A Practical Guide to Instrument Development and Score Validation in the Social Sciences: The MEASURE Approach

The research and practice of social scientists who work in a myriad of different specialty areas involve developing and validating scores on instruments as well as evaluating the psychometric properties of existing instrumentation for use with research participants. In this article, the author introduces The MEASURE Approach to instrument development, an acronym of seven empirically supported steps for instrument development, and initial score validation that he developed based on the recommendations of leading psychometric researchers and based on his own extensive background in instrument development. Implications for how The MEASURE Approach has utility for enhancing the assessment literacy of social scientists who work in a variety of different specialty areas are discussed.