Alfred Binet - Essay
ALFRED BINET
AN OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY.
BY
DOLORES ALLEN
Alfred Binet - Psychologist
Born July 8, 1857 in Nice, France
Died October 18, 1911, aged 54
Introduction
Alfred Binet was one of the most influential psychologists in history. He developed the first Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test, which was to become used throughout the world. Whilst he pioneered intelligence testing, he also influenced other psychologists to explore and expand on the testing, such as Theodore Simone, Lewis Madison Terman, Henry Herbert Goddard and Jean Piaget.
The I.Q. test is still used today to help maximize a persons potential to achieve. Society should be thankful to Alfred Binet for exposing the academic potential in all of us, and being able to measure such potential.
Definition of Intelligence
“It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting one’s self to circumstances. A person may be a moron or an imbecile if he is lacking in judgment; but with good judgment he can never be either. Indeed the rest of the intellectual faculties seem of little importance in comparison with judgment” (Binet & Simon, 1916, 1973,:42-43).
Background
Binet was born in 1857 in Nice, France. His father was a physician and his mother an artist. Sadly though, his parents separated whilst Binet was only a young boy, and so he moved with his mother to live in Paris, where he studied law and graduated with a degree in 1878. He had intended to follow in his fathers footsteps and attend medical school, but his interests lay elsewhere.
When Binet reached his twenties, he became infatuated with psychology, and so, engulfed himself in reading books by Charles Darwin and John Stuart Mills, and I am
AN OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY.
BY
DOLORES ALLEN
Alfred Binet - Psychologist
Born July 8, 1857 in Nice, France
Died October 18, 1911, aged 54
Introduction
Alfred Binet was one of the most influential psychologists in history. He developed the first Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test, which was to become used throughout the world. Whilst he pioneered intelligence testing, he also influenced other psychologists to explore and expand on the testing, such as Theodore Simone, Lewis Madison Terman, Henry Herbert Goddard and Jean Piaget.
The I.Q. test is still used today to help maximize a persons potential to achieve. Society should be thankful to Alfred Binet for exposing the academic potential in all of us, and being able to measure such potential.
Definition of Intelligence
“It seems to us that in intelligence there is a fundamental faculty, the alteration or the lack of which, is of the utmost importance for practical life. This faculty is judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting one’s self to circumstances. A person may be a moron or an imbecile if he is lacking in judgment; but with good judgment he can never be either. Indeed the rest of the intellectual faculties seem of little importance in comparison with judgment” (Binet & Simon, 1916, 1973,:42-43).
Background
Binet was born in 1857 in Nice, France. His father was a physician and his mother an artist. Sadly though, his parents separated whilst Binet was only a young boy, and so he moved with his mother to live in Paris, where he studied law and graduated with a degree in 1878. He had intended to follow in his fathers footsteps and attend medical school, but his interests lay elsewhere.
When Binet reached his twenties, he became infatuated with psychology, and so, engulfed himself in reading books by Charles Darwin and John Stuart Mills, and I am
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