Normal Science, Pathological Science and Psychometrics

By Joel Michell. 2000

240 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: General Psychology, History and Philosophy of Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/aa1b5d36450c1f7c0e441afac5be28ca90f69586

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Psychology

1. Denny Borsboom
2. D. Bromley
3. Trevor Bond
4. Derek C. Briggs
5. G. Trendler
6. N. Waller
7. S. Reise

In History and Philosophy of Science

1. Denny Borsboom
2. D. Bromley
3. Trevor Bond
4. Derek C. Briggs
5. G. Trendler
6. N. Waller
7. S. Reise
8. Joel Michell

Citations in the corpus

• Is Psychometrics Pathological Science? (2008, background): “Pathology also requires the presence of a positive factor, one deflecting attention from relevant questions (Michell, 2000).”
• Measurement Theory, Psychology and the Revolution That Cannot Happen (2009, background): “(Wigner, 1960, p. 4) Recently, Joel Michell (2000, 2004) has described quantitative psychology, and psychometrics in particular, as a pathological science.”
• Validity and assessment: a Rasch measurement perspective (2004, background): “Fisher, Eubanks & Marier, 1997) revealed the remarkable utility of the Rasch model in supporting the co-calibration of instruments across samples, in spite of differences in number of items, as well as in the number and labels for Likert-scale options. Tesio and colleagues collaborated across nation”
• Educational Measurement (4th ed.) (2009, methodology): “WHAT IS NOT IN THE BOOK Michell (1997, 2000, 2008) has criticized social scientists for relying on inadequate definitions of measurement, most notably that of Stevens (1946) as the assignment of numerals according to rule; in a literature search, he found that 39 out of 44 books that were concerned…”
• Measuring Growth With Vertical Scales (2013, background): “In doing so, one quickly encounters a critique of modern psychometrics in the form of a series of publications over the past decade by Michell (1997, 2000, 2004, 2008a, 2008b).”
• Developing Evidence-Based Practice: The Role of Case-Based Research. (2004, background): “It is also easy to forget that the numbers assigned when we score psychological attributes such as a person's compliance or resolve are not "quantitative" in the strict sense of that word (Kline, 1998; Michell, 2000).”
• Comparing Corporate Reputations: League Tables, Quotients, Benchmarks, or Case Studies? (2002, background): “See Kerlinger (1986) for a concise review of the concept of ‘levels of measurement’, but see also Michell (1990, 2000) for a severely critical review of psychometrics, including the notion of ‘levels of measurement’.”
• Item response theory and clinical measurement. (2009, background): “We hope that this situation will change now that accessible introductions to this material and its relevance for understanding psychological constructs are available (Borsboom 2005; Michell 1990, 1999, 2000).”
• Arbitrary metrics in psychology. (2006, unknown): “without its critics (e.g., Kline, 1998; Michell, 2000).”