Classics in the History of Psychology


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Glossary for:

The Uses of Intelligence Tests
Lewis M. Terman (1916)

First published in The measurement of intelligence (chapter 1). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

moron: a technical term developed by H. H. Goddard, identifying the person with a relatively minor degree of mental disability. It was Goddard's rendering of Binet's term débile. Morons were thought not to be as "feeble-minded," to use the term of the time, as those who were called "idiots" and "imbeciles."

Cesare Lombroso (1836-1909): Italian physician best known for elaborating a theory ofthe "criminal type." Lombroso believed that criminality was inherited, and that the innate criminal could be identified by certain physical characteristics such as large jaw, high cheek bones, handle-shaped ears, and the like. These characteristics, he believed, identified the criminal as a "throw-back" to "savage" or even apish times.

Henry H. Goddard (1866-1957): First American popularizer of the Binet scale, and translator of Binet's articles. Wrote vigorously of the threat he believed to be posed by America's acceptance of large numbers of immigrants, who he believed to be "mentally defective" in large numbers.

Alfred Binet (1857-1911): French psychologist asked by the French government to construct a scale for identifying children who would benefit by extra help in school. In response, he developed the first intelligence test. This test would be translated into English by H. H. Goddard, and then modified by Lewis Terman "measure" the intelligence of every person, whether mentally disabled or not.

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864): Born Jakob Beer in Berlin, at the age of 24 he was advised by Antonio Salieri to study music in Italy. He changed his name and became a composer of Italian operas. Served a Wilhelm IV's court musical director in Berlin from 1842 until his death.

Maria Montessori (1870-1952): Italian educator. Developed a popular method of schooling young children in which students were encouraged to be self-directed in their explorations of their environments.