ON NOT "GIVING PSYCHOLOGY AWAY": The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and Public Controversy Over Testing in the 1960s

Psychological tests, especially the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, became the center of public controversy and Congressional scrutiny during the 1960s. This unwanted attention actually helped American psychologists more than they imagined. Assisted by those on Capitol Hill, psychologis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:History of psychology 2002-08, Vol.5 (3), p.284-309
Main Author: Buchanan, Roderick D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
History of medicine
History, 20th Century
MMPI - history
Psychological Tests - history
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Public Opinion
United States
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Summary:Psychological tests, especially the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, became the center of public controversy and Congressional scrutiny during the 1960s. This unwanted attention actually helped American psychologists more than they imagined. Assisted by those on Capitol Hill, psychologists were able to defend their science in a manner that avoided imposed forms of public accountability. Social questions were reformulated as technical problems. The need to adjust intelligence and aptitude tests reinforced psychologists' control over them. Conversely, personality tests were not made more transparent and nonintrusive, unless psychologists thought these changes were scientifically necessary. This episode prompted tighter regulation of test use and demonstrated that traditional forms of testing were far too important to popularize and "give away."
ISSN:1093-4510
1939-0610
DOI:10.1037/1093-4510.5.3.284