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Home , Charles Spearman, Differential psychology

and its development by later British biostatisticians including Individual differences – and R.A. Fisher. Indeed, the first ARTICLE verifiable psychometric laboratory in the world was up as part of ’s Anthropometric Laboratory in the British context South Kensington, . Its lineal descendant, the Galton Laboratory, was Gerald Matthews and K.V. Petrides open a series of articles on established (as the Eugenics Record differential Office and Biometric Laboratory) at University College London in 1904, where it has survived as part of the This article briefly surveys some ndividual differences’ seems an Department of Genetics, Evolution and of the historical landmarks of innocuous term, but the normalising Environment. Galton was also differential psychology in Britain, ‘I of differential psychology is relatively instrumental in the foundation of the first covering both and recent in Britain. The brilliant but formal, university-based, laboratory of ability research. The focus is controversial figure of psychology in Britain, inaugurated in especially on the contributions and sparked polarising debates over questions 1898 at UCL. enduring influence of the ‘London such as the heritability of , the A year earlier Charles Spearman had School’ initiated by Charles educational prospects of those low in ‘IQ’, embarked on his doctoral research under Spearman’s work on general and the reduction of personality to neural the supervision of in intelligence at University College circuits. At the dawn of psychological Leipzig. However, the defining influence London. Also considered are science, Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton on Spearman was not Wundt’s parallel developments in the was not only a Victorian genius but an , but Galton’s , applied use of standardised tests. enthusiast for eugenics. With the as originally set out in his 1883 Inquiries subsequent advance of neuroscience, into Human Faculty and its Development. many of the scientific arguments have lost Following a hiatus occasioned by military their sting. It is now more remarkable to service, Spearman ended the controversy identify a trait that is not inherited than surrounding Galton’s theories by providing one that is. Popular controversies have conclusive positive proofs in his derived more from social policy breathtaking 1904 paper on general inferences than from the basic science: intelligence. The paper complemented the how much would the public care about contributions to psychometric testing of IQ if the construct had not been Alfred Binet, together with which it embraced by professional educators? In provided the foundation for the modern fact, implications for policy have not gone science of psychometrics. Spearman’s work away, but there is a mood of greater also solidified the idea of a unitary general caution among both scientists and intelligence that could be understood in Is psychometrics the royal road to policymakers in applying findings from relation to mental processes, laying the understanding personality and psychology in general. foundations both for the practical individual differences? In describing some of the key assessment of the general factor ‘g’ and,

question question developments in British differential eventually, the modern , we will dwell more on psychology of ability. The 1904 paper also substantive scientific progress than on introduced , the statistical British Society for the Psychology of controversies. A longer piece than this technique that some would later use to Individual Differences: might dwell further on the colourful attack the assumption of a unitary g. www.bspid.org.uk characters the field attracted (see In 1907 Charles Spearman was Corr, P.L. & Matthews, G. (Eds.) (2009). Buchanan, 2010). However, the appointed Reader in Experimental resources Cambridge handbook of personality. counterpoint is that, especially at the Psychology at UCL, where he founded Cambridge: Cambridge University applied end of the field, much important, what has come to be known as the Press. systematic work was conducted soberly, ‘London School of Psychology’. A without undue fanfare. We will emphasise distinguished member of the school, Paul especially how some of the broad ideas Kline, in 1986 became the first Professor that shaped the British contribution have of Psychometrics in Britain, at Exeter proven foundational to much of University. After Spearman’s retirement in contemporary psychology. 1931 and the migration of his disciple R.B. Buchanan, R.D. (2010). Playing with fire: The controversial career of Hans J. Eysenck. Cattell, the influence of psychometrics in Oxford: Oxford University Press. Beginnings – Galton and Britain started to wane, with a number of Cooper, C. (1998). Individual differences. prominent labs and psychometricians

references London: Arnold. Spearman assuming the mantle in North America. Eysenck, H.J. (1972). Psychology is about Lacking psychological measurement, people. London: Allen Lane. personality would have Gray, J.A. (1987). The psychology of fear and clinical observation and qualitative social The applied context for stress. Cambridge: Cambridge University constructivism, but little natural science. standardised testing Press. Modern psychometrics owes much to The years following World War I featured Galton’s work on variance and correlation increasing interest in the applied use of

