HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

BY: MARY ELIZABETH MORADA

BSPSY-3A

2200 B.C.E

Proficiency testing begins in

China. The Emperor evaluates
public officials every third year.

1800 B.C.E.
Babylonians develop astrology in order to
interact with the gods and predict the
future. Greeks later redefine astrology to
predict and describe personality.

500 B.C.E.

Pythagoras practicing begins

physiognomy to evaluate
personality.

400 B.C.E.
Hippocrates introduces Humorology to
the field of medicine for the treatment
of physical and mental illness.

400 B.C.E.

Plato suggests people should find

employment that is consistent
with their abilities.
 175 B.C.E.
Claudius Galenus designs
experiments to show that it is the
brain and the not the heart that is
the seat of intellect.

500 A.D.

With the start of the Middle Ages,

science takes a backseat to faith
.
and superstition and the history
of psychological testing is
temporarily halted.

1200 A.D.
Interest in individual differences
emerges as people begin to question
whether those in “league with satan” did
so voluntarily or involuntarily. Trials for
witchery and sorcery were common

1265 A.D.
Thomas Aquinas asserts that the
notion of the human immortal soul
should be replaced by the notion of
a human capacity to think and
reason.

1550 A.D.

The Renaissance witnesses a

rebirth in philosophy and an
appreciation for science.

1698 A.D.

Juan Huarte publishes The Tyral of

Wits, the first book to propose a
discipline of assessment.
 1770 A.D.
The cause of philosophy and sciences
advances with the writings of French,
German, and English philosophers. One
of these philosophers, Rene Descartes,
proposes the mind-body question.

1823 A.D.

The Journal of Phrenology is founded to further

the study of human abilities
. and talents. Although
proven unfounded experimentation, phrenology
proposed that human qualities are localized in
concentrations of brain fiber that press outward
on the skull.

1869 A.D.

Sir Francis Galton publishes a study of

heredity and genius which pioneered a
statistical technique that Karl Pearson
would later call correlation.

1879 A.D.
In Leipzig, Germany, Wilhelm Wundt founds
the first experimental psychology laboratory.
Wundt’s structuralism relies heavily on a tool
of assessment called introspection whereby
subjects try to describe their conscious
experience of a stimulus.

1895 A.D.
American psychologist James McKeen helped
launched the beginning of psychological
testing. Cattell eventually found Psychological
Corporation, a company with a goal of “useful
application of psychology”

1900 A.D

Sigmund Freud publishes the

Interpretation of Dreams which
goes on to influence approaches to
understanding personality for the
next 50 years.
 1905 A.D.
Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon publish a 30-item
scale of intelligence designed to help classify
schoolchildren in Paris schools. The development of
the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale is largely
recognized as launching a new era in measurement.

1908 A.D.

Frank Parsons opens the Vocational

.
Bureau of Boston begins offering
career guidance to young adults.

1914 A.D.

World War I brings about a boom in

psychological testing as thousands of
American recruits are screened for
intellectual and emotional functioning.
Army Alpha and Army Beta.

1919 A.D.
Robert Woodworth publishes the
Personal Data Sheet to help
identify Army recruits susceptible
to ‘shell shock.'

1921 A.D.

Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorscharch

publishes his famous monograph,
Psychodiagnostics, which would lead to the
development of the Rorschach Inkblot Test

1926 A.D.

The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)

is developed and administered for
the first time.
 1927 A.D.
Charles Spearman publishes a two-
factor theory of intelligence in which he
postulates the existence of a general
intellectual ability factor and specific
components of that general ability.

1938 A.D.

Mental tests have reached the status

of big business. According
. to 1938
Metal Measurements at least 4, 000
psychological test are in print.

1939 A.D.
David Wechsler introduces 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.

1943 A.D.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality

Inventory was published.

1949 A.D.

The first version to the Wechsler

Intelligence Tests for children was
published.

1949 A.D.

The 16PF Questionnaire, 1st

Edition is released for public use.
 1955 A.D.

The first version of the Wechsler Adult

Intelligence Tests was published.

1962 A.D.

Katherine Briggs
. and Isabel Briggs
Meyers publish the Meyers Briggs
Type Indicator (MBTI)

1962 A.D.

Warren T. Norman publishes his first article

over the Big Five Personality Test

1970 A.D.
John L. Holland publishes 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.

1970 A.D.
It is considered as the dark age of
psychological testing as most people
feared its intrusive nature and the
tendency to be misused.

1980S AND 1990S

several fields of applied

psychology utilized psychological
testing and assessment.