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1 Running head: LEWIS TERMAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY

Lewis Terman: His Intelligence Test and His Studies of Giftedness Gianna Schembari Nova Southeastern University

2 Running head: LEWIS TERMAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY Lewis Terman’s Start It can be agreed that most psychologist’s main objective is to fathom the human mind and human behavior. Nonetheless, each psychologist’s methods of research and theories differ, as well as their impact on the psychological world. To be specific, one psychologist that had an immense impact in educational science was Lewis Madison Terman. Terman was an American scientist and writer who was mentioned as one of the leading pioneers in the development of clinical studies of individual differences during the early twentieth century (Vernon, 1990). He is best known for his revision of the Stanford-Binet Test and for starting the study of children with higher IQs. Early Life Lewis Terman was born on January 15th, 1877 in Johnson County, Indiana. Coming from a region that was culturally and economically backward, Terman was never pushed to attend college and get a degree. According to Terman, there was no influence of his family in his early environment that conditioned him to favor psychology later in life, although he developed a considerable passion for reading and learning. “As far back as I can remember I seem to have had a little more interest than the average child in the personalities of others and to have been impressed by those who differed in some respect from the common run.” (Green, 1930, p.300). With that being said, as Terman aged, his family and himself were under the impression that he was destined to spend his life on a farm or as the manager of a small business and that his education would not exceed past high school (Green, 1930, p.299), which shows how little he knew about what he would discover later on in his career. Psychology Specialization

3 Running head: LEWIS TERMAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY After enrolling at the Central Normal College in Danville at the age of fifteen and graduating with a BS in education and again with a BA, Terman then decided to complete a Ph.D. at Clark University in 1905. As Terman continued through his education, he had the opportunity to study under G. Stanley Hall and after carrying his love for education into his early career, Terman became a principle of a township high school, where he taught the entire curriculum of a four-year high school to forty students (Green, 1930). After his time as a principal, Terman accepted a position at Stanford University teaching educational psychology to continue his passion with education and psychology. While at Stanford, Terman pursued even deeper into educational psychology when he revised and perfected the Binet-Simon Test while also studying gifted children, which he called Terman’s Termites. Famous Theories Once he began his in-depth research on giftedness and revision of the Binet-Simon test, Terman’s major contributions shifted. In 1906, Terman’s Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon Scale soon became known as the best available individual intelligence test. Highlighted in Chapter 1 of the improved Stanford-Binet scale manual, scientific diagnosis and classification of children to be placed in special classes would be possible. It would also bring tens of thousands of high-grade defectives under the surveillance and protection of society; reduce delinquency; help the schools respond to children of superior intelligence; assist in assigning children to school grades; help determine vocational fitness; and serve as a standard for research according to Terman (1916). Once the new publication of the Binet-Simon test was finished, an influential student of Terman; Florence L. Goodenough developed a guide to administering the test. The purpose of this guide was to make it possible for any experienced examiner to learn the rules to follow the standardized procedure without any variation (Goodenough, 1937, pg.605-609).

4 Running head: LEWIS TERMAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY Terman was also responsible for his studies involving intelligence in children, his “Termites”. His Termites were chosen to test the early ripe-early rot myth which was a basic way of knowing if high IQ children had intellectual success or failure as adults. Terman positioned gifted children as non-average but ideal which was a borrowed ideology from Galton (Hegarty, 2007). According to Terman, precocious children were more likely to turn out well later on in life because he found that the gifted were “taller, healthier, physically better developed, superior in leadership and social adaptability” (Terman, 1916). Effect of theories Lewis Terman played an extremely important role in early development of educational psychology. He advocated for backing and direction for children that were identified as gifted to nurture their talents and abilities. To this day, Terman’s gifted Termites are still being analyzed. According to Joel Shurkin, Terman’s successors provided follow up studies on the children well into their adulthood to examine if Terman’s theory of giftedness was accurate (Davine, 1993). The Termites were assessed in areas such as success in schooling, careers, attitudes, and family life over this long period of time. Controversies Although Lewis Terman was named one of the most notable pioneers in gifted education and intelligence testing, much controversy and criticism came with it. The critique focused on the shortcomings of Terman’s most famous work because of its bias against women and certain ethnic groups (Vialle, 1994). According to Stanford Magazine (2000), Terman was an advocate of eugenics, which was a social movement attempting to improve humanity by maintaining certain inherited traits and eliminating others. With this, Terman pushed for forced sterilization of thousands of mentally handicapped Americans so they would limit whether or not they pass on

5 Running head: LEWIS TERMAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY the intelligence genes. Once the outside world realized Terman’s beliefs, a considerable amount of controversy began. What influenced Terman

Lewis Terman had a great amount of influences that drew him to a career in educational psychology. As reported by Terman himself, an early education influence was the Reading-Circle books that gave him a philosophical and psychological interest in education. His first born child was also a factor that brought a huge psychological interest into his life, “My wife reminds me (I had forgotten it) that two to three years later, while a student at Indiana University, I told her my interest in our baby had determined me to become a psychologist. Whether or not the influence was so decisive as this would indicate, it is certainly true that I was introduced to the child-study movement at a psychologically favorable time in my life.” (Green, 1930, p.309). Not only did family and early education influence Terman, two well-known psychologists; Binet and Galton were also an inspiration. Terman admired Galton as one of the founders of modern psychology and favored Binet because of his originality of insight, open-mindedness, and the charm of personality that shines through all of his writings (Terman, 1916).

Psychology before Terman During the early 1800s there was no distinct science of psychology, it was strictly used to label a part of philosophy that was identified with human consciousness. This time was about 77 years prior to the birth of Lewis Terman. Some well-known researchers during that time include Franz Jospeh Gall, Georg Hegel, and John Reil. That being said, Lewis Terman played a huge role in psychology simply because educational psychology was barely established by the time of his birth.

6 Running head: LEWIS TERMAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY Terman’s Legacy Terman’s legacy was left unfulfilled. He desired a more socially just and democratic society through his psychological tests and recognition of the intellectually gifted. Unfortunately, Terman’s work had an unintended dehumanizing effect with regards to racial minorities, sexuality, and giftedness which proved in his failure to understand and accept power inequities of American social order during his time (Scribner, 2008).

7 Running head: LEWIS TERMAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOLOGY

References Davine, V. R. (1993). Gifted termites: The legacy of lewis terman. Contemporary Psychology, 38(5), 467-468. Goodenough, F. L. (1937). Review of measuring intelligence. A guide to the administration of the new revised stanford-binet tests of intelligence. Psychological Bulletin, 34(8), 605609. Green, C. (1930). Autobiography of Lewis M. Terman. Classics in the History of Psychology, 2, 297-331. Hegarty, P. (2007). From genius inverts to gendered intelligence: Lewis terman and the power of the norm. History of Psychology, 10(2), 132-155. Leslie, M. (2000). The Vexing Legacy of Lewis Terman. Stanford Magazine. Scribner, C. (2008). Lewis Madison Terman. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Terman, Lewis M. (1916). The uses of intelligence tests. From The measurement of intelligence. Ch.1. Vernon, P. A. (1990). Review of lewis M. terman: Pioneer in psychological testing. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 31(2), 185-187. Vialle, W. (1994). "Termanal" science? the work of lewis terman revisited. Roeper Review: A Journal on Gifted Education, 17(1), 32-38....