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. 2023 Feb 21;11(3):41.
doi: 10.3390/jintelligence11030041.

William Stern: The Relevance of His Program of 'Differential Psychology' for Contemporary Intelligence Measurement and Research

Kristof Kovacs  1 , Csaba Pléh  2
Affiliations

William Stern: The Relevance of His Program of 'Differential Psychology' for Contemporary Intelligence Measurement and Research

Kristof Kovacs et al. J Intell. .

Abstract

William Stern is mostly renowned for inventing the IQ formula. However, he is also the originator of the term 'differential psychology' itself. His program of differential psychology synthesized population-based correlational studies as well as idiosyncratic approaches focusing on unique profiles of individuals. We argue that his approach still offers valuable ideas to this day; in particular, the individualistic sub-programme of Stern's differential psychology corresponds to a large extent to ipsative testing that emphasizes a profile-based analysis of individual strengths and weaknesses.

Keywords: IQ; Stern; differential psychology; ipsative testing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The four research schemes of differential psychology: variation research, co-variation research, psychography, and comparative research (after Stern 1911, p. 18).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of publications mentioning ‘William Stern’ in the title, abstract, or keywords.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of publications mentioning ‘differential psychology’ in the title, abstract, or keywords.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Number of publications mentioning ‘IQ’ in the title, abstract, or keywords.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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