The ambiguous utility of psychometrics for the interpretative foundation of socially relevant avatars

Stéphane Vautier (1) , Michiel Veldhuis (2) , Emilie Lacot (1) , Nadine Matton (3)

1 Octogone - Octogone Unité de Recherche Interdisciplinaire
2 CLLE-LTC - Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie
3 IHM Aero - ENAC - Programme transverse IHM Aéronautique

The persisting debates that measurement in psychology elicits can be explained by the conflict between two aspiration types. One, the epistemologic aspiration, resting on the search for scientific truth, and two, the social aspiration, resting on the demonstration of a capacity to contribute to psychological assessment problems in particular. Psychometrics answer essentially to psychology's demand for social utility, leading to the quasi-exclusive attribution of importance to quantitative interpretation. For psychology to be considered an empirical science, it has to establish its capacity for the measurement of psychological phenomena, even if this means that it recognizes that these phenomena are essentially qualitative.

Mots clés: classical test theory; item response modeling; psychometrics; measurement; assessment

Domaines: Psychologie; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences; Applications [stat.AP]; Méthodologie [stat.ME]

Stéphane Vautier, Michiel Veldhuis, Emilie Lacot, Nadine Matton. The ambiguous utility of psychometrics for the interpretative foundation of socially relevant avatars. Theory and Psychology, 2012, 22, pp.810-822. ⟨10.1177/0959354312450093⟩. ⟨hal-00667697⟩