Journal
THEORY & PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 26, Issue 1, Pages 27-43Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0959354315617253
Keywords
measurement; physics; psychology; temperature; theory; validity
Categories
Funding
- Belgian Federal Science Policy [IAP/P7/06]
- Research Foundation - Flanders [G.0806.13]
- University of Leuven [GOA/15/003]
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Discussions of psychological measurement are largely disconnected from issues of measurement in the natural sciences. We show that there are interesting parallels and connections between the two, by focusing on a real and detailed example (temperature) from the history of science. More specifically, our novel approach is to study the issue of validity based on the history of measurement in physics, which will lead to three concrete points that are relevant for the validity debate in psychology. First of all, studying the causal mechanisms underlying the measurements can be crucial for evaluating whether the measurements are valid. Secondly, psychologists would benefit from focusing more on the robustness of measurements. Finally, we argue that it is possible to make good science based on (relatively) bad measurements, and that the explanatory success of science can contribute to justifying the validity of measurements.
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