 500 B.C.E.
 Pythagoras begins practicing  1869 A.D. Sir Francis Galton publishes a
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 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 Acquinas 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 human talents. Although proven
unfounded by experimentation, phrenology
proposed that human qualities are localized in
concentrations of brain fiber that press
outward on the skull.
study of heredity and genius which pioneered
a statistical technique that Karl Pearson would
later call con, a company with the goal of
“useful applications 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.
 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
Rorschach 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. Carl 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 the 1938
 Mental Measurements Yearbook, at least
4,000 psychological tests 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
Factors.
 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.