Home > Encyclopedia of Psychology > Raymond Bernard Cattell

1905-1998
American psychologist who designed personality and intelligence tests and espoused controversial theories of eugenics.

Raymond B. Cattell was one of psychology's most prolific scholars. In a career spanning over half a century he wrote more than 50 books and 500 research articles, and his contributions to personality and intelligence testing are widely regarded as invaluable. Yet some of his theories about natural selection, particularly as put forth in a philosophy known as Beyondism, were attacked as racist and caused a bitter controversy only months before his death.

Cattell was born in Hilltop, England, on March 20,1905. He grew up in Devon, where he developed a lifelong love of sailing and the sea. He attended the University...