Personnel selection as an applied domain of work and organizational psychology has a scientific history of over a century. This paper presents a historical account of one of the most active trends in this field during the two World Wars, namely psychology in a military context. Principles and methodological applications of psychology used by the various armed forces are examined in order to provide an exhaustive background to a period in which realities of war called for realistic attitudes and led to the need for practical psychological services and personnel. This paper starts from an analysis of the first attempts by psychologists during the first World War to solve certain technological problems of military importance in the areas of fatigue, visual and auditory perception, military instruction, morale, etc. Selection and training procedures for military personnel were introduced or improved. In 1915 A. Gemelli, who at that time was head of the Laboratory at Udine, used psychological tests in the selection of pilots for the Italian Air Forces. The same initiatives were taken in others countries in Europe as well as in the Us America's entry into World War I created an opportunity for psychology to demonstrate its potential value: psychologists were involved in war service in laboratories, in training camps, and in the field. The main aim in April 1917 was to devise efficient and objective techniques by which civilian recruits could be select for military assignments. To meet this challenge, the A.P.A. appointed a committee of five psychologists who specialised in mental testing, under the chairmanship of R.M. Yerkes: the result was the Army Alpha and the Army Beta tests for recruits. In addition, the analysis of various jobs was carried out so as to establish exactly what they involved and which qualifications were appropriate to them. The wartime service gained support for applied psychology. The concept of personnel specifications aroused particular attention: the paper-pencil tests set the pattern for new group tests of intelligence, aptitudes, and personality crating a post-war market for personnel selection and testing procedures in education and in industry. This trend increased during World War II. Just as in World War I, psychologists selected military personnel at induction and reception centres through tests such as the Army General Classification Test, the Army Air Force Test, etc. Main objectives were the development of a personality assessment program to select intelligence personnel for special assignments, the establishment and training of resistance groups, the disruption of morale in enemy forces, and the procurement of information behind enemy lines. In Italy, a selection of the Permanent Committee for the Applications of Psychology, set up in 1939 and headed by Gemelli, was dedicated to the Army. In the following year the Committee became an Experimental Centre of Applied Psychology as a of the army. These events are examined in the second part of this paper.
