Quantitative Psychology

Quantitative psychology , or set-related psychology, is a sub-area of ​​scientific studies that focuses on mathematical modeling , research design and methodology and statistical analysis of human properties and psychological processes. Quantitative psychologists research traditional and novel methods of psychometry , a research area that deals with the theory and technology of psychological measurements. In general, quantitative psychologists help create methods for all psychologists to test their hypotheses.

Psychological research has a long history of contributing to statistical applications and theory. Today, quantitative psychology is recognized as a separate branch of psychology by the American Psychological Association (APA) and is awarded doctoral programs in this field in several universities in Europe and North America. Quantitative psychologists have traditionally been in high demand in industry, politics, and academia. Her combined education in social sciences and quantitative methodology offers unique skills for solving applied and theoretical problems in a wide variety of areas.

history

Francis Galton's correlation diagram , 1875

Quantitative psychology has its origins in early experimental psychology , when the scientific method was first systematically applied to psychological phenomena in the 19th century. Notable contributions included EH Weber's study of tactile sensitivity (1930s), Fechner's development and applications of psychophysical methods (1850–1860), and Helmholtz's research on imagination and hearing, beginning after 1850. Wilhelm Wundt is often referred to as the "founder of experimental psychology "because he called himself a psychologist and opened a psychological laboratory in 1879, in which many researchers came to study. The work of them and many others helped refute the assumption of theorists like Immanuel Kant that psychology could not become a science because precise experiments on the human mind would be impossible.

Intelligence tests

→ Main article : Intelligence test

Intelligence tests have long been an important area of ​​quantitative psychology. The 19th century English statistician Francis Galton , a pioneer of psychometrics, was the first to develop a standardized intelligence test and was one of the first to apply statistical methods to the study of human differences and their inheritance. He suggested that intelligence is largely determined by heredity, and he also suggested that other measures such as the speed of reflexes , muscle strength, and head size are related to intelligence. In 1882 he founded the world's first mental testing center and in the following year published his observations and theories on "Research into human faculties and their development" (original title: "Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development").

Statistical Techniques

IQ values ​​represented by a normal distribution

Statistical methods are the quantitative tools most used by psychologists. Pearson introduced the correlation coefficient and the chi-square test. In the period between 1900 and 1920 came the T-test (Student, 1908), the ANOVA (Fischer, 1925) and a non-parametric correlation coefficient (Spearman, 1904). A large amount of tests were developed in the later half of the 20th century (e.g. all multivariate tests). Popular techniques (such as multilevel analysis , Arnold, 1992, the structural equation model, Byrne, 1996, and independence analysis, Hyvarinën, Karhunen and Oja, 2001) are relatively new.

In 1946, the psychologist Stanley Smith Stevens classified the scale level into four different scales in an article that is still frequently quoted : nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio. Jacob Cohen , a psychology professor at New York University , analyzed quantitative methods that included test size and effect size, which helped lay the foundation for today's statistical meta-analysis and estimation statistics methods. He gave his name to Cohens Kappa and Cohens d .

In 1990 an influential article entitled "Graduate Training in Statistics, Methodology, and Measurement in Psychology" was published in the journal American Psychologist . This article addressed the need for increased and updated training in quantitative methods for graduate psychology courses in the United States.

criticism

There has been some criticism of the use of quantitative methods in psychological research. In particular, Professor Joe Michell of the University of Sydney has written a great deal on the use and abuse of psychometric techniques.

Education and training

college student

Quantitative psychology training can begin informally with students. Many colleges recommend that students take coursework in psychology and complete the full range of calculus courses and a course in linear algebra . Quantitative coursework in other areas such as economics and research methods, as well as statistics courses for psychology students are also helpful. Historically, however, students were accepted without one of these courses if other areas of their application were promising. Some schools also offer formal minor subjects in areas related to quantitative psychology. For example, the University of Kansas offers a minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology, which provides advanced training in research methodology, applied data analysis, and practical research experience relevant to quantitative psychology. Computer science coursework is also useful. Mastering an object-oriented programming language or writing code in SPSS or R (programming language) is useful for the type of file analysis performed in colleges.

graduate

Peabody College ( picture ) at Vanderbilt University is home to the Quantitative Methods course.

Quantitative psychologists can hold a doctorate or a master's degree. Due to their interdisciplinary nature and depending on the research focus of the university, these courses can be housed in a pedagogical university or in a psychological department. Courses that focus particularly on educational research and psychometrics are often part of the training or of departments for educational psychology . These courses can therefore have different names for "research methods" or "quantitative methods", such as the Ph.D. University of Florida Research and Evaluation Methodology; or Quantitative Methods degree from the University of Pennsylvania . However, some universities may have different courses at different institutes. For example, the University of Washington offers a degree in "Quantitative psychology" in its psychology department and a separate Ph.D in "Measurement & Statistics" in its educational institution. Other degrees, such as a Ph.D in Psychology from Vanderbilt University , are shared between both psychology departments.

Universities with a mathematical focus include the Quantitative Psychology and Modeling course from McGill University and the Mathematical and Computational Cognitive Science degree from Purdue University . Students interested in modeling biological or functional data can explore related areas such as biostatistics or computational neuroscience .

Doctoral programs usually accept undergraduate students, although some schools require a master's degree prior to application. After the first two years of study, students typically receive a Master of Arts in Psychology, a Master of Science in Statistics or Applied Statistics, or both.

