Assessment Center: The Beginnings
Multiple assessment procedures were used first by German military psychologists during World War II. They felt that paper-and-pencil tests took too “atomistic” a view of human nature; therefore, they chose to observe a candidate’s behavior in a complex situation to arrive at a “holistic” appraisal of his reactions. Building on this work and that of the War Office Selection Board of the British army in the early 1940s, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services used the method to select spies during World War II. Each candidate had to develop a cover story that would hide his identify during the assessment. Testing for the ability to maintain cover was crucial, and ingenious situational test were designed to seduce candidates into breaking cover.