Walter Dill Scott - Quantitative Intelligence

Quantitative Intelligence

Along with Alfred Binet and Walter Van Dyke Bingham, Scott applied the military's need for "quick thinking" recruits when developing "intelligence." Scott devoted all of his psychological career to researching methods of social control and human motivation. Much of his interest in this subject was attributed to Wilhelm Wundt's influence while at Leipzig. This interest ultimately lead to his great contribution to Applied psychology. Scott adopted an optimistic approach to personal management with the goal that humans could over come limitations. Unlike Hugo Münsterberg and H.L. Hollingworth, Scott disregarded real features in the workplace like fatigue and stimulants on the worker. Like Sir Francis Galton had been a primary influence on Scott's two books, he similarly had elitist views about the use of science to organize society, but believed habit dictated social order. Scott was not motivated to discover whether innate influences outweighed environmental factors. Rather, he was motivated by practical social needs, allowing him to rephrase Galton's human variation analysis as "personal" differences. Prior to World War I, Scott developed tests for any variety of mental functions that business clients specified as most desirable among prospective employees. Using his "personalized" approach, Scott praised the individual and autonomy—escaping the influences of environment and heredity.

Scott, Galton, and Binet all sought to facilitate the institutional placement of persons by objectifying evaluations and assuming that mental ability was innate.