PSYC 3250 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis
8 Dec 2015
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Document Summary
A proper understanding of measurement is critical for interpretation and evaluation of psychological tests. In psychological measurement is the process of assigning numbers (test scores) to persons in such a way that some attributes of the person being measured are faithfully reflected by some properties of the numbers. Psychological tests do not attempt to measure the total person, but only some specific set of attributes of that person: many properties of individuals may be represented in terms of specific properties of numbers. The term measurement includes a wide variety of operations. As long as specific properties of people are faithfully represented by specific properties of numbers a psychological test provides a valid measure of a person that can be extremely useful when decisions must be made regarding that person. Psychological tests are designed to measure specific attributes of persons, not the whole person, they only tell us which individuals are similar and which are different.
