The history of PsyAssessmentLab is tied to the now extinct Psychological Assessment Service (FPCE-UC). This service, originally created by Professor Aura Montenegro Ferrão in the 1980s, played an important pioneering role in both the teaching and theoretical and practical training of psychologists in the field of Psychological Assessment.
The academic and professional career of Professor Aura Montenegro serves to illustrate the historical evolution of Psychology in Portugal, both in its initial connection to Philosophy and in its affirmation as an area of scientific training and autonomous professional practice.
Professor Aura Montenegro was indeed a pioneering woman in Portugal in the field of Psychology and Psychological Assessment, in the period after World War II and in the midst of Portugal’s dictatorial regime. In this context, and at a time marked by difficulties in affirming women in academia and the labour market, it is necessary to remember her work as a technician in the Experimental Psychology Laboratory of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities of the University of Coimbra (1952), her responsibility for establishing (by invitation) psychology services and consultations in different institutions in the area of mental health and rehabilitation, involving children, adolescents and adults with psychopathological problems (Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Coimbra, 1954-1960; Dispensary of Mental Health at the Center of Psychiatric,1958) and special educational needs (Bencanta Institute for the Deaf, 1964; Loreto Centre for the Blind, 1969-1970), as well as teaching courses in Psychological Assessment, which began in 1972.
With a Ph.D. in Psychology in 1972 from the Institute of Psychology at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, Professor Aura Montenegro was particularly committed to teaching and providing theoretical and practical training for students and psychologists in the field of Psychological Assessment as a professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Coimbra (1976-1985).
Find out more about the work carried out by Professor Aura Montenegro here.