Douglas Northrop Jackson II (August 14, 1929 – August 22, 2004) was a Canadian

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

professor best known for his work in human assessment and psychological testing.

Life and career

Born in

Merrick, New York Merrick is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. , the population was 20,130. Geography According to the United States Census Bu ...

, Jackson graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1951 with a BSc in Industrial and Labor Relations and from

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

in 1955 with a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Jackson taught at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

(1956–62) and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

(1962–64) before starting at

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

in 1964, where he taught for over 32 years.Douglas N. Jackson, Ph.D., (1928 [''sic''
/nowiki> -2004).">/nowiki>''sic''">Douglas N. Jackson, Ph.D., (1928 [''sic''
/nowiki> -2004).(

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

) ''Psynopsis'', Fall 2004. Jackson created numerous tests in his life, including: *Multidimensional Aptitude Battery II, Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB) *Personality Research Form (PRF) * Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS) *Employee Screening Questionnaire (ESQ) These were distributed through two companies he founded, Research Psychologists Press and Sigma Assessment Systems. He collaborated with

Samuel Messick Samuel J. Messick III (April 3, 1931 – October 6, 1998) was an American psychologist who worked for the Educational Testing Service (ETS), known for his contributions to validity theory. Early life Messick was born on April 3, 1931, in Philade ...

at the

Educational Testing Service Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private educational testing and assessment organization. It is headquartered in Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, Lawrence Township, New Jersey, but has a P ...

, examining

construct validity Construct validity concerns how well a set of indicators represent or reflect a concept that is not directly measurable. ''Construct validation'' is the accumulation of evidence to support the interpretation of what a measure reflects.Polit DF Bec ...

. Jackson also published several analyses on

sex and intelligence Sex differences in human intelligence have long been a topic of debate among researchers and scholars. It is now recognized that there are no significant sex differences in average IQ, though performance in certain cognitive tasks varies somewha ...

that found males applying to medical schools had a small but nontrivial advantage in

general intelligence factor The ''g'' factor is a construct developed in psychometric investigations of cognitive abilities and human intelligence. It is a variable that summarizes positive correlations among different cognitive tasks, reflecting the assertion that an ind ...

and in reasoning.Stumpf H, Jackson DN (1994). Gender-related differences in cognitive abilities: Evidence from a medical school admission testing program. ''Personality and Individual Differences'', 17, 335–344.Jackson, DN (July 17–21, 1993). Sex differences in intellectual ability. Paper presented at a meeting of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, Baltimore, MD. Jackson served on the Executive Council of the International Test Commission and was a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

(1989). He was president of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Research from 1975–1976 and received their Saul Sells Award for Lifetime Contributions in 1997. He was President of APA's Division of Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics from 1989–1990 and was awarded that division's Samuel J. Messick Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions in 2004. In 1994 he was one of 52 signatories on "

Mainstream Science on Intelligence "Mainstream Science on Intelligence" was a public statement issued by a group of researchers led by psychologist Linda Gottfredson. It was published originally in ''The Wall Street Journal'' on December 13, 1994, as a response to criticism of the ...

," an editorial written by

Linda Gottfredson Linda Susanne Gottfredson (née Howarth; born 1947) is an American psychologist and writer. She is professor emerita of educational psychology at the University of Delaware and co-director of the Delaware- Johns Hopkins Project for the Study o ...

and published in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', which declared the consensus of the signing scholars on issues related to the controversy about intelligence research that followed the publication of the book ''

The Bell Curve ''The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life'' is a 1994 book by the psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and the political scientist Charles Murray in which the authors argue that human intelligence is substantially influe ...

''.Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994).

. ''

'', p A18. Colleague J. Philippe Rushton noted that Jackson's founding of Canada's

Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (SAFS) is a Canadian non-profit organization founded to promote academic freedom and Academic excellence, intellectual excellence on Higher education in Canada, Canadian institutions of higher ed ...

was a response to "Canadian researchers challenged by '

political correctness "Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...

'" and "demonstrated his personal commitment to ensuring personal liberty and freedom of enquiry for his colleagues."Rushton, J. Philippe (5 November 2004)
Douglas N. Jackson obituary
(

), ''

Intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...

'' 33 (2005) 1–3.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Douglas N. 1929 births 2004 deaths Canadian psychologists Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations alumni People from Merrick, New York Purdue University College of Health and Human Sciences alumni Pennsylvania State University faculty Stanford University Department of Psychology faculty Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario 20th-century American psychologists Quantitative psychologists