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1
The History of
Psychological Testing
T O P I C 1A The Origins of Psychological Testing
The Importance of Testing
Case Exhibit 1.1 The Consequences of Test Results
Rudimentary Forms of Testing in China in 2200 B.C.
Psychiatric Antecedents of Psychological Testing
The Brass Instruments Era of Testing
Changing Conceptions of Mental Retardation in the 1800s
Influence of Binet’s Early Research upon His Test
Binet and Testing for Higher Mental Processes
The Revised Scales and the Advent of IQ
Summary
CH A P T E R
The history of psychological testing is a fascinating
story and has abundant relevance to
present-day practices. After all, contemporary tests
did not spring from a vacuum; they evolved slowly
from a host of precursors introduced over the last
one hundred years. Accordingly, Chapter 1 features
a review of the historical roots of present-day psychological
tests. In Topic 1A, The Origins of Psychological
Testing, we focus largely on the efforts
of European psychologists to measure intelligence
during the late nineteenth century and pre–World
War I era. These early intelligence tests and their
successors often exerted powerful effects on the
examinees who took them, so the first topic also
incorporates a brief digression documenting the
pervasive importance of psychological test results.
Topic 1B, Early Testing in the United States, catalogues
the profusion of tests developed by American
psychologists in the first half of the twentieth
century.
Psychological testing in its modern form originated
little more than one hundred years ago in laboratory
studies of sensory discrimination, motor
skills, and reaction time. The British genius Francis
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Galton (1822–1911) invented the first battery of
tests, a peculiar assortment of sensory and motor
measures, which we review in the following. The
American psychologist James McKeen Cattell
(1860–1944) studied with Galton and then, in 1890,
proclaimed the modern testing agenda in his classic
paper entitled “Mental Tests and Measurements.”
He was tentative and modest when describing the
purposes and applications of his instruments:
Psychology cannot attain the certainty and exactness
of the physical sciences, unless it rests on a
foundation of experiment and measurement. A step
in this direction could be made by applying a series
of mental tests and measurements to a large number
of individuals. The results would be of considerable
scientific value in discovering the constancy
of mental processes, their interdependence, and
their variation under different circumstances. Individuals,
besides, would find their tests interesting,
and, perhaps, useful in regard to training, mode of
life or indication of disease. The scientific and
practical value of such tests would be much increased
should a uniform system be adopted, so
that determinations made at different times and
places could be compared and combined. (Cattell,
1890)
Cattell’s conjecture that “perhaps” tests would
be useful in “training, mode of life or indication of
disease” must certainly rank as one of the prophetic
understatements of all time. Anyone reared in the
Western world knows that psychological testing
has emerged from its timid beginnings to become
a big business and a cultural institution that permeates
modern society. To cite just one example,
consider the number of standardized achievement
and ability tests administered in the school systems
of the United States. Although it is difficult to obtain
exact data on the extent of such testing, an estimate
of 200 million per year is probably not
extreme (Medina & Neill, 1990). Of course, the
total number of tests administered yearly also includes
millions of personality tests and untold
numbers of the thousands of other kinds of tests
now in existence (Conoley & Kramer, 1989, 1992;
Mitchell, 1985; Sweetland & Keyser, 1987). There
is no doubt that testing is pervasive. But does it
make a difference?
THE IMPORTANCE OF TESTING
Tests are used in almost every nation on earth for
counseling, selection, and placement. Testing occurs
in settings as diverse as schools, civil service,
industry, medical clinics, and counseling centers.
Most persons have taken dozens of tests and
thought nothing of it. Yet, by the time the typical individual
reaches retirement age, it is likely that psychological
test results will help shape his or her
destiny. The deflection of the life course by psychological
test results might be subtle, such as
when a prospective mathematician qualifies for an
accelerated calculus course based on tenth-grade
achievement scores. More commonly, psychological
test results alter individual destiny in profound
ways. Whether a person is admitted to one college
and not another, offered one job but refused a second,
diagnosed as depressed or not—all such determinations
rest, at least in part, on the meaning of
test results as interpreted by persons in authority.
