Terman, Lewis M. (Lewis Madison), 1877-1956

Lewis Madison Terman was a professor of psychology at Stanford from 1916 to 1956 (emeritus 1942-1956). He was a member of numerous national education, psychology and science organizations and was the author or co-author of a number of books. Terman was born in Johnson County, Indiana, January 15, 1877. He received an A.B. and A.M. from Indiana University and his Ph.D. from Clark University. He died December 21, 1956.

Biography

Lewis Madison Terman was born in Johnson County, Indiana, on January 15, 1877. He received his A.B. and A. M. from Indiana University and his Ph.D. from Clark University. He came to Stanford in 1910 to teach in the Department of Education; from 1910 to 1916 he worked on constructing an American version of Binet's intelligence test, which he reported in The Measure of Intelligence (Houghton, Mifflin, 1916).

His success with this brought him to the attention of the U. S. Army; he was a member of the committee on Psychological Examination of Recruits and of the Committee on Classification of Personnel, U. S. Army, 1918-1919, and served as a major in the division of psychology, Surgeon General's Office, Washington, D. C.

He returned to Stanford in 1919 as a professor of psychology and taught until 1943, when he was appointed professor emeritus, a position he held until his death in 1956. In 1919 he began his study of gifted children, which he published in The Genetic Studies of Genius, Vol. I, II, and II.

He was a member of the following organizations: The American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association (president, 1923), the National Educational Association, the National Society for the Study of Education, the National Academy of Sciences, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi.

Among his other publications were The Stanford Achievement Test, 1923; Children's Reading, 1925; Sex and Personality, 1936; Marital Happiness, 1938; and The Gifted Child Grows Up, 1947.