Guttman, Louis (psychologist)

Louis Guttman was a psychologist known for his work in measurement and scaling in social science research. He developed the Guttman Scale, a method for assessing attitudes or behaviors by arranging items in a hierarchical order. This allows researchers to determine the intensity or degree of a person's response, as individuals agreeing with more extreme items would typically agree with milder ones. Guttman's contributions helped improve survey design and data analysis, influencing how researchers understand complex social issues and behaviors. His work laid important groundwork for psychometrics, the science of measuring psychological attributes.