MAKING up INTELLIGENCE SCALES De Sanctis's and Binet's Tests
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Per esclusivo uso nell'ambito della VQR 2011 -2014. Ogni riproduzione, modifica, traduzione o distribuzione è vietata For exclusive use in VQR 2011 -2014. It’s forbidden to copy, modify, translate or distribute. History of Psychology © 2013 American Psychological Association 2014, Vol. 17, No. 3, 223–236 1093-4510/14/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0033740 MAKING UP INTELLIGENCE SCALES De Sanctis’s and Binet’s Tests, 1905 and After Elisabetta Cicciola, Renato Foschi, and Giovanni Pietro Lombardo “Sapienza” University of Rome Sante De Sanctis (1862–1935) and Alfred Binet (1857–1911), the latter in collaboration with Théodore Simon (1873–1960), introduced their intelligence tests to the scientific community at the Fifth International Congress of Psychology, held in Rome in 1905 on April 26–30. The cultural and political contexts within which De Sanctis and Binet developed their respective intelligence tests showed certain similarities. Neverthe- less, De Sanctis’s intelligence test and Binet’s test did differ in certain respects. The objective of this article is to understand the differences and similarities between the Parisian and the Roman contexts in relation to mental testing, and to investigate the theoretical-methodological contributions of each. In addition, the article ana- lyzes the “diversity” of De Sanctis’s context and test, which did not influence the international psychology. Keywords: history of intelligence testers, French psychology, Italian psychology, Alfred Binet, Sante De Sanctis Our research is focused on certain issues and extra-European psychologists who used raised by the development of mental tests as a and developed tests are not as well known. category of instruments, issues that have con- This is the case for a number of Italian psy- cerned the psychological disciplines for a chologists; this article explores the work of long time and that continue to characterize important scholars such as Alfred Binet and them to this day. Despite this long-standing Sante De Sanctis, paying special attention to concern, few studies exist that seek to recon- the social and scientific context in which struct the origins and development of these mental testing was applied in Italy. instruments. The names of Alfred Binet, As was recently demonstrated, Binet’s test Théodore Simon (1873–1960), Francis Galton was developed as an application of his psychol- (1822–1911), and James McKeen Cattel ogy of individual differences and it evolved (1860–1944) exist in the memories of psy- over the course of the 1900s, connecting diverse chologists, but the names of other European disciplines such as psychiatry and pedagogy, new technologies, and new theoretical-method- ological points of view (Chapuis, 1998; Nicolas & Levine, 2012; Nicolas & Sanitioso, 2012). This article was published Online First October 14, 2013. Prior to World War I, general and applied psy- Elisabetta Cicciola, Renato Foschi, and Giovanni Pietro This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. chology was principally rooted in those coun- Lombardo, Dipartimento di Psicologia Dinamica e Clinica, This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual“Sapienza” user and is not to be disseminated broadly. University of Rome. tries touched by modern industrialization, in The authors of the article are listed in alphabetical order which it was necessary to manage social phe- as they contributed equally to it. They gathered the data and nomena such as illiteracy, immigration, and discussed the results together. This article updates the paper mass education, and to rationalize modern presented at 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS), Barcelona, No- methods of production (e.g., Ash, 2003; Rose, vember 18–20, 2010. 1996). Following World War I, psychologists in Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- general sought to standardize the intervention dressed to Renato Foschi, Dipartimento di Psicologia Di- tools used for evaluations, and especially those namica e Clinica, Sapienza Universita` di Roma, Via degli Apuli, 1, 00185, Roma, Italy. E-mail: renato.foschi@ tools that proved useful in addressing emerging uniroma1.it social needs. 223 Per esclusivo uso nell'ambito della VQR 2011 -2014. Ogni riproduzione, modifica, traduzione o distribuzione è vietata For exclusive use in VQR 2011 -2014. It’s forbidden to copy, modify, translate or distribute. 