[email protected] wrote: > I hope no one minds if I return to this now-concluded thread with a > belated thought I've been mulling over. > > I see the problem with using the Myers-Briggs as a guide to pairing dorm > roommates is not so much its uncertain scientific status (although that > doesn't help). It's that using it to promote dorm room harmony buys into > the unfortunately widespread belief that a non-specific psychological > test is better than one specifically designed for a particular problem. >
Which is why Walter Dill Scott may be the most underestimated psychologist in the history of the discipline. "Who?" you ask. A one-time student of Wundt, Scott was a Northwestern business psychology prof in the early 20th century (indeed, he practically invented the field). He made a good living developing screening tests to identify good potential salesmen, managers, and the like. When APA president Robert M. Yerkes decided to stake psychology's reputation on giving intelligence tests to every American drafted into WWI, Scott quit the APA Council and quietly consulted with another branch of the military on the side (rather than becoming a faux-officer, like Yerkes et al.). He designed tests to identify good potential officers, whatever combination of intelligence and other mental virtues that might happen to entail. In the end, history tells the sordid story of Yerkes' Alpha and Beta tests, and the eugenic conclusions that Yerkes and others drew from the results. Scott, on the other hand, was the only psychologist to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal at the end of the war (and was effectively written out of the history of psychology textbooks for his trouble). See, e.g., Von Mayrhauser, R.T. (1989). Making intelligence functional: Walter Dill Scott and applied psychological testing in World War I. /Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 25,/ 60-72. Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
