Issues in Attitudes and Personality Measurement in Educational Psychology: Validity of Measurement Scales and Causal Modeling

抄録

Constructing scales with sufficient reliability and validity and establishing causal relationships between psychological constructs are methodologically most important aspects to conduct correlational studies in educational psychology.Through reviewing articles recently published in the Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology and its international counterpart, the Journal of Educational Psychology, several problematic features are discussed.In order to facilitate validation of scales and appropriate use of causal modeling, the importance of theoretical elaboration of constructs and abundant information for validation is emphasized.A property of Japanese research style generating hypotheses rather than testing them is evaluated, since it is suitable to treat the complex character of psychological constructs and scales purported to measure them.