MALLER, JULIUS BERNARD

MALLER, JULIUS BERNARD (1901–1959), U.S. educationist and sociologist. Born in Vobolniki, Lithuania, Maller went to the U.S. in 1921. Having received both a secular and religious higher education, Maller's professional life was divided between teaching posts at Howard University, Washington, d.c., and Yeshiva University (1949–59). He was also active in Jewish organizations. Maller devised (1929) the "Guess Who" technique, a sociometric test for use with children. His personality tests, known as the "Maller Personality Sketches" (1936) and the "Maller Character Sketches" consisted of cards with descriptions of personality or character traits, to be sorted into groups. He demonstrated that intelligence test scores at the fifth grade level were closely related to socioeconomic levels. A close relationship was shown between delinquency, density of population, and economic level. His chapter on personality tests in Personality and the Behavior Disorders (1944) was adopted as a standard treatment. Later he became a consultant to various government agencies in addition to his interests in Jewish education, his work with Jewish service organizations and his teaching activities. His most important publications were: Cooperation and competition: an experimental study of motivation (1929); Studies in the nature of character: volume 2; Studies in service and self-control (with Hartshorne and May, 1929); and Testing the Knowledge of Jewish History (1932). He was also a frequent contributor to Jewish educational periodicals.

[Menachem M. Brayer]