A Timeline of Psychological Testing

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.

500 B.C.E. Pythagoras begins practicing physiognomy to evaluate personality.

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.

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.

1265 A.D. Thomas Acquinas 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.

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 human talents. Although proven unfounded by experimentation, phrenology
proposed that human qualities are 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. Wundts structuralism relies heavily on a tool of assessment
called introspection whereby subjects try to describe their conscious experience of a
stimulus.

1895 A.D. American psychologist James McKeen Cattell helped launch the beginning
of mental testing. Cattell eventually founds Psychological Corporation, a company with
the goal of useful applications 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 BinetSimon 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.

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.

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 Rorschach 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. Carl 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 business. According to
the 1938 Mental Measurements Yearbook, at least 4,000 psychological tests are in print.

1939 A.D. David Wechsler introduces the Wechsler-Bellevue 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 Multiphasic Personality Inventory was published.

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
Factors.

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.
References:

DuBois, P. H. (1970). A history of psychological testing. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Foxcroft, C. & Roodt, G. (2005). An Introduction to psychological assessment in the South
African context. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Gregory, R. J. (2004). Psychological testing: History, principles, and applications. Needham
Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2003-88183-000