18 vol 26 no 1 january 2013 individual differences

psychometric tests, especially in explores how cognitive ability influences major figure, Jeffrey Gray. He obtained his occupational and educational contexts. health across a person’s lifespan (see p.30, PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry in In 1920, the Civil Service introduced a this issue). 1964. After lecturing at the University of psychological test paper for candidates for Oxford, he took over from Eysenck as clerical posts in the service. By 1945, the Chair of Psychology at the Institute in service had its own research unit tasked London calling – the theories of 1983. Gray’s work featured a more overt with supplying intelligence tests for Eysenck and Gray focus on animal models of and administrative, executive and clerical The London School was to be revived as the basis for understanding grades. In 1924 the Board of Education by Hans Eysenck, who obtained his PhD human personality. His theory of traits, published the Hadow Report, which from UCL in 1940, and became director now known as reinforcement sensitivity aimed to assess the utility of various tests of the Psychology Department of the theory (RST), emerged as a worthy for determining ‘educable capacity’ University of London’s Institute of competitor to Eysenck’s arousal theory (academic aptitude). The report, while Psychiatry, located at the Maudsley during the 1970s (e.g. Gray, 1987). Gray emphasising the unreliability of Hospital, in 1950. Eysenck made pivotal also addressed the ‘hard problem’ of assessments of aptitude at age 11, broadly contributions across the spectrum of consciousness in typically original style endorsed the use of intelligence tests in individual differences research, most in his book published in the year of his schools. The report also prefigured future famously through his work on both the death, 2004. Again, we will see the controversies over personality assessment psychometrics and the biological bases of influence of Gray across this special issue, with the trenchant statement that ‘tests of personality, and to a much lesser extent particularly in the next article, which notes and character, in their intelligence. His personality work that work on RST continues in Britain, led present state of development, are established the extraversion and by Philip Corr and Alan Pickering. practically useless to teachers’ [for neuroticism traits as central for the field. However, the theory has now attained assessing educable capacity]. His arousal theory of personality, international status, guiding work on The educational applications of testing although often challenged, stimulated personality neuroscience worldwide. were taken up by the Scottish School of experimental studies that answered Educational Research, following the 1925 Cronbach’s famous call for an integration arrival of Godfrey of differential and Applied differential psychology Thomson at the . in contemporary Britain Moray House Eysenck’s numerous It would be remiss to omit the British teacher training articles and books on contribution to the assessment of college in intelligence were arguably individual differences in applied Edinburgh. less original, but more psychology. We are returning here to the Thomson was controversial, in promoting world of civil service testing and the a notable critic ’s Scottish School of Educational Research. of Spearman, hereditarian view of Numerous tests and scales developed by preferring a notion intelligence, who was a British psychologists have been used in of overlapping postdoctoral researcher at occupational, educational and clinical ‘bonds’ to the the Institute from 1956 to psychology, but we will briefly dwell on general 1958. Eysenck’s critiques two more general social trends: the retreat intelligence factor of psychoanalytic from aptitude testing in schools, and the g. As an educator, treatments also shook up increasing acceptance and regulation of his concern was clinical practice, and paved the use of individual difference measures the selection of the way for modern in organisational psychology. 11-year-olds for evidence-based In education, standardised testing what was at that approaches. tends to go in and out of fashion. The time the privilege Modern psychometrics owes much We will see the influence high-water mark in Britain may have been of free secondary to Galton’s work on variance and of Eysenck’s work across this the use of intelligence tests as part of the school education. correlation special issue, particularly in eleven-plus examination that was widely One of Thomson’s the article by Alan Pickering used from the 1940s to the 1960s to tests was used for and colleagues. Eysenck was allocate children into the sector of what remains today the unique means of also instrumental in founding the secondary school education deemed testing the entire population of a country International Society for the Study of appropriate for them. Recent interest in on mental ability. In June 1932, almost all Individual Differences, and its journal, the possible role of emotional intelligence Scottish children born in 1921 were Personality and Individual Differences. Much in the classroom echoes this early work. administered the test, which was named empirical research duly followed, across Concerns about social fairness and the Scottish Mental Survey. Europe and North America. In Britain, differing maturational trends of children Remarkably, the original data from especially notable contributions were made undermined the acceptability of the that survey, and a follow-up in 1947, were to by Tony Gale, to eleven-plus. Twenty-first century concerns rediscovered in the mid-1990s. Researchers by , to with standardised testing focus more on led by Ian Deary of the University of behaviour genetics by Lindon Eaves and educational attainment (reflecting teachers’ Edinburgh were able to locate original David Fulker, to abnormal personality by as well as students’ skills) than on basic participants who were still alive, and Gordon Claridge, and to an emerging aptitude testing, although disentangling secure data on their neurocognitive and of personality by aptitude from attainment remains a thorny medical functioning in old age. These Hans Eysenck’s son, Michael. assessment issue. studies provided a platform for the new Many of Eysenck’s basic assumptions By contrast, the use of standardised field of ‘’, which about personality were shared by another tests in occupational selection procedures

