Kinesmetrics

“Measurement as a formal area of study has never been clearly defined in physical education and exercise science” (Safrit, 1989, p. 4). There were some previous efforts to establish the measurement as a discipline: “Physical Edumetrics” and “Psychometrics,” but these labels have never been well received in kinesiology. In addition, Miles (2001) defines psychometrics as … “Psychometrics is the branch of psychology concerned with studying and using measurement techniques”. This definition indicates that psychometrics is totally concordant with the goals of measurement in psychology.

Measurement procedures and data characteristics in kinesiology are often different from psychology. The paper and pencil instruments are rarely used in some subdisciplines (e.g., exercise science) of kinesiology while objective measure (e.g., pedometer) is preferable. In addition, the type of data from kinesiology is often continuous (e.g., 10 push-ups and 12.3 seconds), but the type of data from education and psychology is mostly categorical (e.g., item right or wrong).

For these reasons, a label to describe the area of study within kinesiology, dealing with measurement is necessary. In response to this request, the term “Kinesmetrics” has been lately proposed as a prospective label, which is a discipline to develop and apply measurement theory, statistics, and mathematical analysis to the field of kinesiology (Zhu, 2003). Kinesmetrics is a composite word, where “Kines” presents kinesiology and “Metrics” means scale and quantity. The first step in understanding Kinesmetrics is to define the knowledge basis and theoretical foundation. The major components to Kinesmetrics includes:
 

- Measurement Theory (e.g., classical test theory and item response theory)
- Research Design (e.g., experimental or quasi-experimental designs)
- Statistical and Mathematical Models (e.g., Descriptive or inferential statistics)
- Data Characteristics/Measurement Issues in a Subdiscipline
- Computers/Technology 

Middle Tennessee State University offers Ph.D. in Human Performance with a specialization in Kinesmetrics. It is a 3-4 year doctoral program, and those who major in Kinesmetrics will be qualified to work as research scientists or faculty at universities, or work in organizations that test and evaluate information, such as health departments and agencies, testing organizations, and data producing agencies. Click to the logo below for more information: