Intelligence. What distinguishes a person with high intelligence from one with average intelligence? It wasn’t until the 1920s that someone named Lewis Madison Terman looked into those differences, including physical measurements, activities, and interests.
First, what was Lewis Terman's contribution to psychology?
What were some of Lewis Terman's accomplishments?
As we move along, we will discuss Lewis Terman's study of giftedness.
What was Lewis Terman's theory of intelligence?
What did Lewis Terman discover in his study of giftedness?
Lewis Terman: Contribution to Psychology
Lewis Madison Terman, an American psychologist, was a proponent of intelligence measurement and testing. Terman also had a profound interest in giftedness. He became a pioneer of longitudinal research on gifted children, stemming from his belief that having high intelligence doesn’t make one an outcast but an asset to society.
Fig. 1 - Portrait of Lewis Terman.
Lewis Terman is known for his adaptation of Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon’s work. Terman would call his adaptation the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale, introduced in his 1916 publication, The Measurement of Intelligence: An Explanation of and a Complete Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and Extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale.
As one of the leaders in intelligence testing, Terman’s expertise helped expand psychological research and measurement of individual and group differences through the development of intelligence tests. Terman’s work helped shape the course of educational and cognitive psychology, influencing how we perceive intelligence and giftedness and how we approach teaching and learning in the classroom.
Lewis Terman: Achievements
Lewis Terman’s firm belief that mental tests measure intelligence and his innovative idea of adding an IQ score to his Stanford-Binet led to one of Terman’s most outstanding achievements. In the 1920s, Terman’s Stanford-Binet became the most popular intelligence test among other competitors’ revisions of the Binet intelligence scale.
An intelligence quotient or IQ is a total score from a set of standardized tests that are designed to assess human intelligence.
Fig. 2 - Taking a test.
As Terman rose to prominence in the field of intelligence testing in America, he collaborated with other psychologists to administer tests to members of the armed forces. A modified version of the Stanford-Binet was used to determine whether a service member would advance in rank or be discharged immediately. About 1.75 million men took the test.
Despite the boost in American mental testing during World War I, one drawback of Lewis Terman’s intelligence scale was the failure to account for cultural differences (e.g., limited cultural adaptation) within the army. Instead of considering these differences, lower scores meant low levels of competence and innate ability, assuming that genes mostly determine intelligence.
Following his role in the army testing program, Lewis Terman sought to introduce intelligence tests for grades 3 to 8 in schools, which he called National Intelligence Tests. Terman aimed to introduce the idea of grouping students based on similar ability levels. With a close partnership with the National Education Association, he helped develop school programs incorporating mental tests and monitoring different ability groups.
Terman had a philosophy wherein American society is divided into different social ranks based on their merits (e.g., giftedness). Thus, he also pushed for school achievement tests, the Stanford Achievement Test, thanks to his colleagues at Stanford. This test determines who is intellectually gifted so schools can hone them as potential leaders in society.
Lewis Terman’s Study of Giftedness
Lewis Terman took another step in turning his vision into reality through his longitudinal study, Genetic Studies of Genius: Mental and Physical Traits of a Thousand Gifted Children, in 1921. Terman’s research aims to see the individual differences between gifted children and children with average intelligence.
Fig. 3 - Girl reading books.
Terman’s study sample group comprised elementary and secondary students in public schools in California, where the majority were from the Bay Area, close to Stanford University. He and his team also asked teachers from these schools to identify gifted children among their students. Nominated candidates took the National Intelligence Test.
Afterward, those whose scores reached the top 10% took the Stanford-Binet test. The final selection of participants involved in the Standford-Binet test included only those whose IQ scores were at least 140 and above. They’ve had roughly 1,500 samples of gifted kids, most of whom were White, middle-class, and had parents with higher levels of education than the general population.
Terman thought that heredity played a role in these demographic findings among his gifted sample.
Granted by the Commonwealth Foundation and Stanford University a total of $50,000, Terman and his team decided on 16 categories of data to be collected from his gifted subjects.
These categories included intelligence and general knowledge of various subjects such as physical measurements, medical examinations, home and school information, personality, and social class.
Terman compared the abilities of his gifted participants to those of a control group of students from California schools of a similar age.
In his gifted children study, Terman found that those with high intelligence did not appear as how people usually portrayed them to be—weaklings, loners, or misfits. Terman’s study showed that these gifted children live as typically as other children, with their hobbies and interests. Those with high intelligence were superior academically and in terms of health, physical, and socioemotional development.
Interestingly, intellectually gifted children lean toward more contemplative pursuits while maintaining moderate social interaction and are considered relatively quiet. They also read more books than the children in the control group. Most-loved books by both sexes include Treasure Island, Call of the Wild, Ivanhoe, Three Musketeers, and A Tale of Two Cities.
Terman’s gifted study continued, where he and his team followed the gifted children up to their midlife. Both intelligence and professional success continue to be significantly higher than the norm for college grads. The gifted sample also didn’t show many signs of serious mental issues, criminal behavior, or alcoholism. For the follow-up of Terman’s gifted subjects to late adulthood, Robert R. Sears succeeded Terman as head of research.
Lewis Terman developed close relationships with several of the gifted participants he referred to as “Termites,” and he even hosted them as guests in his own home. He became a father figure to them.
