Measurement and decision making at the University of Michigan in the 1950s and 1960s

Bibliographic Data

ID4928058
AuthorsFloris Heukelom (Radboud University Nijmegen, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume46
Issue2
Pages189-207
Publication date2010-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5061 • E-ISSN: 1520-6696
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/jhbs.20425
PMID20419790
OpenAlexW2165890177
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited51

This article explores the emergence of Clyde Coombs' mathematical psychology and Ward Edwards' behavioral decision research at the University of Michigan in the 1950s and 1960s. It shows why and how the mathematical psychological focus on the mathematics of measurement neatly complemented the experimental work on rational human decision making of the behavioral decision researchers. Both understood measurement as the rational decision of a human being between two or more stimuli, or values, and viewed the experimental measurement of actual human decision behavior as a key objective of psychology. For both "measurement theory in psychology [was] behavior theory." (c) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Behavioural sciences · Decision theory · Focus (optics) · Management science · Statistics · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Applied Psychology · Engineering · Mathematics · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology · Psychology of Social Influence · Social Psychology

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