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has been common in Britain since the 1980s. Peter Saville’s Occupational Personality Questionnaire was notable as an instrument developed specifically for the organisational context. In the early 1990s, the British Psychological Society began to study standards for , a broad remit that led eventually to the current BPS Committee on Test Standards. A new growth area for testing is the measurement of subjective well-being in Britain, the subject of a recent working paper from the Office of National .

Vindication Differential psychology has always faced two kinds of challenge. The first is how to maintain a focus on the whole person as a foundational element for basic and applied psychology. The second is how Differential psychology lends itself to practical application through its support for to differentiate the multiple and separable standardised testing in applied settings characteristics that make up the whole. As Cooper (1998) discusses, the London School in promoting the preference for a unitary g-factor over dimensional models promoted by importance of rigorous psychometrics, a multiplicity of cognitive abilities. The Eysenck, Cattell and others capture the and the legitimacy of biological models of personality theories of Eysenck and Gray substantive ways in which people differ, personality and ability. Both propositions are based on simple, readily testable thereby encapsulating the discipline's had been fiercely challenged in the past, propositions about the relationships most significant and lasting scientific but neither is now controversial within between traits and gross features of the contributions, including g, neuroticism, mainstream psychological science. brain. In the spirit of British empiricism, and extraversion. Dimensional models do Several more specific themes have the theory rarely strays too far from not preclude a focus on the person. One been prominent in (though not unique to) empirical observations. Whether this of Hans Eysenck’s most successful books Britain. It is hard to imagine psychology theoretical stance is sufficient to capture was entitled Psychology Is about People without the psychometrics of Galton and the complexities of individual differences (1972). How many psychologists these Spearman. Some social psychologists of the is open to debate. It does lend itself to days would be able, or indeed dare, to 1980s would routinely dismiss the brain as practical application through its support write about the whole person? an irrelevance; the growth of social for standardised testing in applied settings. In past times, differential psychology neuroscience illustrates the retreat of such Indeed, the universalist and achievement- may have appeared from the outside to a view. Similarly, few domains of oriented nature of Anglo-Saxon culture be a ghetto inhabited by fanatic number- psychology have not been profoundly may be conducive to a focus on crunchers, evangelical hereditarians and influenced by behavioural and molecular measurable, objective criteria, such as gentlemen-eccentrics. Such a view was genetics. Indeed, the Social, Genetic & test performance. always a caricature, but vindication has Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Popular ambivalence over intelligence arrived via the permeation of the core ideas Institute of Psychiatry continues to be a testing raises the question of whether the of the British researchers across the world-leading centre of research. Within theoretical contributions of the London spectrum of the theoretical and applied differential psychology itself, the trait School have made as much of a disciplines of psychology. Differential approach associated with Eysenck and contribution to general welfare as they psychology not only stands independently Cattell is the dominant paradigm, though might. Certainly, its proponents have as its own approach, but also as a not all-consuming. Standardised shown little fear of controversy and even foundational element for all applied assessments remain central to educational, public opprobrium. Nevertheless, we can branches of psychology, including and organisational psychology. assert with confidence that the educational, occupational, clinical and Dimensional models of abnormality contributions of British differential counselling psychology. increasingly feature in , psychologists will continue to influence At the same time, the international and are highlighted in DSM-5. future theory and practice. Other articles nature of the field makes it difficult to We might also see a certain parsimony in this special issue will give you a flavour identify a uniquely ‘British’ differential in the British perspective, not least in the of how. psychology, at least in contemporary research. Indeed, the leading British researchers had an international outlook. Gerald Matthews K.V. Petrides Spearman was a student of Wundt, is at the University of is at University College Eysenck was familiar with Continental Cincinnati London schools of thought on personality, and [email protected] [email protected] Gray was influenced by the neo-Pavlovian psychology of the Soviet Union. We can point to the historical influence of the

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