Rigor and continuous review: Ethical and scientific imperatives in contemporary psychology
Keywords:
Psychological Measurement, Psychometrics, Psychological Tests, Validity, Professional EthicsAbstract
In this editorial, we invite the academic community to pause and reflect on a practice as common as it is seldom examined: the habit of summing or averaging responses in psychological tests. The article that opens this volume calls upon us to reflect from the epistemological and methodological foundations of the discipline on the true meaning of this operation and its implications for data interpretation. This is not merely a technical inquiry but an exercise in disciplinary self-criticism that restores to psychometrics its ethical and scientific dimension.
Assuming that responses can be summed without considering the ordinal nature of scales or the unequal contribution of items is equivalent to relinquishing the conceptual precision that scientific psychology demands. The proposal is to rethink validity not as a theoretical dogma but as an empirical argument supported by evidence and by the coherence between the construct, the measurement model, and the use made of the scores.
This reflection calls upon us as researchers, teachers, and professionals: technical responsibility is also an ethical responsibility. Using appropriate procedures, revisiting the foundations of our inferences, and updating our analytical methods are not optional tasks but essential requirements of our profession. From this perspective, the editorial reaffirms Psicología desde el Caribe’s commitment to a rigorous scientific practice, one that is open to debate and aware that every measurement, like every theory, is a way of interpreting the world, not a mirror that reflects it without error.
References
Borsboom, D., van der Maas, H. L. J., Dalege, J., Kievit, R. A., & Haig, B. D. (2021). Theory construction methodology: A practical framework for building theories in psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(4), 756–766. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620969647
Congreso de la República de Colombia. (2013). Ley 1616 de 2013: Por medio de la cual se expide la ley de salud mental y se dictan otras disposiciones. Bogotá, Colombia: Diario Oficial No. 48.681.
Congreso de la República de Colombia. (2025). Ley 2460 de 2025: Por la cual se modifica la Ley 1616 de 2013, y se dictan otras disposiciones en materia de prevención y atención de trastornos y/o enfermedades mentales. Bogotá, Colombia: Diario Oficial
Embretson, S. E., & Reise, S. P. (2000). Item Response Theory for Psychologists. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Franz, D. J. (2021). “Are psychological attributes quantitative?” is not an empirical question: Conceptual confusions in the measurement debate. Theory & Psychology, 32(1), 131–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543211045340
International Test Commission. (2013). ITC Guidelines on Test Use. https://www.intestcom.org/files/guideline_test_use.pdf
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press.
Popper, K. R. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Hutchinson & Co.
Sijtsma, K. (2012). Psychological measurement between physics and statistics. Theory & Psychology, 22(6), 786–799.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
The Editor and/or publisher submitting the current journal information, or article, hereby confirms: 1) the author’s participation in the work; 2) the author’s approval to be referred to as the author; and 3) the author’s acceptance to all the conditions included in the Copyright Assignment provision herein included. The author (hereinafter referred to as Assignor) hereby irrevocably transfers and assigns, at no cost, to the Revista Psicología del Caribe of the Psychology School at Universidad del Norte - ISSN: 2011-7485 - (hereinafter referred to as Assignee) all rights, titles and interests, including all copyrights in Colombia and throughout the World, related to the submitted article.
The Assignor acknowledges that he/she is the owner/creator and the article is original. The Assignor declares that the article had not, is not, or will not be submitted elsewhere for print or electronic publication. In such an event, the Editor of the Revista Psicología del Caribe should be notified, in writing, and his/her response is required prior to evaluating the submitted article. The Assignor swears there is no impediment that prevents this Copyright Assignment. The Assignor consents that he/she may be held accountable for any copyright violations, plagiarism, or any other claim that may surge.
In consideration of this provision, the Assignee is authorized to copy, reprint, distribute, publish, and commercialize the submitted article through electronic, digital, of paper means. However, the Assignee is obligated to comply with the moral rights of the author, as established in the Act 23 of 1982, art. 30.
All articles published in Psicología desde el Caribe and its contents are under Creative Commons license CC BY. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
