Measurement Issues

Abstract

Users of instruments assessing personality and other aspects of behavioral, emotional, and social functioning should have a thorough understanding of measurement principles. The discussion that follows, however, hardly qualifies as thorough because measurement instruction is not the purpose of this book. This chapter merely points out some of the most important measurement concepts for conducting assessments of youth.

We assume that the user of this text has had, at a minimum, undergraduate courses in statistics, tests and measurements, as well as at least one graduate-level measurement course. If a user of this text is not acquainted with some of the principles discussed here, then a statistics and/or measurement textbook should be consulted. There are a number of excellent measurement textbooks available, including Anastasi and Urbina (1998) as well as Allen and Yen (1979). The reader is also referred to the Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education (Joint Committee on Testing Practices, 2004) for a discussion of the appropriate procedures for test development, test selection, scoring, interpretation, and communication of results.