In the field of psychology and education, Lewis Terman was one of the first authors to talk about intelligence , together with Alfred Binet and William Stern. Terman was an American psychologist, very interested in studying intelligence, the 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 widely used intelligence test in the United States (the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale) are explained.

Biography of Lewis Terman

Lewis Terman (Johnson County, 1877 – Palo Alto, 1956), full name Lewis Madison Terman, was an American psychologist who collaborated with several 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.

Intelligence

Terman devoted much time to researching human intelligence, which he defined as “the ability to think abstractly. He also pioneered the field of educational psychology in the early 20th century.

In fact, Lewis Terman became known worldwide for creating the first intelligence test, widely used in the United States. To create it, he based himself on the Binet-Simon test (the original Binet-Simon scale), and created the so-called “Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale”.

The Scale is still widely used today and is now in its fifth edition. We will comment on some of its most relevant features later on.

Eugenics

Lewis Terman was also a member of the Human Betterment Foundation (a eugenics group founded by E.S. Gosney in 1928).

Thus, Terman was an advocate of eugenics, a philosophy that defends the improvement of hereditary traits (especially intelligence) through different methods of manipulation and human selection.

Career path

On a professional level, Terman taught psychology and pedagogy at the State Normal School (Los Angeles) for four years (1906-1910). In 1910 he began working at Stanford University, this time as a professor of education.

On the other hand, Terman was also president of the American Psychological Association . With regard to the awards given to Terman, it is worth mentioning the honorary professorship, awarded by Stanford University.

Contributions

We are going to know the most relevant contributions of Lewis Terman in the field of education, intelligence and psychology.

1. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale already mentioned, developed by Terman, measures intelligence and cognitive capacity, 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 as the “Stanford-Binet test” at Stanford University.

2. Military Psychology

On the other hand, Lewis Terman also introduced the group intelligence tests in the United States army, so we find part of the roots of intelligence assessment 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 ability, applicable to both children and adults.

Specifically, what Terman did was to adopt the suggestion of another author, William Stern (German psychologist), who proposed multiplying the Mind Quotient by 100 , in order to avoid the inconvenience produced by the decimals. This is how Lewis Terman established the IQ, which is calculated through the following formula:

(mental age / chronological age) * 100

Advantages and disadvantages of IC

In relation to the advantages and disadvantages of Lewis Terman’s IQ, we found that: as an advantage, it is an index independent of age (thus, if a subject shows an average performance against his age group unchanged in successive years, his IQ varies).

As a disadvantage or problem, we found that there are no differentiating tasks for the age groups of 20 and 25 years, and that the Mental Age (MS) does not grow at the same rate as the Chronological Age (CD) so in adults, the Mental Quotients are low.

Outstanding works

Among Lewis Terman’s most outstanding works are (in chronological order):

  • The measurement of intelligence (1916)
  • The Use of Intelligence Tests (1916)
  • The intelligence of school children (1919)
  • The Stanford Achievement Test (1923)
  • The genetic study of the genius (1925, 1947, 1959)
  • Autobiography of Lewis Terman (1930)

In relation to the work of The Genetic Study of the Genius , it should be noted that it is made up of five volumes, in which the analysis of 1,500 gifted children is collected . This work was published after Terman’s death (it is therefore a posthumous work).

Research on gifted children

Beyond “normative” intelligence, Terman was also very interested in gifted children (i.e., with high abilities). Through his studies, Terman observed that gifted children did not represent the stereotypes frequently associated with them , at that time (that they were sickly children, poorly adapted to society)

What’s more, it found that they were taller children, with healthier physical development and better social adjustment, than the rest of the children. Thus, he elaborated different studies of them; as a curious fact, the children he included in those studies, colloquially called “termites”.

On the other hand, in the field of giftedness, another of Lewis Terman’s contributions was to implement a program, in 1921, which had the objective of studying gifted children (in the long term). According to Terman, these children belonged to 2% of the population (that is, the top 2% of the population, in terms of intelligence).

Bibliographic references:

  • Joel N. Shurkin, Little Brown & Co. (1992). Terman’s Kids: The Groundbreaking Study of How the Gifted Grow Up.
  • Moreno, V., Ramírez, M.E., De la Oliva, C. and Moreno, E. (2019). Lewis Terman. Buscabiografias.com [Consulted on December 19, 2019]
  • Sánchez Elvira, A. (2005). Introduction to the study of individual differences. Madrid: Ed. Sanz y Torres. 2nd Edition.