Computer-based Self-assessment
Petre BOTNARIUC
Institute of Educational Sciences, BucharestHistory
Computerized application for psychological assessment have known three distinct phases:
the conceptual and early research phase (from the beginning of the 20th century up to the
World War II); the practical implementation of systems as a response to demand and
direct need; the stage of development of open systems, which coincides with the
expansion of the World Wide Web and the Internet.
The conceptual and early research stage. Psychologists’ efforts to create technology that
should diminish the cost of administering / interpreting psychological tests and
questionnaires are present in the earliest phases of science. Clark Hull developed in 1928
a calculus machine that was capable of administering aptitude tests and extract career
recommendations from the results obtained. Although the automatic data processing for
vocational tests began as early as 1940, the widespread implementation of these ideas was
only possible in the 1950s when electronic computers became largely available.
The practical system implementation begins after making substantial investment in the
educational system in general, and career counselling systems in particular. The American
Research Institute financed projects and initiatives in the field of counselling, which led
as early as the 1970s to the development of software such as SIGI and Discover.
The World Wide Web and Internet stage has its debut in the 1970s and marks the entire
contemporary period, defining a new generation of systems characterized by free access
to information through computer networks all over the world.