The epistemic status of inter-item correlations in Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire: the a priori versus the empirical in psychological data |
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Authors: | JAN SMEDSLUND |
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Institution: | University of Oslo, Norway |
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Abstract: | Judgements of the semantic relatedness of items in Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire and the corresponding inter-item correlations were found to be significantly related. The results are taken to indicate that the inter-item correlations are knowable a priori and, hence, are not empirical. It is also argued that the reported findings themselves are knowable a priori , and that the study, therefore, is pseudoempirical, that is, attempts to test necessarily true propositions empirically. The study was intended to demonstrate concretely the distinction between a priori and empirical in psychological data, and to indicate the confusion arising when that distinction is not made. |
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