M. L. Fick

M. L. Fick
Born
Martin Laurence Fick

(1898-11-30)30 November 1898
Died2 August 1945(1945-08-02) (aged 46)
NationalitySouth African
Other namesM. Laurence Fick
Education
Known forIntelligence testing of South African children
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology

Martin Laurence Fick (30 November 1898 – 2 August 1945) was a South African psychologist and psychometrician. He is noted for his work administering intelligence tests to South African children. On the basis of this research, he concluded that native South African children were intellectually inferior to their European counterparts, in support of the South African government's policy at the time of not investing in native children's education.[1][2][3]

Fick graduated from the University of the Cape of Good Hope with a B. A. degree in 1917 and received his Ed. M. degree from Harvard University in 1922.[4] In 1926, Fick published the Official Mental Hygiene Individual Scale (also known as the "Fick Scale"), which was the first South African intelligence test.[5][6] Fick worked for the National Bureau of Educational and Social Research, and was noted for his hereditarian interpretation of racial differences in intelligence test scores. This interpretation was criticized by other psychologists such as Simon Biesheuvel.[5][7][8] Fick was also a captain in the South African Medical Corps, and he died in 1945 while serving on active duty.[9]

References

  1. ^ Hans, Nicholas (2011). Comparative Education. Routledge. p. 33. ISBN 978-0415664288.
  2. ^ Long, Graham Mark (2004). Relativism and the Foundations of Liberalism. Imprint Academic. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-84540-004-0.
  3. ^ Pillay, Anthony L (September 2019). "South Africa's phoenix rising from the ashes of apartheid Psychology: The Psychological Society of South Africa 25 years on". South African Journal of Psychology. 49 (3): 305–307. doi:10.1177/0081246319866968. ISSN 0081-2463.
  4. ^ University, Harvard (1922). The Harvard University Catalogue. University. p. 292.
  5. ^ a b Nicholas, Lionel (2009). Introduction to Psychology. Juta and Company Ltd. p. 169. ISBN 978-1-919895-02-4.
  6. ^ Baker, David B. (13 January 2012). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Psychology: Global Perspectives. Oxford University Press. p. 498. ISBN 978-0-19-971065-2.
  7. ^ Desai, Gaurav (20 June 2001). Subject to Colonialism: African Self-Fashioning and the Colonial Library. Duke University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-8223-2641-0.
  8. ^ ALA Bulletin: A Publication of the African Literature Association. African Literature Association. 2001. p. 127.
  9. ^ "Fick, Martin Laurence". South African War Graves Project. Retrieved 14 June 2020.


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