5. Tools of the Trade

This chapter highlights the key role played by IQ tests and applied psychological knowledge for the professionalisation of psychology. It does so through tracing the development of the Norwegian institute of psychotechnics – that sought to apply psychological knowledge in the labour-sector and business for the benefit of society. It shows how the use of these tests as evaluative tools needs to be understood as part of the development of welfare-infrastructure. This need for testing, it is argued, is rooted in problems of modernity – and changes caused by industrialisation, specialisation, and bureaucratisation.