Measuring Constructs

  • Peter Hassmén
  • Richard Keegan
  • David Piggott
Chapter
First Online:

Abstract

In the early days of sport and exercise psychology research, measurements were central and a sign that even social sciences could mimic ‘real sciences’. So complex constructs were broken down into its constituent parts and operationalised, reliability and validity moved to the forefront, and statistical analyses became ever more advanced with the advent of the personal computer. Basic Likert-type scales continue to generate numbers that nowadays can be analysed in multidimensional space, but with the risk of making the tool more important than the answer to the original question—methodolatry (‘an overenhanced valuing of methodology’) threatens to refocus our attention from the empirical data to the tools we use to analyse it. The chapter concludes by describing three constructs: burnout, mood states, and achievement goals and the need to consider each construct versus how it has been operationalised.

Keywords

Achievement Goal Emotional Exhaustion Interval Scale Psychometric Measurement Negative Mood State 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Peter Hassmén
    • 1
  • Richard Keegan
    • 2
  • David Piggott
    • 3
  1. 1.School of Health and Human SciencesSouthern Cross UniversityCoffs HarbourAustralia
  2. 2.Research Institute for Sport and ExerciseUniversity of CanberraCanberra Australian Capital TerritoryAustralia
  3. 3.Leeds Beckett UniversityLeedsUK

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