Lewis Madison Terman

1877-1956

Lewis TerminLewis Terman was known for his research on intelligence, and, in particular on the gifted. He translated the Binet test of intelligence into English, set new age norms and standardized the scores. His version came to be called the Stanford-Binet Test.

Lewis Terman grew up in rural Indiana, where he was the 12th of 14 children, from a prosperous farming family. Terman received a BA from a local teachers' college, a MA from Indiana University, and his Ph.D. from Clark University in Massachusetts. His dissertation was on comparing mental and physical abilities of children from different ability groups.

In 1905, Terman moved to the more Southern California with his wife, Anna, and their two small children, Fred and Helen. For the next five "fallow years," as he described them, Terman worked as a high school principal and then as a professor of pedagogy at a teachers' college. In 1910, Stanford offered him a job in the Department of Education. Terman later transferred to the psychology department, which he chaired for 20 years.

Writings of Lewis Terman

Terman, L. M. (1904). A preliminary study in the psychology and pedagogy of leadership. Pedagogical Seminary, 11, 413-451.

Terman, L. M. (1906). Genius and stupidity; a study of some of the intellectual processes of seven "bright" and seven "stupid" boys. Pedagogical Seminary, 13, 307-373.

Terman, L. M. & Childs, H. G. (1912). A tentative revision and extension of the Binet-Simon Measuring Scale of Intelligence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 3, 61-74, 133-143, 198-208, 277-289.

Terman, L. M. (1914). Health work in the schools.

Terman, L. M. (1914). The hygiene of the school child. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Terman, L. M. (1916). The measurement of intelligence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Terman, L. M. (1919). The intelligence of school children. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Terman, L M. (1921). Intelligence and its measurement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 12, 127-133.

Terman, L. M. (1922). Were we born that way? World's Work, 44, 657-659.

Terman, L. M., Dickson, Virgil, E., Sutherland, A. H., Franzen, Raymond H., Tupper, C. R. & Fernald, Grace (1922). Intelligence tests and school reorganization. Yonkers, NY: World Book Company.

Terman, L. M. (1922). The great conspiracy, or the impulse imperious of intelligence testers, psychoanalyzed and exposed by Mr. Lippmann. New Republic, 33, 116-120.

Terman, L M. (1924). The possibilities and limitations of training. Journal of Educational Research, 10, 335-343.

Terman, L.M. et al. (1925, 1926, 1930, 1947, 1959). Genetic studies of genius. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Terman, L.M. (1925). Mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children (I). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Terman, L. M. (1926). Children's reading: A guide for parents and teachers.

Terman, L. M. (1928). The influence of nature and nurture upon intelligence scores: An evaluation of the evidence in Part 1 of the 1928 yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Journal of Educational Psychology, 19, 3363-373.

Terman, L.M. (1930). The promise of youth, follow-up studies of a thousand gifted children: Genetic studies of genius, III. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Terman, L. M. (1932). Trails to psychology. In C. Murchison (Ed.) A history of psychology in autobiography, Vol 2, 297-331.

Terman, L. M. (1933). College and life problems of self discovery and self direction

Terman, L. M. (1937). Directions for administering forms L and M Revision of the Stanford Binet Tests

Terman, L.M. (1947). The gifted child grows up, twenty-five years follow up of a superior group: Genetic studies of genius, IV. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Terman, L.M., & Oden, M.H. (1959). The gifted group at mid-life, thirty-five years follow-up of the superior child: Genetic studies of genius, V.3. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Terman, L. M. (1980). Development of intelligence in children.

Writings about Lewis Terman

Chapman, Paul D. (1980). Schools as sorters: Lewis M. Terman and the intelligence testing movement, 1890-1930). Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.

Hilgard, Earnest R. (1957). Lewis Madison Terman: 1877-1956, American Journal of Psychology, 70, 472-479.

Marks, Russell (1974). Lewis M. Terman: Individual differences and the construction of social reality. Educational Theory, 24, 336-355.