History of Psychological Profiling Essay

In the early nineteenth century, when astronomers timed the act of stars overhead, they noniced that they each(prenominal) came up with different results. They chalked these individual differences up to differences in what they c onlyed the temper of the eye. Even as far back as the mid-1800s, howling(a) scholars were championing the whole person as a unit of learning. From that point forward, individual psychologists began to think record and behavior differently.Sir Fancis Galton (1822-1911)Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) may decent be called the implantoff practitioner of genial examen. It has been said that he originated mental shows, and expect that intelligence could be measured in terms of a persons level of sensory capacity-the higher(prenominal) the intelligence, the higher the level of sensory discrimination. Galton also began a long line of investigate on mental imagery, such(prenominal) of which included the first-class honours degree ex cardinalsive use of the mental questionnaire.Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)For Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), give away of the psychoanalytic movement, personality consisted of the ID, the Ego and the Superego, all of which he believed guide our behavior to an extent. During the 1920s, analytic thinking developed as a hypothetic system for understanding all of homosexual motivation and personality, not just a treatment for the mentally disturbed.William pile (1842-1910)William pack (1842-1910), often considered the greatest Ameri bathroom psychologist, argued that compassionate behavior was the result of hereditary, clothess and/or instincts. unruffled considered a major contribution to psychology, The Principles of psychology was published in 1890, to both sycophancy and condemnation, yet remains one of the around panopticly read watchwords in the field.James Mckeen Cattell (1860-1944)A contemporary of William James, James McKeen Cattell (1860-1944) is impute with influencing the movement i n American psychology toward a more than practical, test-oriented approach to the study of mental processes. The theme of all his research was the difficulty of individual difference.Alfred Binet (1857-1911)Although it was Cattell who coined the term mental test, it was Alfred Binet (1857-1911) who developed the first truly psychological test of mental ability in 1905 to predict school performance. That test is silence in use today as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.John b. Watson (1878-1958)At the said(prenominal) time, John B. Watson (1878-1958) was founding a bran-new trend in psychology-the behaviorist movement. Although he began his c arer with the study of animal behavior, he ended it by studying consumer-buying behavior. Watson exerted a major impact on denote in the U.S. through the application of behaviorist principles, which can still be well seen and heard in commercials and ads today.Carl Jung (1875-1961)Although once announce by Freud as the heir sheer to the psychoanalytic movement, Carl Jung (1875-1961) came to differ with Freud on the way of the forces that influence the human personality. Jung believed that our behavior was not exclusively shaped by our previous(prenominal) childhood experiences, but by our future tense hopes, goals and aspirations as well.B.F. skinner (1904-1990)Behaviorist B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) argued that all behavior, except verbal behavior, was just the correlation between a stimulant and a response. He developed a program for behavioral control of societies, and more than anyone else is responsible for the large-scale use of education machines and techniques of behavior modification.Prior to homo contend I only limited attempts had been do to measure personality. For example, in the late nineteenth century, a German psychiatrist had use what he called a free-association test, in which patients responded to stimulus words with the first word that came to mind.During World War I, the U.S. army wanted to contend which of its recruits were highly neurotic. Psychologist Robert Woodworth constructed the Personal Data Sheet, a self-report instrument that asked recruits to indicate the neurotic that traits utilize to them. Although the Personal Data Sheet cut little use during the war, it was the prototype for much of the personality profiling currently in use.Raymond b. Cattell (1905-1998)Then in 1950, Raymond B. Cattell (1905-1998) suggested that the central problem in personality psychology was the prognostication of behavior. Cattell argued that traits were the central variables in personality and could be divided into three general categories propellant traits-those that set an individual into action to reach out a goal ability traits-which fill the individuals effectiveness in reaching a goal and nature traits-which were the stylistic aspects, like dispositions, moods, and emotions.Ground gaolbreak work was done during the 1960s by Dr. Robert Guion in the field of personality testing within the workplace, much of which is reflected in his book Personnel Testing (McGraw-Hill 1965). Dr. Guion focused on testing candidates for employment as a basis for predicting their probable fit in the workplace.During the 1970s personality testing became progressively accepted as an invaluable preference to many employers when selecting employees for hire or promotion. Unfortunately, out-of-pocket to the costs typically associated with these instruments and their administration, the use of personality testing instruments was limited to larger organizations and unremarkably only for upper management or appoint positions.David p. Pearson 1927-presentIn 1978 Dr. David Pearson became one of the first in his field to produce a software program that could perform a behavioral evaluation of an individual, without requiring the administration by or wait onance of a psychologist or behavioral scientist. Since their development, evaluations of this type have proven to be invaluable to thousands of organizations world wide when selecting employees for hire or promotion.Today, everyone from psychologists, counselors, teachers and human imagery managers in government, education and industry, uses psychological or educational evaluations. There is scarcely a person over the age of ten who has not taken at to the lowest degree one such test in their lifetime, whether it was an achievement test, an IQ test, a personality evaluation, or a measure of skill in a particular field. The key reason for the increase in test use over the last 75 years is that ethically correct tests are more reliable and accurate than indispensable judgments, which often function as filters when we prise and observe opposites.This very human habit was considered by William James back in 1860, in a frequently quoted passage from The Principles of Psychology. You see the little lines of cleavage streak through the character, the tricks of thought, the prejudices, the ways of the shop, in a word, from which the man can by-and-by no more escape than his coat-sleeve can perfectly course into a new set of folds (pg. 79). Even the best interviewer can fall prey to unconscious biases, personal beliefs, stereotypes and other distractions that leave objectivity subject to error. Well-developed tests can help even the most experience and knowledgeable hiring professional construct a honester and more accurate picture of an individual, change magnitude the likelihood that they will hire the upright person for the job.But testing should never be used in a vacuum. As Robert Guion says, Testing should not be the instrument of decision. It should be used as a flag that either agrees with or contradicts your impression about a person. At MindData we agree that tests can never fill in professional judgment entirely. Rather, they should serve as one source of information to assist in making accurate and fair decisions when hiring and promoting.