These psychological tests from history will upset, amaze, and maybe enlighten you
This photo from Ellis Island around 1910 shows an immigrant taking an intelligence test involving shapes. Tests like these were used to justify pseudoscientific racism and eugenics.
The Rorschach test, invented in 1921, aimed to understand people based on what they see in an ambiguous inkblot. This photo is from 1951. The test is still widely used today, though it has "little validity as a diagnostic tool."
The Thematic Apperception Test, invented in the 1930s, asked people to analyze what’s happening in an ambiguous image. Here's a woman taking it in 1950.
The Thematic Apperception Test is still used today. What do you think is happening here?
The Szondi Test, invented in 1935, measured peoples’ response to portraits of patients "diagnosed" as homosexuals, sadists, epileptics, hysterics, catatonics, paranoids, depressives, and maniacs. It has been repudiated for a lot of reasons.
The Make a Picture Story Test, invented in 1942, asked subjects to place cut-out dolls in a scene and then come up with a story.
So many possibilities ...
The Feeling Test asks subjects to say who they identify with most in a scene filled cartoon figures. Widely used today, it’s seen as a useful way to help people, often children, describe emotions.
The Family Relationship Test, created for “Psychobook,” asks people to pick a drawing that represents their relationship to their family.
Answer Key: 1. Excluded 2. Commander 3. Time to move on 4. Burdened 5. Escaping 6. Unified 7. The boss 8. Well-balanced 9. Victimized 10. Held back 11. Feeling small 12. Outsider
Check out many more psychological tests in "Psychobook."
"Psychobook: Games, Tests, Questionnaires, Histories" will be available on September 6.
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