets), McNamara, Knoch, Fan
Other Rasch-Related Resources: Rasch Measurement YouTube Channel
Rasch Measurement Transactions & Rasch Measurement research papers - free	An Introduction to the Rasch Model with Examples in R (eRm, etc.), Debelak, Strobl, Zeigenfuse	Rasch Measurement Theory Analysis in R, Wind, Hua	Applying the Rasch Model in Social Sciences Using R, Lamprianou	El modelo métrico de Rasch: Fundamentación, implementación e interpretación de la medida en ciencias sociales (Spanish Edition), Manuel González-Montesinos M.
Rasch Models: Foundations, Recent Developments, and Applications, Fischer & Molenaar	Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests, Georg Rasch	Rasch Models for Measurement, David Andrich	Constructing Measures, Mark Wilson	Best Test Design - free, Wright & Stone Rating Scale Analysis - free, Wright & Masters
Virtual Standard Setting: Setting Cut Scores, Charalambos Kollias	Diseño de Mejores Pruebas - free, Spanish Best Test Design	A Course in Rasch Measurement Theory, Andrich, Marais	Rasch Models in Health, Christensen, Kreiner, Mesba	Multivariate and Mixture Distribution Rasch Models, von Davier, Carstensen

Forum

Rasch Measurement Forum to discuss any Rasch-related topic

Go to Top of Page
Go to index of all Rasch Measurement Transactions
AERA members: Join the Rasch Measurement SIG and receive the printed version of RMT
Some back issues of RMT are available as bound volumes
Subscribe to Journal of Applied Measurement

Go to Institute for Objective Measurement Home Page. The Rasch Measurement SIG (AERA) thanks the Institute for Objective Measurement for inviting the publication of Rasch Measurement Transactions on the Institute's website, www.rasch.org.

The URL of this page is www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt42j.htm

Website: www.rasch.org/rmt/contents.htm