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The Mystery of Missing Psychometric <i>Corpus</i> : The Case of the Technological Cart Before the Scientific Horse

Joel Michell

Philosophy of the Social Sciences2026https://doi.org/10.1177/00483931251406107article
ABDC B
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Psychometrics, the science sustaining psychological test construction and use, has consistently ignored logical criticism of its foundations, even though science as a cognitive enterprise requires criticism. This accumulating corpus of criticisms is generally unacknowledged in histories of the discipline, in textbooks, and in course curricula. Thus, there is a mystery here as to why this critical resource is missing. Considering three critical offerings from before 1950, it is clear that by mid-century, psychometric methods, consistently marketed as instruments of scientific measurement, were bereft of evidence supporting that boast. A solution to this mystery is proposed.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/00483931251406107

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@article{joel2026,
  title        = {{The Mystery of Missing Psychometric <i>Corpus</i> : The Case of the Technological Cart Before the Scientific Horse}},
  author       = {Joel Michell},
  journal      = {Philosophy of the Social Sciences},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/00483931251406107},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.