Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Studying childhood
- 3 The invention of educational psychology
- 4 Cyril Burt and the psychology of individual differences
- 5 Susan Isaacs and the psychology of child development
- 6 The structure and status of a profession
- 7 Mental measurement and the meritocratic ideal
- 8 The psychometric perspective
- 9 Psychologists as policy makers, 1924–1944
- 10 The measurement of merit anatomised
- 11 Equality and community versus merit
- 12 Egalitarianism triumphant
- 13 Cyril Burt and the politics of an academic reputation
- 14 Equality and human nature
- 15 The measurement of merit revived?
- 16 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Selective bibliography
- Index
4 - Cyril Burt and the psychology of individual differences
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Studying childhood
- 3 The invention of educational psychology
- 4 Cyril Burt and the psychology of individual differences
- 5 Susan Isaacs and the psychology of child development
- 6 The structure and status of a profession
- 7 Mental measurement and the meritocratic ideal
- 8 The psychometric perspective
- 9 Psychologists as policy makers, 1924–1944
- 10 The measurement of merit anatomised
- 11 Equality and community versus merit
- 12 Egalitarianism triumphant
- 13 Cyril Burt and the politics of an academic reputation
- 14 Equality and human nature
- 15 The measurement of merit revived?
- 16 Conclusion
- Glossary
- Selective bibliography
- Index
Summary
Cyril Burt was undoubtedly the most important member of this group of psychologists. For over forty years he pioneered the application of psychological theory to education, to the study of children's development, and to the assessment of mental qualities. His appointment to the London County Council in 1913 marked him out as ‘the first official psychologist in the world’; and provided both an inspiration and a role-model for the school psychological services and the child guidance movement. He adapted the Binet-Simon mental and scholastic tests for English schoolchildren and acted as a tireless exponent of their practical and theoretical virtues. His studies of delinquent and backward children rapidly established themselves as classic works of applied psychology.
Burt distinguished himself as an academic as well as a practical psychologist. In 1932 he succeeded Spearman as professor of psychology at University College, London, then the senior position in the discipline in the United Kingdom; he consequently exercised an enormous influence over the training of aspirant educational psychologists. He struggled to provide the discipline with solid theoretical foundations, seeking in factor analysis ‘a few, permanent, and pregnant concepts by means of which we can describe both persons and traits’. His influence continued to be felt outside the scientific community. The Consultative Committee of the Board of Education lent heavily on his evidence in preparing its cycle of reports on psychological tests, on the education of adolescents and of children in primary and infant schools, and on the organisation of secondary education.
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- Information
- Measuring the MindEducation and Psychology in England c.1860–c.1990, pp. 73 - 110Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994