History of Intellectual Assessment
Ashee D. Niland
Psy300 Dr. Dan Erickson
University of Phoenix

History of Intellectual Assessments
What is intelligence? How can we discover how intelligent we are or even where intelligence comes from? The assessment of intelligence started a long time ago in the BC era and as time progressed developed into so much more with intelligence testing. Intelligence tests are test designed to measure the ability to think and reason rather than acquired knowledge. “Intelligence involves the ability to think, solve problems, analyze situations, and understand social values, customs, and norms” (Logston, YYYY). Although the different psychologist had different points of views about how to measure intelligence, they all made an impact on intelligence testing in their time period. In this paper we will discuss the men that discovered what kind of test could be used in testing intelligence, who they are, and more about what intelligence is. We will discuss the history of intellectual assessment. We will also discuss how intellectual functioning can have an impact on your personal success. Some of the key figures in intellectual assessment will be discussed in this such as Jene Piaget, David Wechsler, Lewis Terman, and Alfred Binet.
Key People in Intellectual Assessments
As we begin speaking about the key people in intellectual assessments we ask that you take note in the combination of them all! With the study of only one of these men and their research we wouldn’t fully understand what intelligence is or how it works and builds throughout the stages of our lives. I will start first with Jean Piaget. “Jean Piaget was born in Neuchâtel (Switzerland) on August 9, 1896. He died in Geneva on September 16, 1980” (Ginn, YYYY). Jean Piaget had a lot to do with the intellectual assessment because Piaget discovered that children think and reason differently in different stages of their lives. He would say that everyone goes through four invariant sequence, qualitatively stages in their lives. Invariant means that you cannot skip the stages or put them in different orders. Although every child passes through these stages in the same order. “The four stages are: sensorimotor - birth to 2 years; preoperational - 2 years to 7 years; concrete operational - 7 years to 11 years; and formal operational (abstract thinking) - 11 years and up”(Ginn, YYYY). Piaget was able to help us all better understand the learning processes and alike schedules that children go through as they mature, as we all grow up!
David Wechsler
“David "Wex" Wechsler (January 12, 1896 – May 2, 1981) was a leading American psychologist. He developed well-known intelligence scales, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children” ("Wikipedia", YYYY). Wechsler is best known for his intelligence tests. According to Wikipedia (YYYY), [He is one of the most influential advocates of the role of nonintellective factors in testing. He emphasized that factors other than intellectual ability are involved in intelligent behavior.[1] Wechsler objected to the single score offered by the 1937 Binet scale. Although his test did not directly measure non-intellective factors, it took these factors into careful account in its underlying theory.] One of Wechsler’s test was “The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WISC)”, developed in 1939 and was then called the Wechsler Bellvue Intelligence Test. From this test he derived the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) from 1949-1967. Without Wechsler we would not have had such a breakthrough in the novel concepts of intelligence testing movement. He also did away with the quotient scores of the older intelligence tests meaning he did away with the “Q” in “I.Q”; “Instead, he assigned an arbitrary value of 100 to the mean intelligence and added or subtracted another 15 points for each standard deviation above or below the mean the subject was”(Wikipedia, YYYY)
Today the most commonly administered test is the WAIS.
Lewis Terman Lewis Terman was born in 1877 in Johnson County, IN and died in 1956 in Pala Alto, CA from Tuberculosis. American psychologist Lewis Terman was well known for creating tests that would measure intelligence (IQ). Terman believed that children that would score higher on IQ test would end up being that of leaders in their adulthood. Terman devised test that tested more than 1,000 children that were called “gifted” under his own test but the results of his own studies are considered flawed by Terman’s offering of guidance and help with these children. Terman also was a strong supporter of the eugenics programs, and would argue that the intelligence of a Negro is vastly inferior to that of the average white man.
Alfred Binet Alfred Binet was born in 1857 in Nice, France and died in 1911 in Paris, France with an unspecified cause of death. Alfred Binet describes intelligence as “It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called good sense practical sense, initiative, and the faculty of adapting one’s self to circumstances. A person may be a moron or an imbecile if he is lacking in judgment; but with good judgment he can never be either. Indeed the rest of the intellectual faculties seem of little importance in comparison with judgment” ( Binet & Simon 1916, 1973, pp.42-43 cite in PluckerJ.2003). The French psychologist Alfred Binet was assessing children to determine who will do well and who will need addition help in school. In 1908 Binet and Simon came up with some questions that include memory, attention and problem skills this process help Binet to come up with the concept of mental age to determine the intelligence level of children. This assessments was the first intelligence test done, they called it Binet –Simon scale. The purpose of this scale was to compare normal peers with children with mental disabilities. Binet believe that there were other things to consider among children intellect, the first test he later fell had limitation.
Ways the intellectual assessment affects my personal success
There is several ways intellectual functioning has impacted Ashlee’s personal success. Intelligence has different components in the mind and she continues to foster them. Her verbal intelligence is use on a daily basic at work speaking to the children and parents in the childcare company. The daily interactions and the daily use of the computer when she logs into her online class enhances the verbal area completely. Her creative intelligence continues to grow by the day; she is a very creative person with arts such as poetry and writing in general. She uses her spatial intelligence to observe the behavior of the people around her this makes her alert of her surroundings. Her logical intelligence helps her to solve problems at work and home. It continues to grow as she maintains her relationship with her family and friends. Her social intelligence advance above all the rest because learning psychology has opened her mind to new and inventive ways of understanding people. If Ashlee did not have intellectual function in her personal life her brain would not be working on full capacity, she would not remember things from her life, she would not know how to communicate, or how to solve problems. Having intellectual functioning allows Ashlee to fulfill her dreams of having a B.A in Psychology and having a healthy family life style.
Conclusion
Intelligence tests were design to assess an individual cognitive skills compared to others. The beginning purpose for this assessment was to identify children that had learning disabilities. Through all the other psychologist who influence intelligence testing made such a big impact to where they are widely use all over the world. There is good news a person can enhance their intelligence at any age through brain exercise involving different parts of the brain. Learning to enhance the brain in areas of verbal, spatial, emotional, social, logical, and creative helps Georgiana succeed in her personal life.

References
Ginn, W. Y. (YYYY). Jean Piaget - Intellectual Development. Retrieved from http://www.sk.com.br/sk-piage.html
Wikipedia. (YYYY). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wechsler
Plucker, J. A. (Ed.) (2003) human Intelligence: Historical influences, current controversies, teaching resources Retrieved (4/29/2012) from