In addition, many universities offer a small selection of quantitative methods, such as New York University.

Companies that produce standardized tests, such as the College Board , Educational Testing Service , and American College Testing , are some of the largest private contractors for quantitative psychologists. These companies also often offer internships for university students.

Lack of qualified applicants

In August 2005, the American Psychological Association announced the need for more quantitative psychologists in the industry - for every doctorate awarded in the subject, there were approximately 2.5 quantitative psychologist vacancies. Due to a lack of applicants in this area, the APA created a working group to forecast the state of quantitative psychology and its future. In particular, there is a lack of US internal applicants. The majority of international applicants come from Asian countries, especially South Korea and China . In response to the shortage of qualified applicants, the APA's Council of Representatives authorized a special working group in 2006. This working group was chaired by Leone S. Aikan of Arizona State University .

Research areas

Example of a diagram for a social network

Quantitative psychologists generally have one main area of ​​interest. Notable areas of research in psychometrics include Probabilistic Test Theory and Computerized Adaptive Tests (CAT), which focus on parenting and intelligence tests . Other areas of research include modeling psychological processes through time series analysis , such as in functional magnetic resonance imaging data collection, and the structural equation model , social network analysis , human decision science, and statistical genetics.

Two common areas of psychometric testing are: aptitude tests, which are designed to measure pure intellectual ability, and personality tests, which are designed to assess character, temperament, and how to deal with problems.

Probabilistic test theory is based on the application of related mathematical models to test data. Because it is generally considered to be superior to classical test theory , it is the preferred method for developing benchmarks in the United States, especially when optimal decisions are required, such as high stakes tests such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT).

Professional organizations

Quantitative psychology is offered by many scientific organizations. These include the Psychometric Society, Division 5 of the American Psychological Association (evaluation, measurement, and statistics), the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology , and the European Society for Methodology. Associated subjects include statistics, mathematics , parenting measurement, parenting statistics , sociology, and political science. Many scientific journals reflect the efforts of scientists in these areas, especially psychometrics , multivariate behavioral research , structural models and psychological methods .

Significant people

Below is a list of quantitative psychologists who have made notable contributions to this area:

• Gwyneth Boodoo
• Jacob Cohen
• Louis Guttman
• Frederic M. Lord
• Quinn McNemar
• Jacqueline Meulman
• Pip Pattison
• Robert L. Thorndike
• Louis Leon Thurstone
• Helen M. Walker
• Steve West

See also

• Signal discovery theory
• Mathematical psychology
• Psychophysics
• Psychometrics
• WinBUGS

further reading

• Report of the Task Force for Increasing the Number of Quantitative Psychologists . Retrieved December 13, 2014.

Web links

• APA Division 5: Evaluation, Measurement and Statistics
• The Psychometric Society
• The Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology
• The European Society for Methodology
• Society for Mathematical Psychology

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quantitative Psychology . Retrieved December 13, 2014.
2. ^ Classification of Instructional Programs - Psychometrics and Quantitative Psychology . Retrieved January 19, 2015.
3. ^ E. Hearst (ed) The First Century of Experimental Psychology, 1979, pp. 19-20, Hillsdale, NJ: Earlbaum
4. ↑ Bulmer, M. (1999). The development of Francis Galton's ideas on the mechanism of heredity. Journal of the History of Biology, 32 (3), 263-292. Cowan, RS (1972). Francis Galton's contribution to genetics. Journal of the History of Biology, 5 (2), 389-412. See also Burbridge, D. (2001). Francis Galton on twins, heredity and social class. British Journal for the History of Science, 34 (3), 323-340.
5. ↑ Fancher, RE (1983). Biographical origins of Francis Galton's psychology. Isis, 74 (2), 227-233.
6. ↑ Denis Cousineau: The rise of quantitative methods in psychology. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Tutorial in Quantitative Methods for Psychology . 1, No. 1, 2005, pp. 1-3. Retrieved January 1, 2015. 
7. ↑ Stanley Smith Stevens: On the Theory of Scales of Measurement Archived from the original on September 6, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Science . 103, No. 2684, June 7, 1946, pp. 677-680. doi : 10.1126 / science.103.2684.677 . PMID 17750512 . Retrieved September 16, 2010. 
8. ^ Cohen's entry in Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science
9. ↑ Leona S. Aiken, Stephen G. West: Graduate Training in Statistics, Methodology, and Measurement in Psychology: A Survey of PhD Programs in North America. Archived from the original on January 19, 2015. Information: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: American Psychologist . 45, No. 6, June 1990, pp. 721-734. doi : 10.1037 / 0003-066x.45.6.721 . Retrieved January 19, 2015. 
10. ^ Undergraduate Minor in Social and Behavioral Sciences Methodology . Retrieved December 13, 2014.
11. ^ Report of the Task Force for Increasing the Number of Quantitative Psychologists , page 1. American Psychological Association . Retrieved February 15, 2012
12. ^ Report of the Task Force for Increasing the Number of Quantitative Psychologists . Retrieved December 13, 2014.
13. ↑ Quantitative Psychology . Retrieved January 19, 2015.
14. ^ Mitchell J. Prinstein: The Portable Mentor: Expert Guide to a Successful Career in Psychology . Springer Science & Business Media, August 31, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4614-3993-6 , p. 24.