During World War I, American psychologists, eager to contribute to the war effort, adapted Binet’s intelligence tests for the U.S. Army as an inexpensive way to differentiate among large numbers of recruits.8 This was the first large-scale use of intelligence testing on a group of adults, and it suggested that these school-based tests could predict performance in nonacademic situations.

Consequently, the high-profile role psychologists played in the job assignment of recruits created tremendous interest in the private sector. It was during this time that the Journal of Applied Psychology, the oldest and most prestigious journal in the field of industrial psychology, began publication, starting with ...

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