Samuel Messick

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Samuel Messick
BornApril 3, 1931 (1931-04-03)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedOctober 6, 1998(1998-10-06) (aged 67)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Pennsylvania
Princeton University
OccupationPsychologist
AwardsE. L. Thorndike Award (1993)

Samuel J. Messick III (April 3, 1931 – October 6, 1998) was an American psychologist who worked for the Educational Testing Service (ETS), known for his contributions to validity theory.

Early life[edit]

Messick was born on April 3, 1931, in Philadelphia. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor's degree, and he earned a PhD from Princeton University.[1][2]

Career[edit]

Messick worked as a psychologist for the Educational Testing Service (ETS).[1] He examined construct validity. Messick influenced language testing in 2 main ways: in proposing a new understanding of how inferences made based on tests must be challenged, and in drawing attention to the consequences of test use.

Death and legacy[edit]

Messick resided in Pennington, New Jersey.[1] He died on October 6, 1998, in Philadelphia, at 67.[1]

The Quantitative and Qualitative Methods division (Division 5) of the American Psychological Association created the Samuel J. Messick Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award to honor Messick's contributions. Douglas N. Jackson, a previous collaborator of Messick, earned the award in 2004.[3]

Works[edit]

  • (ed. with Harold Gulliksen) Psychological scaling: theory and applications; report of a conference. New York: Wiley, 1960.
  • (ed. with John Ross) Measurement in personality and cognition. New York: Wiley, 1962.
  • (ed. with Silvan Tomkins) Computer simulation of personality: frontier of psychological theory, New York: Wiley, 1963.
  • (ed. with Arthur H. Brayfield) Decision and choice; contributions of Sidney Siegel. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.
  • (ed. with Douglas N. Jackson) Problems in human assessment. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.
  • (ed.) Individuality in learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1976.
  • (ed.) Validity. In R. L. Linn (Ed.) Educational Measurement (3rd ed., pp. 13–103). New York: Macmillan, 1989.

Further reading[edit]

  • McNamara, Tim. "Validity in language testing: The challenge of Sam Messick's legacy". Language Assessment Quarterly: An International Journal. 2006, Vol. 3, No. 1, Pages 31–51
  • Weideman, Albert. 2012. "Validation and validity beyond Messick". Per Linguam, Vol. 3, No. 2, Pages 1–14

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Educational testing leader Samuel Messick dies of heart failure". Standard-Speaker. Hazleton, Pennsylvania. October 20, 1998. p. 2. Retrieved November 24, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Samuel J. Messick *54". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 21 January 2016.
  3. ^ "Samuel J. Messick". www.pearsonassessments.com. Pearson Assessments. Retrieved 6 September 2022.