Contributions to the History of Psychology: LXX. Lewis Madison Terman and His Presidential Questionnaire

Acknowledging John Stuart Mill's statement of experimental methods, Wilhelm Max Wundt and Alfred Binet clearly acknowledged the structurally different nature of their respective generally recognized research interests—Wundt's The Method of Difference and Binet's The Method of Concomitant Variations. It is argued that, in attempting to examine possible differences between these two methods, Lewis Madison Terman misinterpreted the results of a questionnaire he circulated in preparation for his 1923 American Psychological Association Presidential Address and in so doing misdirected much of the subsequent course of psychology.