REPORT ON ADVANCED PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

“HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING”

April 28, 2018
Reporter: Sheryl A. Alayon
Learning Facilitator: Dr. Marissa C. Plantinos

HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGICALTESTING

A. Chinese Civil Service testing

-2200 BC, Proficiency testing begins in China.
-Chinese emperor evaluates public officials every third year to determine their fitness for office.

B. Wilhelm Wundt
(He is widely regarded as the "father of experimental psychology").
-In 1879, he founded the first formal laboratory for psychological research at the University of Leipzig,
Germany.

C. Francis Galton
(An Englishman; Prolific writer and a zealous scientist)
-As an investigator of the human mind, he founded psychometrics (the science of measuring mental
faculties) and differential psychology (Differential psychology studies the ways in which individuals differ
in their behavior and the processes that underlie it.) and the lexical hypothesis of personality.
-He was the first to emphasize the importance of individual differences
-Created the first tests of mental ability
-Was the first to use questionnaires.
- Discovered a number of statistical procedures to analyze data, many of which are still in use today
(for example, he found that wide range of measures of human physiology and abilities produced what is
still referred to as a ‘normal curve’, or sometimes as the ‘bell curve’ or ‘normal distribution’
-In 1884, he administered the first test battery to thousands of citizens at the International Health Exhibit.

D. James McKeen Cattell

(American; one of Wundt’s students at Leipzig; completed a doctoral dissertation that dealt with
individual differences)
- coined the term ‘mental test’ in an 1890 publication.
- prepared U.S. for acceptance of psychological tests
-In 1921, he was instrumental in founding the Psychological Corporation, the first major test publisher.

E. Alfred Binet
(was a French psychologist who invented the first practical IQ test, the Binet–Simon test.)
-In 1904, he and his collaborator Theodore Simon published a 30-item “measuring scale of intelligence”
designed to help identify mentally retarded Paris schoolchildren.
-He published revisions of his test in 1908 and 1911, the last of which appeared just before his death.

F. Lewis Madison Terman

(an American Psychologist and author)
-published the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale in 1916 and revisions were released in 1937 and
1960.
- Original work on the test had been completed by Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon of France. Terman
promoted his test – the "Stanford-Binet" – as an aid for the classification of developmentally disabled
children.
-Revisions (mostly recently the fifth) of the Stanford-Binet remain in widespread use as a measure of
general intelligence for both adults and for children.

G. David “Wex” Wechsler

(a Romanian-American psychologist)
-In 1939, he introduced the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale which was designed to measure adult
intelligence. Today, multiple versions of these tests are in publication and are the most popular
instruments used to measure the intelligence of children and adults.
-In 1949, The first version to the Wechsler Intelligence Tests for children was published.
-In 1955, The first version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Tests was published.

H. Isabel Briggs Myers

(an American author)
-In 1962, she co-created a personality inventory known as the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Briggs
Myers created the MBTI with her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs.
-The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an introspective self-reportquestionnaire with the purpose of
indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world around them and make
decisions.[
G. John Lewis Holland

(an American psychologist)

-In 1970, he published the first version of the Self Directed Search (SDS) for consumer use. The
inventory was intended to help individuals identify careers that are congruent with their personalities.
-initially developed The Holland Codes or the Holland Occupational Themes (RIASEC) refers to a theory
of careers and vocational choice (based upon personality types) .
-He originally labeled his six types as "motoric, intellectual, esthetic, supportive, persuasive, and
conforming."[2] He later developed and changed them to: Realistic (Doers), Investigative (Thinkers), Artistic
(Creators), Social (Helpers), Enterprising (Persuaders), and Conventional (Organizers).

References:

DuBois, P. H. (1970). A history of psychological testing. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Myers, Isabel Briggs with Peter B. Myers (1995) [1980]. Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type.
Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing. ISBN 0-89106-074-X.

Gregory, R. J. (2004). Psychological testing: History, principles, and applications. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn
& Bacon.

Foxcroft, C. & Roodt, G. (2005). An Introduction to psychological assessment in the South African context.
Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.

Tom Butler-Bowdon: 50 Psychology Classics. Nicholas Brealey Publishing 2007. ISBN 1857884736. p. 2.

Swedlik, M. & Sturman, E. (2013). Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction To Tests and
Measurement, Eighth Edition. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. New York. pp. 38-45.

Coaley, Keith (2014). An Introduction to Psychological Assessment and Psychometrics. SAGE Publications
Ltd. London. pp.15-21

"Terman, Lewis Madison - Infoplease.com". Retrieved 8 October 2014.