assessment: historical figures

Question 1

Jean Esquirol (1772-1840)

Answer 1

used language development to identify varying levels of intelligence. His work is considered a forerunner of verbal IQ. He is credited with recognizing that intellectual disability (at the time called mental retardation) was related to developmental deficiencies rather than mental illness.

Question 2

Edouard Seguin (1812-1880)

Answer 2

developed the form board, which improved the motor skills of individuals with intellectual disability. The form board is considered a predecessor to performance IQ testing.

Question 3

Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911)

Answer 3

was a biologist credited with launching the testing movement and developing the first test of intelligence. He pioneered the use of rating-scale and questionnaire methods and developed the correlation coefficient through his work in examining the relationship between reaction time, grip strength, and intelligence.

Question 4

William Wundt (1832–1920)

Answer 4

founded one of the first psychological laboratories to conduct experimental research.

Question 5

James Cattell (1860–1944)

Answer 5

was one of the first to apply statistical concepts to psychological assessment. Cattell popularized the term mental test.

Question 6

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

Answer 6

studied human memory and is well known for his work on the forgetting curve. He administered mental tests to school-age children and was able to show that his sentence completion test was related to scholastic achievement.

Question 7

Alfred Binet (1875-1911)

Answer 7

developed the first modern intelligence test, the Binet-Simon scale, with Theophile Simon.

Question 8

Lewis Terman (1877-1956)

Answer 8

revised the Binet-Simon scale, naming the enhanced version the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test. The Stanford-Binet was the first intelligence test to incorporate the intelligence quotient (ratio IQ), which is chronological age divided by mental age.

Question 9

Arthur Otis (1886–1964)

Answer 9

devised the first scientifically reliable measure for testing the intelligence of individuals in groups. The assessment was called the Otis Group Intelligence Scale.

Question 10

Robert Yerkes (1876–1956)

Answer 10

used Otis’s group intelligence instrument to develop the Army Alpha and Army Beta group intelligence tests. The Army Alpha was designed to screen the cognitive ability of military recruits. The intelligence measure was eventually revised for civilian use. The Army Beta was the language-free version of the test designed for recruits who could not read or were foreign-born.

Question 11

Charles Spearman (1863–1945) and L. L. Thurston (1887-1955)

Answer 11

developed a statistical test known as factor analysis, which led to the development of multiple aptitude testing.

Question 12

James Bryant Conant (1893–1978),

Answer 12

in conjunction with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), developed the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Conant believed his test would decrease disparity among social classes and create equal opportunities in education.

Question 13

Edward Thorndike (1874–1949)

Answer 13

developed the first achievement test battery, the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT), which provided an objective measure of academic performance and could be administered to large groups of students.

Question 14

Robert Sessions Woodworth (1896–1962)

Answer 14

developed Woodworth’s Personal Data Sheet, an emotional stability-screening test for World War I military recruits. It was the first standardized personality inventory.

Question 15

Starke Hathaway (1903–1984) and J. Charnley McKinley (189-1950)

Answer 15

developed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), an objective measure of personality structure. The second version, MMP-2, is now the personality test most widely used to identify and diagnosis psychopathology.

Question 16

Carl Jung (1875–1961), Herman Rorschach (1884–1922), and Henry Murray (1893-1988)

Answer 16

developed projective techniques (Jung’s word associations, Rorschach’s inkblots, and Murray’s Thematic Apperception Test, respectively) to assess personality.

Question 17

Frank Parsons (1854–1908)

Answer 17

was the father of vocational guidance and counseling. His work gave birth to the development of vocational and interest inventories.

Question 18

Edward Strong (1884–1963)

Answer 18

devised the Strong Vocational Interest Blank, which is known today as the Strong Interest Inventory. The Strong Interest Inventory remains among the most widely used and researched vocational measure in career counseling.