preview

Background Of Intelligence Testing During Wwi

Good Essays

Individuals can vary in multiple ways in regards to their personalities, mental abilities, emotional reactions, skill sets, etc. (Bauer & Erdogan, 2012). These differences in people are referred to as individual differences (IDs) and have been a significant area of study in Industrial/Organizational (IO) psychological research due to their presumed effect on work related outcomes (Bauer & Erdogan, 2012). However, focus on IDs greatly declined due to the lack of research supporting the predictive power of IDs in regards to work related variables, such as job performance, as well as, adverse impact caused by the inappropriate use of ability testing (Daus, 2016; Bauer & Erdogan, 2012). Despite these reasons for the decline in studying IDs, many arguments exist to support the importance and practicality of once again studying IDs. Rationales for studying IDs are discussed.
Interest in the study of IDs rose partly due to the introduction of intelligence testing during WWI (Daus, 2016) and the development of the Big Five model of personality (Barrick, Mount, & Strauss, 1993). When Robert Yerkes introduced intelligence testing into the selection procedures used by the military, it allowed the military to efficiently and accurately place recruits into the appropriate positions based on their cognitive ability scores (Kevles, 1968). After the war ended, intelligence testing became much more commonplace in public areas outside of the military, such as schools, immigration offices, and

Get Access