LEWIS MADISON TERMAN

January 15, 1877-December 21, 1956 LEWIS MADISON TERMAN, for fifty years one of America's staunchest -supporters of mental testing as a scientific psychological technique, and for forty years the psychologist who more than any other was responsible for making the IQ (the intelligence quotient) a household word, was born on a farm in Johnson County, Indiana, on January 15, 1877, and died at Stanford University on December 21, 1956, a distinguished professor emeritus, not quite eighty years old.

Created Stanford-Binet Changed scoring: mental / chron X 100; 100 = average for age Began Terman Study Eugenics advocate
The applied science of the bio-social movement which advocates practices that improve the genetic composition of a population, usually a human.

The Genetic Studies of Genius, today known as the Terman Study of the Gifted, is a still-running longitudinal study begun in 1921 to examine the development and characteristics of gifted children into adulthood. The study was started by Lewis Terman at Stanford University and is now the oldest and longest running longitudinal study in the world. The results from the study have been published in five books, a monograph, and dozens of articles. A related retrospective study of eminent men in history by Catharine Cox, though not part of the longitudinal study, was published as part of the Genetic Studies of Genius. Basis Terman had earlier performed studies in intelligence, including his doctorate dissertation. In 1916, he modified Alfred Binet's intelligence test for the United States and expanded its range. The result was the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, which are still in use today (in an updated form). After his service in developing the Army Alpha during World War I, Terman returned to Stanford in order to start his study. Terman employed several assistants, including Florence Goodenough and Catharine Cox, to hunt the public schools of California for gifted children. Terman initially hoped to find the 1,000 most intelligent children, but eventually found 1,444.However, Terman steadily added subjects to the study through 1928 until there were 1,528 (856 males and 672 females).Not all subjects were discovered with the Stanford-Binet. Some were nominated for the study with the National Intelligence Tests and the Army Alpha. The study subjects were born between 1900 and 1925, all lived in California, were about 90% white, and the majority came from upper- or middle-class families. In 1916, the Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman released the "Stanford Revision of the BinetSimon Scale", the "StanfordBinet", for short. He wrote The Measurement of Intelligence: An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale, which provided English translations for the French items as well as new items. Despite other available translations, Terman is noted for his normative studies and methodological approach. With one of his graduate students at Stanford University, Maud Merrill, Terman created two parallel forms of the Stanford-Binet: Form L (for Lewis) and Form M (for Maud). Then, in the 1950s, Merrill revised the Stanford-Binet and created a new version that included what he considered to be the best test items from Forms L and M. This version was published in 1960 and renormed in 1973.

Soon, the test was so popular that Robert Yerkes, the president of the American Psychological Association, decided to use it in developing the Army Alpha and the Army Beta tests to classify recruits. Thus, a high-scoring recruit might earn an A-grade (high officer material), whereas a low-scoring recruit with an E-grade would be rejected for military service. Present use Since the inception of the StanfordBinet, it has been revised several times. Currently, the test is in its fifth edition, which is called the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition, or SB5. According to the publisher's website, "The SB5 was normed on a stratified random sample of 4,800 individuals that matches the 2000 U.S. Census." By administering the StanfordBinet test to large numbers of individuals selected at random from different parts of the United States, it has been found that the scores approximate a normal distribution. The revised edition of the Stanford-Binet over time has devised substantial changes in the way the tests are presented. The test has improved when looking at the introduction of a more parallel form and more demonstrative standards. For one, a non-verbal IQ component is included in the present day tests whereas in the past, there was only a verbal component. In fact, it now has equal balance of verbal and non-verbal content in the tests. It is also more animated than the other tests, providing the test-takers with more colourful artwork, toys and manipulatives. This allows the test to have a higher range in the age of the test takers. Current uses for the test include clinical and neuropsychological assessment, educational placement, compensation evaluations, career assessment, adult neuropsychological treatment, forensics, and research on aptitude. Various high-IQ societies also accept this test for admission into their ranks; for example, the Triple Nine Society accepts a minimum qualifying score of 151 for Form L or M, 149 for Form LM if taken in 1986 or earlier, 149 for SB-IV, and 146 for SB-V; in all cases the applicant must have been at least 16 years old at the date of the test. The SB-5 can be hand-scored or scored with optional scoring software. The scaled scores for the ten subtest scores are the familiar profile scores used in other IQ measures---with a mean of 10, and Standard Deviation of 3 (range 1-19). These subtest scores combine to form four types of composite scores: 5 factor indexes (Fluid, Knowledge, Quantitative, Visual-Spatial, and Working Memory), 2 domains (Verbal and Nonverbal), Brief IQ from 2 subtests, and Full Scale (each with scaled score means of 100, SD=15 (range 40-160)). Two subtests (one verbal and one nonverbal) combine to form each of the 5 factor indexes. There are two domain scales: Nonverbal IQ (combines the five nonverbal subtests) and Verbal IQ (combines the five verbal subtests). Two initial subtests combine to form the Abbreviated Battery IQ. Finally, the Full Scale IQ combines all ten subtests According to Lewis Terman.. Defectives should be segregated, which will ultimately result in curtailing the reproduction of feeble-mindedness and in the elimination of an enormous amount of crime, pauperism, and industrial inefficiency. Not all criminals are feeble-minded, but all feeble-minded persons are at least potential criminals. That every feeble-minded woman is a potential prostitute would hardly be disputed by anyone. Moral judgment, like business judgment, social judgment, or any other kind of higher thought process, is a function of intelligence. Morality cannot flower and fruit if intelligence remains infantile. Moral judgment, like business judgment, social judgment, or any other kind of higher thought process, is a function of intelligence. Morality cannot flower and fruit if intelligence remains infantile. Women tested to have IQs equal to men, but he opposed allowing them access to professions: Women with IQs between 100 and 120 should get jobs as teachers or high-grade stenographers and paid at level of men with IQs of 85.

Among laboring men and servant girls there are thousands like them [borderline feebleminded, with IQs = 70 80] The tests have told the truth No amount of school instruction will ever make them intelligent voters or capable citizens They represent the level of intelligence which is very common among SpanishIndian and Mexican families of the Southwest and also among Negroes. Their dullness seems to be racial, or at least inherent in the family stocks from which they came There is no possibility at present of convincing society that they should not be allowed to reproduce, although from a eugenic point of view they constitute a grave problem because of their unusually prolific breeding.

Prepared by : Nomar B. Capoy Submitted to : Prof. Cerbo SPED 530