Lewis Terman: Theory of Intelligence
According to Lewis Terman, intelligence is the capacity to think about things abstractly.
Fig. 4 - A little girl who is excited to learn, pixabay.com
“An individual is intelligent in proportion as he is able to carry on abstract thinking.” (Terman, 1921a, p. 128).
While Terman defined someone with very high intelligence as having “quick, understanding, insatiable curiosity, extensive information, retentive memory, early speech, unusual vocabulary, etc.” (Terman, 1925, p. 287).
Borrowing the suggested label, Intelligence Quotient or IQ, by William Stern, Terman calculated IQ using the Stanford-Binet by dividing the mental age by the chronological age, then multiplying by 100.
A child whose age is 6 with a mental age of 8 has an IQ of 133. According to Terman, if you have an IQ of 140, you are a genius, while an IQ of 100 is considered average.
Terman believed that heredity, not environment or other factors, explains high intelligence. He carried this belief into his work as he advocated for intelligence tests, which he thought were a measure of innate ability. Terman advocated for intelligence tests because he believed in the importance of nurturing gifted children so that they could advance in their studies according to their aptitude rather than their chronological age.
However, Terman’s view on intelligence and mental abilities didn’t go unchallenged. Schooling was cited by George D. Stoddard and his team at the University of Iowa as having a significant influence on preschoolers’ and elementary students’ intelligence scores. They emphasized the role of environmental stimulation in increasing children’s intelligence, as such intelligence tests would not help predict long-term student outcomes.
Despite criticism, schools kept up the practice of mental testing among students; however, the civil rights movement presented a new challenge. Though he still held steadfast to his meritocratic vision of America, Terman eventually accepted that the family environment contributes to success among those with superior intelligence.
Lewis Terman: Experiment
Beyond differences in intelligence, Lewis Terman also explored differences in gender identity and marriage.
Masculinity and Femininity
Lewis Terman and Catharine Cox Miles introduced a test to measure masculinity and femininity. In 1936, they released a test called the “Attitude-Interest Analysis Test,” which consisted of 450 multiple-choice questions designed to assess a person's preferences for hobbies, interests, and reactions to stressful situations.
Terman used male homosexuals to verify his test, and they all ended up scoring highly on the feminine scale. With these findings, he concluded that behavior and norms that were very different from what was expected of a person’s gender were mentally damaging because they could lead to homosexuality.
Lewis Terman put a lot of emphasis on conforming to the gender norms of the 1930s. This emphasis is shown in his test and his belief that gender differences need to be cultivated. This is to ensure that both men and women have roles that fit them in a society that is becoming more urban and industrialized.
Marital Happiness
In 1934, Lewis Terman conducted another study on married and separated San Francisco couples. Terman’s results went against the common belief that sexual chemistry was the most important factor in a happy marriage. Instead, he found that each partner’s personality and upbringing had a greater impact on the success of a marriage. Terman said that the key to a happy marriage is to accept your partner’s needs and your role in the marriage.
Lewis Terman: Quotes
“If I am remembered very long after my death, it will probably be in connection with my studies of gifted children [and] the construction of mental tests” (Terman, 1930a, p. 330).
“exceptionally superior intelligence occurs with greater frequency among boys than girls” (Terman, 1925, p. 54).
"The fact that superiority of the first born registers in childhood early as clearly as in the achievements of adult life suggests that the causes are to be sought in native endowment rather than in the environment and education" (Terman, 1925, p. 134).
. . . the desirability of more rapid advancement of the bright child. This is important. But grade skipping is far from an ideal or complete solution of the problem. The real need is for a differentiation of the curriculum and of methods such as will give to every child the type of diet from which he can derive the maximum nourishment. (p. 364)
Intelligence is chiefly a matter of native endowment. . . . In fact, the mathematical coefficient of family resemblances in mental traits, particularly intelligence, has been found to be almost exactly the same as for such physical traits as height, weight, cephalic index, etc. (p. 659)
Lewis Terman - Key takeaways
Lewis Terman is an American psychologist and an advocate of intelligence testing. He believed that mental testing in America is beneficial in identifying and shaping children with superior intelligence as potential leaders in society.
Lewis Terman’s development of the Stanford-Binet and achievement tests helped psychology understand individual and group differences in intelligence and mental abilities.
Lewis Terman had a hereditarian view of intelligence, which drew criticisms for overlooking cultural differences, education, or environmental factors on intelligence.
Lewis Terman discovered in his study of giftedness that those with high intelligence were more intellectually and emotionally mature, and like any other children had hobbies and interests. His study showed that gifted children could adjust well to their surroundings, contrary to the popular notion that they perform poorly in nonintellectual pursuits.
References
- Terman, L. M. (1921a). Intelligence and its measurement: A symposium—II. Journal of Educational Psychology, 12, 127-133. doi:10.1037/h0064940
- Terman, L. M. (1925). Genetic studies of genius: Volume I. Mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
- Terman, L. M. (1930a). Autobiography of Lewis M. Terman. In C. Murchison (Ed.), History of psychology in autobiography, Vol. 2 (pp. 297–331). Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.
- Terman, L. M. (1924a). The conservation of talent. School and Society, 19, 359–364
- Terman, L. M. (1922e). Were we born that way? World’s Work, 44, 649-660.
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