Psychological expertise in Communist Europe Workshop

For the forthcoming edited volume, Kateřina workshopped her chapter “Sexual liberation, socialist style. Psychology and sexual morals in Czechoslovakia” focusing on the gendered aspects of psychologization in late-socialist Czechoslovakia. 

Annina Gagyiova gave a presentation on how Hungarian psychologists introduced and framed the measurement of intellectual development in children in the 1970s. While results of Western intelligence tests were strongly tied to the socio-economic status of parents, Hungarian psychologists seek to develop assessment practices for neutralising the child's social background. As they only partially succeeded in doing so, seemingly objective intelligence testing gave the population an illusion of merit-based social mobility. As Annina Gagyiova showed, the spread of intelligence testing in Hungary re-introduced class distinctions, pointing to a de-ideologization of the socialist system.