A scientific project locked in time. The Terman Genetic Studies of Genius, 1920s-1950s

Lewis M. Terman is well-known in the history of American psychology for the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon intelligence tests and the Genetic Studies of Genius project. The same assumptions informed the genius project and Terman's work in intelligence testing: the notion of the fixity of the IQ at birth and the maturation theory. According to the maturation theory, individuals developed only within the range of differences made possible by the genetic endowment of the "group"--natural, cultural, or both--to which they belonged. In this article the historicity and nonuniversality of Terman's work is discussed.