Lewis Terman: Biography Of This Intelligence Researcher
In the field of psychology and education, Lewis Terman was one of the first authors to talk about intelligence, along with Alfred Binet and William Stern. Terman was an American psychologist, very interested in studying intelligence, tests that evaluate it, and giftedness.
Through this article you will find a biography of Lewis Terman in which some of the most important contributions of the creator of the most used intelligence test in the United States (the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale) are explained.
Lewis Terman (Johnson County, 1877 – Palo Alto, 1956), full name Lewis Madison Terman, was an American psychologist who collaborates at various North American universities, such as Stanford University
Terman was born in Johnson County, Indiana (USA) on January 15, 1877, and died on December 21, 1956 in Palo Alto, California (USA). Terman began his studies at Central Normal College in Danville (Indiana), and at Indiana University (where he took some courses). He later graduated in Psychology from another university, Clark University, in 1905.
The intelligence
Terman devoted a lot of time to researching human intelligence, which he defined as “the ability to think abstractly.” He was also a pioneer in the field of educational psychology, at the beginning of the 20th century.
In fact, Lewis Terman became known worldwide for creating the first intelligence test, widely used in the United States. To create it, was based on the Binet-Simon test (the original Binet-Simon scale), and created the so-called “Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.”
To this day, this Scale is still widely used, and is now in its fifth edition. Later we will discuss some of its most relevant characteristics.
Eugenics
Lewis Terman was also a member of the Human Betterment Foundation (a eugenics group founded by ES Gosney in 1928).
Thus, Terman was advocate of eugenics, a philosophy that advocates the improvement of hereditary traits (especially intelligence) through different methods of human manipulation and selection.
Career path
At a professional level, Terman was a professor of psychology and pedagogy at the State Normal School (Los Angeles) for four years (1906 to 1910). In 1910 he began working at Stanford University, this time as a professor of education.
On the other hand, Terman He was also president of the American Psychological Association Regarding the recognitions granted to Terman, the Honorary Professorship awarded by Stanford University stands out.
Contributions
We are going to learn about the most relevant contributions of Lewis Terman in the field of education, intelligence and psychology.
1. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
The aforementioned Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, developed by Terman, measures intelligence and cognitive ability, through several differentiated factors: working memory, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, fluid reasoning and visual-spatial processing. This scale consists of two verbal and non-verbal subtests, and is administered individually.
The Terman Scale originated within the proliferation of intelligence tests, and in fact constitutes an example of an adaptation of another test the Binet scale (Alfred Binet, French psychologist).
Later, with Terman’s adaptation, the test was published in 1916 in the form of an exam under the name “Stanford-Binet test”, at Stanford University.
On the other hand, Lewis Terman also introduced group intelligence tests in the United States Army, so we find part of the roots of intelligence evaluation in military psychology, in this author.
3. IQ
One of Terman’s most important contributions was the introduction of the term “intelligence quotient” (IQ) to measure human intelligence; It was an index of measurement of such faculty, applicable to children and adults.
Specifically, What Terman did was adopt the suggestion of another author, William Stern (German psychologist), who proposed multiplying the Mental Quotient by 100, in order to avoid the inconvenience caused by decimals. This is how Lewis Terman established the Intelligence Quotient (IQ), which is calculated through the following formula:
(mental age / chronological age) * 100
Advantages and disadvantages of CI
In relation to the advantages and disadvantages of Lewis Terman’s IQ, we find that: as an advantage, it is an index independent of age (thus, if a subject shows an average performance compared to his age group invariable in successive years, their IQ varies).
As a disadvantage or problem, we find that there are no differentiating tasks for the age groups of 20 and 25 years, and that Mental Age (ME) does not grow at the same speed as Chronological Age (CE) Therefore, in adults, Mental Quotients are low.
Outstanding works
Among the most notable works of Lewis Terman we find (in chronological order):
In relation to the work of The genetic study of geniusit should be noted that this is made up of five volumes, where The analysis of 1,500 gifted children is collected This work was published after Terman’s death (it is, therefore, a posthumous work).
Beyond “normative” intelligence, Terman also took a great interest in gifted (i.e., highly gifted) children. Through his studies, Terman observed that gifted children did not represent the stereotypes often associated with them at that time (they were sickly children, poorly adapted to society…).
What’s more, he found that they were taller children, with healthier physical development and better social adaptation, compared to the rest of the children. Thus, she prepared different studies of them; As a curious fact, she colloquially called the children she included in these studies “termites.”
On the other hand, in the field of giftedness, another of the contributions that Lewis Terman made was to implement a program, in 1921, that had the objective of studying gifted children (in the long term). According to Terman, these children belonged to 2% of the population (i.e. the top 2% of the population, in terms of intelligence).
