- Godfrey Thomson
Godfrey Hilton Thomson (
1881 -1955 ) was an Englisheducational psychologist known as a critical pioneer inintelligence research.He worked at
Armstrong College ,Newcastle upon Tyne (a college of theUniversity of Durham ,England ) from 1906 to 1925, before moving to theUniversity of Edinburgh from 1925 until 1951, where he was the Bell Professor of Education and Director of the Moray House Teacher Training College.His research began in psychophysics (Thomson, 1912)Thomson, G. H. (1912). A comparison of psychophysical methods. "British Journal of Psychology", 5, 203–241. ] but he became best known for his criticism of Spearman’s general factor in
intelligence (Thomson, 1916)Thomson, G. H. (1916). A hierarchy without a general factor. "British Journal of Psychology", 8, 271–281.] . Pursuing this interest lead to a major work on factor analysis of mental ability (Thomson, 1939)Thomson, G. H. (1939). "The factorial analysis of human ability". London: University of London Press.] .Thomson was also active in work on the relationship between intelligence and fertility, conducting some of the first nationally representative sample research, which demonstrated that this relationship was negative (Thomson, 1950).Thomson, G. H. (1950). Intelligence and fertility: The Scottish 1947 survey. "Eugenics Review", 41, 163–170. ]
Thomson was President of the British Psychological Association in 1945-1946. He was knighted in
1949 . He has a brief biographical entry in the Dictionary of National Biography. P. Lovie and A. D. Lovie, ‘Thomson, Sir Godfrey Hilton (1881–1955)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. ]Bibliography
External links
* [http://www.psych.usyd.edu.au/difference5/scholars/thomson.html Individual Differences: Godfrey H. Thomson (1881 -1955) ]
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