H I S T O R Y o f

P s y c h o l o g i c a l T e s t i n g
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. publ ic officia
ls being
evaluate
d
500 B.C.E. Pythagoras begins practicing
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 4 humors

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 chery and sorcery
wit
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.

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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 *press outward on the skull
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
nd freud
called introspection whereby subjects try to describe sigmu
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. Frank Parsons
1908 A.D. Frank Parsons opens the Vocational Bureau
of Boston begins offering career guidance to young
adults.
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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 robert woodsworth
business. According to 1938 Metal Measurements at = personal data sheet
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.

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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)
BIG 5 PERSONALITY:
1962 A.D. Warren T. Norman publishes O - openness
his first article over the Big Five C - conscientiousness
Personality Test E - extraversion
A - agreeableness
N - neuroticism
1970 A.D. John L. Holland publishes the
first version of the Self Directed Search = O.C.E.A.N.
(SDS) for consumer use. The inventory
was intended to help individuals identify
careers that are congruent with their
personalities. 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.

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