ArticlePsychometrika2024
Recognize the Value of the Sum Score, Psychometrics' Greatest Accomplishment.
Article in Psychometrika, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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30 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Mitigating the slipping effect in polytomous scales: The Generalized Conditional Reliability Weighting (G-CRW) Algorithm and the WeightMyItems R package.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- A Simple Approach for Differential Test Functioning Based on Sum Scores.Educational and psychological measurement · 2026Article
- Factor Scores in Small Samples: Recommendations and Solutions.Educational and psychological measurement · 2026Article
- Novel Psychometric Indicator Assessments: The Relative Excess Correlation and Associated Matrices.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- A primer on intensive longitudinal psychometrics.Behavior research methods · 2026Review
- Identification and Scaling of Latent Variables in Ordinal Factor Analysis.Psychometrika · 2026Article
- Dynamic coactivation patterns during repetitive negative thinking: A cross-sectional fMRI study.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Inferences of associated latent variables by the observable test scores.The British journal of mathematical and statistical psychology · 2026Article
- Health equity through health literacy: validating HLSBMC public health · 2026Article
- Transgender people experience more discrimination and violence than cisgender lesbian, gay, or bisexual people: A multilevel analysis across 30 European countries.International journal of transgender health · 2026Article
- Latent trait or sum score: addressing measurement challenges in the prediction of self-rated symptom outcomes in psychological treatment.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- SUPERVISED LEARNING OF OUTCOME-RELEVANT ITEMS FROM A QUESTIONNAIRE VIA MIXED INTEGER OPTIMIZATION.The annals of applied statistics · 2025Article
- Article
- Applying Bayesian checks of cancellation axioms for interval scaling in limited samples.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- A novel CAT method for QoL screening: proof-of-principle study with comparisons to standard methods.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Standard Errors for Reliability Coefficients.Psychometrika · 2025Article
- Which Score for What? Operationalizing Standardized Cognitive Test Performance for the Assessment of Change.American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities · 2025Article
- Differential symptom relief profiles of menopausal therapies: an online survey study.BMC women's health · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The sum score on a psychological test is, and should continue to be, a tool central in psychometric practice. This position runs counter to several psychometricians' belief that the sum score represents a pre-scientific conception that must be abandoned from psychometrics in favor of latent variables. First, we reiterate that the sum score stochastically orders the latent variable in a wide variety of much-used item response models. In fact, item response theory provides a mathematically based justification for the ordinal use of the sum score. Second, because discussions about the sum score often involve its reliability and estimation methods as well, we show that, based on very general assumptions, classical test theory provides a family of lower bounds several of which are close to the true reliability under reasonable conditions. Finally, we argue that eventually sum scores derive their value from the degree to which they enable predicting practically relevant events and behaviors. None of our discussion is meant to discredit modern measurement models; they have their own merits unattainable for classical test theory, but the latter model provides impressive contributions to psychometrics based on very few assumptions that seem to have become obscured in the past few decades. Their generality and practical usefulness add to the accomplishments of more recent approaches.
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