Editing Psychometrics (section)

=== 20th century ===
In 1936, the psychometrician [[L. L. Thurstone]], founder and first president of the Psychometric Society, developed and applied a theoretical approach to measurement referred to as the [[law of comparative judgment]], an approach that has close connections to the psychophysical theory of [[Ernst Heinrich Weber]] and [[Gustav Fechner]]. In addition, Spearman and Thurstone both made important contributions to the theory and application of [[factor analysis]], a statistical method developed and used extensively in psychometrics.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nunnally |first1=Jum C. |title=Psychometric Theory |last2=Bernstein |first2=Ira H. |date=1994 |publisher=McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages |isbn=978-0-07-047849-7 |edition=3rd |publication-place=New York, NY}}</ref> In the late 1950s, [[Leopold Szondi]] made a historical and epistemological assessment of the impact of statistical thinking on psychology during previous few decades: "in the last decades, the specifically psychological thinking has been almost completely suppressed and removed, and replaced by a statistical thinking. Precisely here we see the cancer of testology and testomania of today."<ref>[[Leopold Szondi]] (1960) ''Das zweite Buch: Lehrbuch der Experimentellen Triebdiagnostik''. Huber, Bern und Stuttgart, 2nd edition. Ch.27, From the Spanish translation, B)II ''Las condiciones estadisticas'', p.396. Quotation: {{quotation|el pensamiento psicologico especifico, en las ultima decadas, fue suprimido y eliminado casi totalmente, siendo sustituido por un pensamiento estadistico. Precisamente aqui vemos el cáncer de la testología y testomania de hoy.}}</ref>

More recently, psychometric theory has been applied in the measurement of [[wikt:personality|personality]], [[Attitude (psychology)|attitudes]] and [[belief]]s, and [[academic achievement]]. These latent constructs cannot truly be measured, and much of the research and science in this discipline has been developed in an attempt to measure these constructs as close to the true score as possible. 

Figures who made significant contributions to psychometrics include [[Karl Pearson]], Henry F. Kaiser, [[Carl Brigham]], [[L. L. Thurstone]], [[E. L. Thorndike]], [[Georg Rasch]], [[Eugene Galanter]], [[Johnson O'Connor]], [[Frederic M. Lord]], [[Ledyard R Tucker]], [[Louis Guttman]], and [[Jane Loevinger]].