The role of ethical and social values in psychosocial measurement

In the natural sciences, measurement is taken as a reliable source of knowledge because it requires a special kind of rigour. This is usually understood as an epistemic kind of rigour. We argue that in psychometrics, the science of measuring mental traits, attitudes, and experiences, the quality of knowledge supplied by measurement procedures must be established through ethical as well as epistemic justification. We reject views that restrict the role of ethics in measurement to guarding against potential harmful consequences and show that ethical and social value judgments are intrinsic to the design, validation, interpretation, and use of psychometric tools. We propose a five-step procedure called 'ethical iterations' that allows researchers, decision makers, and other interested parties to ensure that measurement practice is aligned with their aims and values. We substantiate our claims with evidence from our work with Foundry, a youth health organization in British Columbia, Canada.