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"Measurement Schmeasurement: Questionable Measurement Practices and How to Avoid Them"
Questionable measurement practices are decisions researchers make that raise doubts about the validity of the measures, and ultimately the validity of study conclusions. They make it impossible to evaluate a wide range of potential validity threats to the study’s conclusions. I will demonstrate that psychology is plagued by a measurement schmeasurement attitude: QMPs are common, offer a stunning source of researcher degrees of freedom, pose a serious threat to cumulative psychological science, but are largely ignored. I will review a list of questions researchers and consumers of scientific research can consider to identify and avoid QMPs. I'll provide examples of transparent answers to these measurement questions, which will promote rigorous research, allow for thorough evaluations of a study’s inferences, and are necessary for meaningful replication studies.