Percival Symonds

Percival Mallon Symonds (April 18, 1893 – August 6, 1960) was an American educational psychologist. He was known for his development of several tests in the fields of educational, clinical, and school psychology, including the Foreign Language Prognosis Test, the Personality Survey, and the Symonds picture-study test, a projective test administered to adolescents.

Early life and education Percival Mallon Symonds was born on April 18, 1893, in Newtonville, Massachusetts, to Joseph Ainsworth Symonds and Abbie Kendall Mallon.

He received preliminary education in the public schools in West Newton. He then received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1915, followed by an A.M. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1920 and 1923, respectively.

He was a professor of education and psychology at the University of Hawaii from 1922 to 1924. In 1924, he began teaching at the Teachers College, Columbia University, where he remained a faculty member until his retirement in 1958. He died on August 6, 1960, in Salem, Massachusetts. His work, which included twenty-one books and over two hundred articles, emphasized the importance of dynamic psychology.