HISTORY

OF
TESTING
Early antecedents
 The use of tests or test batteries (two or more tests used in
conjunction) started in China during the Han Dynasty in the form
of civil service testing programs.

 The British government and the US government adapted the

testing programs of China for the efficient employee selection for
government jobs.
Individual differences
 Sir Francis Galton made several researches which demonstrate that
individual differences exist in human sensory and motor
functioning such as reaction time, visual acuity and physical
strength.

 Galton’s work was extended by the US psychologist James

McKeen Cattell, who coined the term mental tests.
EXPERIMENTs and psychophysics

Ernst Heinrich Weber created measures in order to prove the existence of

psychological threshold or the minimum stimulus necessary to activate a sensory
system.

Wilhelm Wundt set up a laboratory at the University of Leipzig in 1879.

Administration of tests under highly standardized conditions.

The evolution of intelligence

Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon developed the first major general intelligence
test (Binet-Simon Scale) in 1905 in a systematic attempt to evaluate individual
difference in terms of mental ability.

The test was then revised in 1908 and it determined a child’s mental age –
measurement of a child’s performance on the test relative to other children of
that particular age group.
The evolution of intelligence

 In 1911, the Binet-Simon Scale was revised by Lewis Terman and it became
widely known as the Stanford-Binet Scale.

 The Stanford-Binet Scale was further revised in 1916 and 1937.

 In 1939, David Wechsler published the first version of the Wechsler-Bellevue

Intelligence Scale which added the performance or non-verbal IQ.
Growth of Personality Tests

 The first structured personality test is the Woodworth Personal Data Sheet and
it was developed during World War I. Its main purpose is to screen military
recruits.

 The Woodworth Personal Data Sheet represented an attempt to standardize the

psychiatric interview.

 More structured personality tests were created in 1920s.

Woodworth personal data sheet

ITEMS YES NO
1. I wet the bed.
2. I drink a quart of whiskey each day.

3. I am afraid of closed spaces.

4. I believe I am being followed.
5. People are out to get me.
6. Sometimes I see or hear things that other people do not see
or hear.
7. Sometimes I wish I had never been born.
Growth of Personality Tests
 Interest in structured personality tests declined by the
late 1930s and early 1940s while the creation of
projective personality tests grew.

 Herman Rorschach published the Rorschach Inkblot

Test in 1921.

 Henry Murray and Christina Morgan developed the

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) in 1935.
 Sample item in the Sample item in the Thematic
Rorschach Inkblot Test Apperception Test
New Era for Structured
Personality Tests

 In 1943, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

began a new era for structured personality tests by using empirical
methods to determine the meaning of a test response.

 The MMPI has a primary function of assigning appropriate diagnostic

labels to people with mental illness.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

ITEMS TRUE FALSE

1. My judgment is better than it ever was.
2. I am very strongly attracted by members of my own sex.

3. I like to read newspaper articles on crime.

4. I seldom worry about my heath.

5. I am an important person.

6. Much of the time my head seems to hurt all over.

7. My body weight does not change.

New Era for Structured
Personality Tests

 After the creation of MMPI, several personality tests used the statistical
procedure called factor analysis – a method of finding the minimum number
of dimensions (factors) to account for a large number of variables.

 By the end of 1940s, Raymond Cattell introduced the 16 Personality Factor

(16PF) Questionnaire which utilized factor analysis.
DARK AGES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
TESTING

 Testingunderwent a sharp decline in status in the late 1950s until

the 1970s.

 Many feared the intrusive nature of tests and its tendency to be

misused.

 Attacks on testing came from within and without the profession.

Current Environment of Testing

 During the 1980s and 1990s, several fields of applied psychology utilized
testing to assess the behavior of individuals – neuropsychology, health
psychology, forensic psychology and child psychology.

 Psychological testing remains as one of the most important yet

controversial topics in psychology.