Article ID: CBB491166447

From Papers to Programs: Courts, Corporations, Clinics, and the Battle Over Computerized Psychological Testing (April-June 2021)

unapi

Lussier, Kira (Author)


IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
Volume: 43
Issue: 2
Pages: 30-41


Publication Date: April-June 2021
Edition Details: Theme Article: Computing and Capitalism
Language: English

This article examines the role of technology firms in computerizing psychological tests from the 1960s to 1980s. It focuses on National Computer Systems (NCS)'s development of computer software to interpret the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. NCS trumpeted their computerized interpretation as a way to free up clerical labor and mitigate human bias, even as psychologists cautioned that proprietary algorithms risked obscuring decision rules. Clinics, courtrooms, and businesses all had competing interests in the use of computerized personality tests. I argue that test developers promoted computerized psychological tests as technical fixes for bias, even as courts and psychologists pointed to the complex layers of technological and social mediation embedded in software programs for psychological tests. This article contributes to histories of computing emphasizing the importance of intellectual property law in software development; to the relationship between labor, technology, and expertise; and to scholarship on the history and politics of algorithms.

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Associated with

Article Theodora Vardouli; David Theodore (April-June 2021) Walking Instead of Working: Space Allocation, Automatic Architecture, and the Abstraction of Hospital Labor. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (pp. 6-17). unapi

Article Janet Toland (April-June 2021) Consortium Computing and Time Slicing in the Banking Sector: Databank Systems Ltd New Zealand. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (pp. 18-29). unapi

Article Devin Kennedy; Gerardo Con Diaz (April-June 2021) Computing Capitalisms—Part 2. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (pp. 5-5). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB491166447/

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Authors & Contributors
Neil Urquhart
The Anh Han
Jones, Meg Lata
Terry Payne
Moses E. Ochonu
Simon Wells
Concepts
Technological innovation
Business enterprises
Automation
History of Computing
Psychological tests
Algorithms
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
United States
Spain
New Zealand
China
Korea
Great Britain
Institutions
Philips Electronics
University of Minnesota
Harvard University
Apple (firm)
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