224 CICCIOLA, FOSCHI, AND LOMBARDO In the early 20th century, Italy had to contend the disadvantaged (Carson, 2007; Mülberger, with a set of new problems, such as the need to 2010). create a public education system that stimulated Binet’s test was, in concrete terms, the result scientific and psychological studies (Cimino & of a program of craniological and anthropomet- Foschi, 2012). Likewise, in France, in the last ric research that had led French psychology to decades of the 19th century, new social needs exclude methodologies for measuring intelli- emerged, including the need to establish com- gence that were based on correlations between pulsory and secular education, available free of body measurements and corresponding school charge to all children (Foschi & Cicciola, 2006, success. In a similar vein, De Sanctis first 2007). supported and then distanced himself from a In contrast to the prevalence of conservative positivistic and anthropometric conceptual- powers toward the close of the 1800s, Italian ization—as was embodied, for example, in and French politics of the early 1900s were the work of his teacher Giuseppe Sergi primarily characterized by progressive and (1841–1936) (Lombardo & Cenci, 2004;on broadly leftist governments whose secular and De Sanctis, see Cimino & Lombardo, 2004; reformist agendas became the cultural terrain Dazzi & Lombardo, 2011; Foschi & Lom- for the application of the human sciences. In bardo, 2006; Lombardo, 2007; Lombardo & this period, mass education in primary schools Cicciola, 2006; Lombardo & Foschi, 2008, that were free, open to, and obligatory for all— 2010). both normal and abnormal—was one of the These tests had been developed with different principal “solidaristic” and/or “opportunistic” aims and generated different results. Binet’s test objectives of the nation-states that sought to was used primarily with normal children and improve institutional competence in public and with a selective aim. De Sanctis’s test, on the social interventions that involved a vast array of other hand, was informed by a different school social strata. In this European context, two “ex- of psycho-physiological research and was perimental” psychologists—namely, the Italian meant to be used primarily with abnormal chil- Sante De Sanctis and the Frenchman Alfred dren. To guide educational interventions with Binet—presented the first well-thought-out in- children, Binet continued to revise his 1905 test telligence tests in 1905. Influenced by transformism, Binet and De over the course of his career; for example, in the Sanctis each constructed a conceptualization of version, released in 1908, he constructed what “educability,” with the aims of the intellectual was seen as an objective, scientific technique recovery of children with mental problems as that was capable of measuring a complex men- well as of the poor and marginalized (Binet & tal phenomenon such as intelligence (Binet, Simon, 1907; De Sanctis, 1915; see also Carroy, 1911; Binet & Simon, 1905, 1906, 1908; see Ohayon, & Plas, 2006; Foschi & Cicciola, also Cicciola, 2008; Foschi & Cicciola, 2006; 2006, 2007; Gardou, 2006). In this sense, the Nicolas, 2004; Nicolas & Andrieu, 2005; Wolf, mental tests in France and in Italy primarily 1973). Likewise, De Sanctis applied measures came to be used in public education, above all that he referred to as “reactives” in order to for educational purposes and in progressive so- indicate gradations of mental insufficiency in cial reform movements. children and adolescents as part of medical, This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. The individualization of “delayed” children psychological and educational interventions. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individualwas user and is not to be disseminated broadly. the first step in providing them with a The objective of this article is to understand special education that was useful for their train- the similarities and differences between the Pa- ing, as a way to rebalance that which nature or risian and Roman contexts, particularly as they society had denied the children in terms of equal relate to mental testing, and to investigate the opportunities through a psycho-pedagogic inter- applied and structural theoretical-method- vention. There is a clear difference here from ological contributions of each. In addition, in other contexts, such as Spain or America, in this paper we will analyze the “diversity” of which the tests were used with the aim of eu- De Sanctis’ context and reactives, which did genic selection rather than to promote interven- not further influence the international test tions that sought to improve the conditions of movement. Per esclusivo uso nell'ambito della VQR 2011 -2014. Ogni riproduzione, modifica, traduzione o distribuzione è vietata For exclusive use in VQR 2011 -2014. It’s forbidden to copy, modify, translate or distribute. DE SANCTIS’S AND BINET’S TESTS, 1905 AND AFTER 225 Two Intelligence Tests Presented at the sidered to be an