Put simply, psychological test results change lives.
For this reason it is prudent—indeed, almost
mandatory—that students of psychology learn
about the contemporary uses and occasional abuses
of testing. In Case Exhibit 1.1, the life-altering aftermath
of psychological testing is illustrated by
means of several true case history examples.
The importance of testing is also evident from
historical review. Students of psychology generally
regard historical issues as dull, dry, and pedantic,
and sometimes these prejudices are well deserved.
After all, many textbooks fail to explain the relevance
of historical matters and provide only vague
sketches of early developments in mental testing.
As a result, students of psychology often conclude
incorrectly that historical issues are boring and
irrelevant.
In reality, the history of psychological testing is
a captivating story that has substantial relevance to
present-day practices. Historical developments are
pertinent to contemporary testing for the following
reasons:
1. A review of the origins of psychological testing
helps explain current practices that might other-
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wise seem arbitrary or even peculiar. For example,
why do many current intelligence tests incorporate
a seemingly nonintellective capacity,
namely, short-term memory for digits? The answer
is, in part, historical inertia—intelligence
tests have always included a measure of digit
span.
2. The strengths and limitations of testing also stand
out better when tests are viewed in historical context.
The reader will discover, for example, that
modern intelligence tests are exceptionally good
at predicting school failure—precisely because
this was the original and sole purpose of the first
such instrument developed in Paris, France, at
the turn of the twentieth century.
3. Finally, the history of psychological testing contains
some sad and regrettable episodes that
help remind us not to be overly zealous in our
modern-day applications of testing. For example,
based on the misguided and prejudicial
TOPIC 1A THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING 3
THE CONSEQUENCES OF TEST RESULTS
The importance of psychological testing is best illustrated by example. Consider
these brief vignettes:
• A shy, withdrawn 7-year-old girl is administered an IQ test by a school psychologist.
Her score is phenomenally higher than the teacher expected. The
student is admitted to a gifted and talented program where she blossoms into
a self-confident and gregarious scholar.
• Three children in a family living near a lead smelter are exposed to the toxic
effects of lead dust and suffer neurological damage. Based in part on psychological
test results that demonstrate impaired intelligence and shortened
attention span in the children, the family receives an $8 million settlement
from the company that owns the smelter.
• A candidate for a position as police officer is administered a personality inventory
as part of the selection process. The test indicates that the candidate
tends to act before thinking and resists supervision from authority figures.
Even though he has excellent training and impresses the interviewers, the
candidate does not receive a job offer.
• A student, unsure of what career to pursue, takes a vocational interest inventory.
The test indicates that she would like the work of a pharmacist. She
signs up for a prepharmacy curriculum but finds the classes to be both difficult
and boring. After three years, she abandons pharmacy for a major
in dance, frustrated that she still faces three more years of college to earn a
degree.
• An applicant to graduate school in clinical psychology takes the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). His recommendations and grade
point average are superlative, yet he must clear the final hurdle posed by the
MMPI. His results are reasonably normal but slightly defensive; by a narrow
vote, the admissions committee extends him an invitation. Ironically, this is
the only graduate school to admit him—nineteen others turn him down. He
accepts the invitation and becomes enchanted with the study of psychological
assessment. Many years later, he writes this book.
CASE EXHIBIT
1.1
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application of intelligence test results, several
prominent psychologists helped ensure passage
of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924.
In later chapters, we examine the principles of
psychological testing, investigate applications in
specific fields (e.g., personality, intelligence,
neuropsychology), and reflect on the social and
legal consequences of testing. However, the reader
will find these topics more comprehensible when
viewed in historical context. So, for now, we begin
at the beginning by reviewing rudimentary forms
of testing that existed over four thousand years ago
in imperial China.
RUDIMENTARY FORMS OF TESTING
IN CHINA IN 2200 B .C .
Although the widespread use of psychological testing
is largely a phenomenon of the twent