BRIEF HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

Why study the past? Because history influences current practice by providing and explaining the background
information of:
■ Relevance

■ Evolution and progress

■ Current practice

■ Strengths and weaknesses

■ Prevent repetitions of the ‘wrongs of the past’

Ancient forms of assessment - astrology, humorology, phrenology, graphology

2200 B.C.E. Tests and testing programs first came to China. Testing was instituted as a means of selecting who
would obtain government jobs.

Ancient Greco-Roman writings indicate that attempts to categorize people in terms of personality
types based on abundance or deficiency in some bodily fluid such as blood or phlegm.

Middle Ages A question of critical importance was Who is in league with the Devil? and various measurement
procedures were devised to answer the question.

1857 The earliest use of inkblots as projective surfaces was J.Kerner's. He was the first to claim that
some people make idiosyncratic or revealing interpretations.

1859 A book was published entitled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles
Darwin. In this book, he argued that change in variation in species would be selected or rejected
by nature according to adaptability and survival value.

Darwin’s writing on individual differences kindled interest in research on heredity in his half
cousin, Francis Galton.

Francis Galton (1822-1911) continued with brass instruments but increased sample size. This is
the first battery of tests which measures sensory and motor skills (height, weight, hand length,
head breadth, arm span, length of middle finger, strength of hand squeeze, vital capacity of lungs,
highest audible tone, reaction time).

1879 Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) established the 1st psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.

1890 James Cattell who studied with Galton developed and coined the term mental test to assess college
students. The test includes measures of strength, resistance to pain, and reaction time.

1896 Alfred Binet suggested that inkblots might be used to assess personality (not psychopathology).

1905 Binet-Simon scale of mental development used to classify mentally retarded children in France.

1911 Herman Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist, was the first to suggest the use of inkblot responses as a
diagnostic instrument.

1916 Terman develops Stanford - Binet test and develops the idea of Intelligence Quotient

1921 Herman Rorschach published his book on the test, Psychodiagnostik.

1933 Samuel Beck popularized the use of Rorschach by writing several papers and books on it starting
with Configurational Tendencies in Rorschach Responses.

1920 – 1940 Factor analysis, projective tests, and personality inventories first appear.

1941-1960 Vocational interest measures were developed.

1961-1980 Item response theory and neuropsychological testing were developed.

1980 – present Widespread adaptation of computerized testing. Smart tests which can give each individual
different test items develop.
20th century advances in assessment due to advances in:
– Theories of human behavior
– Statistical methods
– Application of psychology in various settings
– Treatment of mentally disturbed and retarded people