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" Alfred Binet (1857-1911) : "
Faber, Diana Patricia.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1093842
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TLets303151
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| Main Entry
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Faber, Diana Patricia.
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| Title & Author
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Alfred Binet (1857-1911) :\ Faber, Diana Patricia.
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| College
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University of Liverpool
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| Date
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1992
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| student score
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1992
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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The myth that Binet's Intelligence Scales were created "overnight"has already been dismissed by Theta Wolf (1969 and 1973).However, it was felt that there was still more to be explained aboutthe Scales. The aim of this research therefore, was to explore andthrow light on the many factors involved in the making of thisexperimental psychologist and his contribution to the study ofintelligence in the late nineteenth and first decade of the twentiethcentury.In line with the modern approach that makes the consideration ofsocial factors a sine qua non of an historical account of scientificachievement, the following aspects of France and its culture wereexplored: the politics which pressed with optimism for free anduniversal education; the institutional arrangements of the NewUniversity of Paris and their implications for Binet's career; thepower of medical discourse which provided the framework withinwhich both clinical and educational concerns were articulated; thebroader intellectual "climate" in which scientific ideas weredisseminated, and the particular intellectual influences on Binethimself .Binet's work is also seen as operating at the day-to-day level withall its practical demands: for example, his search for subjects,visits to hospices and schools. Binet was essentially a practical andpatient researcher, giving particular attention to detail withinexperiments and in observing subjects' behaviour.By comparing Binet's views and practice with those of otherpsychologists of his time, for instance Ebbinghaus, Wundt, Galton,Cattell and Spearman, the originality of Binet's psychology ishighlighted.This research has shown more clearly than elsewhere how Binetcame to practise the, psychology that he did, and how his flexibilityenabled the transforlnation of a psychological experiment into a testitem. It is proposed that the particular social nature of hisexperiments and use of introspections were contributing factors.To understand the nature of his achievement it was found necessaryto describe the genesis of the Scales through Binet's experimentalwork in "Individual Psychology" and his studies of children, and toexamine the items of the Scales themselves.Historical accounts of nineteenth century France frequently containcomments on the power of ·the medical profession. The case of Binetillustrates this finding: I have proposed that the doctors' powercreated obstacles both potential and actual to the recognition ofBinet's experimental work. Within the context of the PedagogicalSociety and through a series of events medical power was shifted toallow for the psychologist to construct the diagnostic tool forassessing children's intelligence.Finally, the Intelligence Scales provoked reactions which generatedcontroversy about the nature of intelligence and its measurement,and these are discussed in this thesis.
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| Subject
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Psychology
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University of Liverpool
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