Raven, John Carlyle (1902-1970) papers

This collection contains the papers of John Carlyle Raven including abstracts, 1910-1954, correspondence, 1938-1962, papers relating to Progressive Matrices, 1945-1961, and biographical material.

1910-1964

6 boxes

Other number in this catalogue refers to the numbering system used by the previous owner, the British Psychological Society.

Deposited in the library at Wellcome Collection by the British Psychological Society in September 2008.

John Carlyle Raven (1902-1970), Director of Psychological Research, Crichton Royal Hospital Dumfries.

Born in 1902, John Carlyle Raven had major difficulties at school because of his profound dyslexia: his writings earned commendation for content but low marks for presentation. His father, an umbrella maker, died in 1923 leaving him with the task of raising the funds needed to support his mother and sisters. As well as extending the family home to create rooms for lodgers, he took a job as a teacher. About this time, he appears to have formulated and checked many of his observations about human behaviour through his extensive involvement in the scouting movement. He began his formal studies of psychology with Aveling at Kings College, London, in 1928.

Penrose was using the Stanford revision of the Binet test to conduct his research into the genetic and the environmental determinants of mental defect, but J. C. Raven found this cumbersome to administer and the results difficult to interpret. This led him to recognise the need for a test which would be theoretically based, clearly interpretable, and easy to administer. He set about evolving the necessary tool with vigour, producing an experimental version of the Progressive Matrices in 1936 and publishing it in 1938.

In early 1939 he took up a fellowship with the London Child Guidance clinic. When war was declared toward the end of that year and Raven joined the Mill Hill Emergency Hospital. As a result of his contacts, he was able to initiate research into the ability of his test to predict success in army training courses (the first large-scale psychological research project ever undertaken by the British army). This led to the adoption of the Progressive Matrices as the first standard psychological test given to all recruits to the army. A derivative, which later formed the basis of the Advanced Progressive Matrices, was prepared for use in the War Office Officer Selection Boards. It was the validation of this test that provided the basis for the claim, subsequently publicised by Eysenck, that a single psychological test could provide as much information as complex Assessment Centre procedures.

It was while working at the Mill Hill Emergency Hospital that he met Mayer-Gross, the director of Clinical Research at the Crichton Royal Mental Hospital in Dumfries. This resulted in Raven being asked to form a Department of Psychological research there, and he moved to Dumfries in April 1944. He specifically negotiated a half-time employment contract so that he could pursue his research interests.

The material is available in the Rare Materials Room subject to the usual conditions of access. Some files have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records.

A digitised copy is held by Wellcome Collection as part of The Mental Health Archives digitisation project.

Compiled by the Cataloguing Project Archivist at the British Psychological Society History of Psychology Centre, with minor editing by Wellcome staff.

Given to the British Psychological Society Archives Liverpool by Crichton Royal Hospital, late 1970s. Transferred to the History of Psychology Centre, Staffordshire University, 1998. Transferred to the History of Psychology Centre, John Street, London, WC1, 2002.

British Psychological Society accession number 0064.