Assessment of Men: Personality Assessment Goes to War by the Office of Strategic Services Assessment Staff

Abstract

This article, part of the ongoing special series, Personality Assessment Classics in Contemporary Perspective, reviews the book Assessment of Men, written by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Assessment Staff in 1948. It is the story of the development of an assessment program to select spies during World War II. The program was set up by Henry Murray and was run by Murray and Donald Mackinnon. The review describes the assessment setting, the details of the 3.5-day assessment program, and an evaluation of the book in contemporary perspective.