Florence Goodenough spread her influence, research, and theory through her ample literary contributions beginning in 1925 with Genetic Studies of Genius. This was the first of many; in 1926 Goodenough published her first book: The Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings. The Measurement of Mental Growth appeared in 1931 as well as Anger in Young Children. The Handbook of Child Psychology followed in 1933. After her early retirement, Goodenough built upon her portfolio with four more major works: Genetic Studies of Genius (1947), Mental Testing: Its History, Principles, and Applications (1949), Exceptional Children (1956), and Genetic Studies of Genius.
These literary works were the material milestones of the journey Goodenough was traveling. This journey began as she was earning her M.A. at Columbia. At this time, she was the director of research for the Rutherford and Perth Amboy public schools in New Jersey where she first collected children's drawings. To further her journey along, Goodenough worked with Lewis Terman as she did research helping with Terman's developments of the Stanfort-Binet IQ test for children. This is where she conducted research worthy of attention in Terman's book Genetic Studies of Genius.
Goodenough's most famous contribution was the invention of a test to measure nonverbal IQ. Her very reliable and highly valid Draw-A-Man test (also known as the Goodenough Scale) was a first to test non-verbal IQ in preschool and older-children populations. These drawings were looked at as a window to see mental processes and organization playing off the concept that children draw what they know�not what they see (Goodenough, 1975). This accomplishment was established in her first book: Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings. This test along with its revised 1940 Draw-A-Woman version was used well into the 1950's.
To continue assessment and testing, Goodenough revised the Stanford-Binet into the Minnesota Preschool scale which now included small children in its population. This test included both verbal and nonverbal sections and scores. It was at this time that Goodenough developed methods which are still used in observational studies. These methods were time sampling (studying a participant's behavior for a set period of time) and event sampling (studying a participant's particular behavior and counting its occurrence).
Goodenough didn't simply challenge the processes or testing methods of IQ tests, but she also critiqued the manner in the test were scored. She rationalized that mental age was not the same for all children. Instead, to allow comparison of children with in the same chronological age group, percentages should be used to report results. These arguments were presented in Handbook of Child Psychology of 1933.
Beginning in 1920, Goodenough became a forerunner in documenting effects of environment on intelligence scores. Even though her position on the nature vs. nurture debate caused the most controversy on her career path, she held her position that intelligence is a stable entity, challenging the effect of environment on the scores of children's intelligence tests.
Surprisingly as many contributions as Goodenough made and as many accomplishment and breakthroughs she achieved, she is not well known, not even widely recognized within the field of psychology. However, her contributions are an essential part of psychology's history.