Erdfelder, E., & Musch, J. (2006). Experimental Methods of Psychological Assessment. In M. Eid & E. Diener (Eds.), Handbook of multimethod measurement in psychology (pp. 205-220). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11383-015
This chapter comprises seven sections. In the first section, the authors look at the origins of the experimental method in psychological research, describe its characteristics, and present a definition of the term psychological experiment. They then show in section two that if the term experimental has been used in the context of psychological assessment, it typically has been associated with meanings different from that in experimental psychology. They argue that it is both possible and useful to redefine experimental assessment methods in a way that is consistent with the notion of a psychological experiment in experimental psychology. In sections three and four, major benefits and potential problems of the experimental approach to psychological assessment are discussed. Sections five and six are devoted to illustrating the benefits of experimental assessment methods and ways to overcome the problems associated with this approach. The concluding seventh section presents guidelines on how problems of psychological measurement can be solved effectively using experimental methods. Moreover, the authors present a list of criteria that should be met whenever experimental assessment methods are to be applied in practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)