War Office Selection Boards Summary

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Pages: 7

Introduction
On the first page of his book on the War Office Selection Boards (WOSBs), Henry Harris summarised the questions facing psychiatrists working for the British Army in the Second World War:
Can leaders be picked and if so, how?1
The preliminary experiments detailed in the previous chapter had satisfied the Army and the Army Psychiatrists that leaders could be chosen with a greater degree of success (measured in terms of officer training pass rates), and a basic idea of test components found. However, how officer candidates should be chosen, and the exact system of tests, was only established after the first WOSB. This chapter examines which theories and methods were used. It traces how they came to be a part of the WOSB battery, as well as how and why some ceased to be used.
A variety of people and influences mingled in the
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As the previous chapter demonstrated, both psycho-physiology and psychodynamic theories and methods had informed Wittkower and Rodger’s early investigations of how German tests might be adapted. This chapter traces how such collaborations continued in the formation of the WOSBs. Though the WOSB is often discussed as a single object, in fact it was comprised of several different testing components. There were four main types of tests. Firstly, psychologist John Raven and psychoanalyst John Bowlby developed tests of mental ability, which were different from, but used in conjunction with, intelligence tests. Secondly, there was a ‘Leaderless Group test’. This came from an unnamed Military Testing Officer, and had psychological theory grafted to it by Wilfred Bion. Thirdly, there were ‘Psychological Pointers’ like Word Association Tests and questionnaires about candidates’ backgrounds and medical health, both of which were intended