Woodworth Personal Data Sheet

The Woodworth Personal Data Sheet (WPDS), developed by Robert S. Woodworth (1920) during World War I, is often cited as the first personality test. It was initially designed to identify army recruits at greater risk for shell shock, although it was not completed in time for use during the war.

Background -based on Logical-content strategy- Uses reason and deductive logic in the development of personality measures. It tries to logically deduce the type of content that should measure the characteristic to be assessed.

—to identify military recruits who would be likely to break down in combat.

—final form -116 questions – “Yes” or “No.”

—the scale was a paper-and-pencil psychiatric interview

—items were selected from lists of known symptoms of emotional disorders.

—Do you drink a fifth of whiskey a day?” “Do you wet the bed at night?” “Do you frequently daydream?” “Do you usually feel in  good health?” “Do you usually sleep soundly at night?”

—A single score, providing a global measure of functioning.

—who reported many symptoms received an interview-rejected

—two additional features-

¡First- items endorsed by 25% or more of a normal sample in the scored direction were excluded from the test-to reduce the number of false positives.

¡Second-only those symptoms that occurred twice as often in a previously diagnosed neurotic group as in normal’s were included in the first version of the test.

—Successful cause – solving the problem of mass screening

—Face & content validity