H I S T O R Y
P s y c h o l o g i c a l
o f
T e s t i n g
2200 B.C.E. Proficiency testing begins in China. The
Emperor evaluates public officials every third year.
1800 B.C.E. Babylonians develop astrology in order
to interact with the gods and predict the future.
Greeks later redefine astrology to predict and
describe personality.
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500 B.C.E. Pythagoras begins
physiognomy to evaluate personality.
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400 B.C.E. Hippocrates introduces Humorology to
the field of medicine for the treatment of physical
and mental illness.
400 B.C.E. Plato suggests people should find
employment that is consistent with their abilities.
175 B.C.E. Claudius Galenus designs experiments to
show that it is the brain and the not the heart that
is the seat of intellect.
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500 A.D. With the start of the Middle Ages, science
takes a backseat to faith and superstition and the
history of psychological testing is temporarily
halted.
1200 A.D. Interest in individual differences emerges
as people begin to question whether those in
“league with satan” did so voluntarily
or
involuntarily. Trials for witchery and sorcery were
common.
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1265 A.D. Thomas Aquinas asserts that the notion of
the human immortal soul should be replaced by the
notion of a human capacity to think and reason.
1550 A.D. The Renaissance witnesses a rebirth in
philosophy and an appreciation for science.
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1698 A.D. Juan Huarte publishes The Tyral of Wits, the
first book to propose a discipline of assessment.
1770 A.D. The cause of philosophy and sciences
advances with the writings of French, German, and
English philosophers. One of these philosophers, Rene
Descartes, proposes the mind-body question.
1823 A.D. The Journal of Phrenology is founded to
further the study of human abilities and talents.
Although
proven
unfounded
experimentation,
phrenology proposed that human
qualities are *press outward on the skull
localized in concentrations of brain fiber that press
outward on the skull.
1869 A.D. Sir Francis Galton publishes a study of
heredity and genius which pioneered a statistical
technique that Karl Pearson would later
call
correlation.
1879 A.D. In Leipzig, Germany, Wilhelm Wundt founds
the first experimental psychology laboratory. Wundt’s
structuralism relies heavily on a tool of assessment
called introspection whereby subjects try to describe
their conscious experience of a stimulus.
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1895 A.D. American psychologist James McKeen
helped launched the beginning of psychological
testing. Cattell eventually found Psychological
Corporation, a company with a goal of “useful
application of psychology”
1900 A.D. Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation
of Dreams which goes on to influence approaches to
understanding personality for the next 50 years.
1905 A.D. Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon publish a
30-item scale of intelligence designed to help classify
schoolchildren in Paris schools. The development of the
Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale is largely recognized
as launching a new era in measurement.
1908 A.D. Frank Parsons opens the Vocational Bureau
of Boston begins offering career guidance to young
adults.
Frank Parsons
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1914 A.D. World War I brings about a boom in
psychological testing as thousands of American
recruits are screened for intellectual and emotional
functioning. Army Alpha and Army Beta.
1919 A.D. Robert Woodworth publishes the Personal
Data Sheet to help identify Army recruits susceptible
to ‘shell shock.’
1921 A.D. Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorscharch
publishes his famous monograph, Psychodiagnostics,
which would lead to the development of the
Rorschach Inkblot Test.
1926 A.D. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is
developed and administered for the first time.
1927 A.D. Charles Spearman publishes a two- factor
theory of intelligence in which he postulates the
existence of a general intellectual ability factor and
specific components of that general ability.
1938 A.D. Mental tests have reached the status of big robert woodsworth
business. According to 1938 Metal Measurements at = personal data sheet
least 4, 000 psychological test are in print.
1939 A.D. David Wechsler introduces the WechslerBellevue Intelligence Scale which was designed to
measure adult intelligence. Today, multiple versions
of these tests are in publication and are the most
popular instruments used to measure the intelligence
of children and adults.
1943 A.D. Minnesota
Inventory was published.
Multiphasic
Personality
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1949 A.D. The
first version to the
Wechsler Intelligence Tests for children
was published.
1949 A.D. The 16PF Questionnaire, 1st
Edition is released for public use.
1955 A.D. The first version of the
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Tests was
published.
1962 A.D. Katherine Briggs and Isabel
Briggs Meyers publish the Meyers Briggs
Type Indicator (MBTI)
1962 A.D. Warren T. Norman publishes
his first article over the Big Five
Personality Test
1970 A.D. John L. Holland publishes the
first version of the Self Directed Search
(SDS) for consumer use. The inventory
was intended to help individuals identify
careers that are congruent with their
personalities. It is considered as the dark
age of psychological testing as most
people feared its intrusive nature and
the tendency to be misused.
BIG 5 PERSONALITY:
O - openness
C - conscientiousness
E - extraversion
A - agreeableness
N - neuroticism
= O.C.E.A.N.
1980s and 1990s several fields of
applied
psychology
utilized
psychological testing and assessment.
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