Spearman, Charles Edward (1863-1945)

The collection consists of a wide variety of documentation including notes, correspondence and other papers, including statistical material, relating to Spearman's career, work and studies of intelligence and the measuring of intelligence.

c.1900-1951

19 boxes

The collection has been arranged as follows: PSY/SPE/1 Papers, Correspondence and Notes, 1906-1942 PSY/SPE/2 Reference Material, c.1900-1940 PSY/SPE/3 Chicago Experiment, 1920s-1930s

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

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

Charles Edward Spearman was born 10 September 1863 in London. Spearman's father died in 1865, his mother remarried in 1870 and they moved to Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Charles was educated from the age of twelve to eighteen as a day boy at Leamington College. On leaving school in 1882 Spearman embarked on military service joining the Royal Munster Fusiliers where he mostly served in India. In January 1895 he began a two-year course at the Army Staff College, Camberley, graduating p.s.c. (passed Staff College), however a few months later Captain Spearman resigned his commission to study experimental psychology in Wilhelm Wundt's laboratory at Leipzig University, Germany.

Spearman's studies in Germany were interrupted by the second South African War (1899-1902) when the army recalled him to serve as deputy assistant adjutant-general to Guernsey. In Guernsey he met and married his wife Frances (née Aikman) with whom he had four daughters and a son.

During the few months between his release from military duties and returning to Germany in Dec 1902 Spearman embarked on the pioneering work in Berkshire which led to his two-factor theory of human intelligence. The correlation method that he devised at this time to demonstrate the existence of g was the earliest version of the statistical method now known as factor analysis. This work attracted considerable critical attention when it was published in 1904. His remaining five years in Germany was spent interesting himself in spatial perception for which he obtained a PhD from Leipzig University in 1906.

On his return to England in 1907 the two-factor theory, and its theoretical implications for psychology, became the focus of Spearman's research. This work, which reached its zenith in 1927 with the publication of The Abilities of Man, was gradually eclipsed by more complex representations of the structure of human intelligence. Defending the two-factor theory however against its many detractors kept Spearman and his myriad recruits busy for the best part of three decades.

Spearman had returned home in 1907 to a part-time appointment as reader and head of the small psychological laboratory at University College, London, a post relinquished by his acquaintance William McDougall. Apart from service during the First World War, Spearman remained at UCL until his retirement in 1931, having become Grote Professor of Mind and Logic and Head of Psychology in 1911, then Professor of Psychology in 1928 and finally Emeritus Professor.

Spearman founded the so-called London School of psychology distinguished by its scientifically and statistically rigorous approach to studying human ability. Students came from all over the world to work with Spearman's carefully co-ordinated research programme, thereby creating the one of the first centres of psychological research in Britain. Spearman's name is almost synonymous with the term 'general intelligence', otherwise known as psychometric 'g'. One of the great achievements of psychology evolved from Spearman's efforts to operationalize his theory the statistical procedure we now know as 'factor analysis' . Spearman was also associated with the Eugenics movement.

Spearman received many honours including fellowship of the Royal Society 1924, an Hon. LLD from Wittenberg, USA. Spearman served as President of the British Psychological Society from 1923-1926 and of Section J (psychology) of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1925. In 1934 he was elected an Honorary Member of the British Psychological Society.

Spearman's health deteriorated in the early 1940's; besides the loss of a son, killed in action in Crete, he suffered frequent fainting fits. He developed pneumonia after a bad fall during one of these blackouts and was admitted to University College Hospital, London. Spearman died after throwing himself from a fourth floor window of the hospital. He died 17 September 1945.

Over forty years Spearman published six books and more than a hundred journal articles including The Nature of Intelligence and the Principles of Cognition (Macmillan & Co London 1923); The Abilities of Man Their Nature and Measurement (The Macmillan Company. New York 1927); Psychology Down the Ages (Macmillan & Co London 1937).

Sources: "Charles Edward Spearman, F. R. S. (1863-1945)" P. Lovie and A. D. Lovie, (Notes Rec. Royal Society of London 50 (1), 75-88 (1996); "Charles Edward Spearman F. R. S. 1863-1945. A commemoration on the 50th anniversary of his death" P. Lovie (British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology 1995, 48, 209-201; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (available at http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36205).

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.

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

Formerly housed by the Charles Myers Library, London. Given to the British Psychological Society Archive May 1974.

British Psychological Society accession number 0004.