The definition of a profession : the authority of metaphor in the history of intelligence testing, 1890-1930

Anyone who has ever done field research knows that you have to sell authority figures on the merit of what you are doing. Social Scientists don't always like to think of themselves in this way, but it is a necessity. This book explores the brilliant insight that early intelligence testers adopted a medical metaphor, and did so in a way that was remarkably similar to their contemporaries in the dental field. And both established credibility first in the schools as a means towards social progress. I, for one, knew absolutely nothing about dentistry at the turn of the last century before reading this book. Nor did I ever suspect it was relevant to my interests in standardized testing and personality. This book neither criticizes testing, nor praises it. It merely explains the process by which a group of researchers established credibility of their field - and it does so very well. {If history of testing is a topic of interest, I would rate higher - a 5}. It is a good companion to The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy In the early twentieth century, a small group of psychologists built a profession upon the new social technology of intelligence testing. They imagined the human mind as quantifiable, defining their new enterprise through analogies to the better established scientific professions of medicine and engineering. Offering a fresh interpretation of this controversial movement, JoAnne Brown reveals how this group created their professional sphere by semantically linking it to historical systems of cultural authority. She maintains that at the same time psychologists participated in a form of progressivism, which she defines as a political culture founded on the technical exploitation of human intelligence as a "new" natural resource. This book addresses the early days of the mental testing enterprise, including its introduction into the educational system. Moreover, it examines the processes of social change that construct, and are constructed by, shared and contested cultural vocabularies. Brown argues that language is an integral part of social and political experience, and its forms and uses can be specified historically. The historical and theoretical implications will interest scholars in the fields of history, politics, psychology, sociology of knowledge, history and philosophy of social science, and sociolinguistics. 000_FrontMatter......Page 1 001_Chapter1......Page 11 002_Chapter2......Page 45 003_Chapter3......Page 56 004_Chapter4......Page 72 005_Chapter5......Page 86 006_Chapter6......Page 106 007_Chapter7......Page 119 008_Chapter8......Page 136 009_BackMatter......Page 151 This study traces how a group of psychologists built a profession upon the social technology of intelligence testing in the early 20th century. It addresses the early days of the mental testing enterprise, including its introduction into the educational system.