Chapter 1 Flashcards
INFERENCE
learning about something you can’t measure directly by means of things you can measure directly.
theoretically vs empirically
you are not comparing your results with a larger sample
valid
that they actually predict what they say they do
test
is a measurement device or technique used to quantify behavior or aid in the understanding or prediction of behavior.”
item
is a specific stimulus to which a person responds overtly; this response can be scored or evaluated.”
psychological test
is a set of items that are designed to measure characteristics of human beings that pertain to behavior.”
Scales
relate raw scores on test items to some defined theoretical or empirical distribution.
Tests:
Measure current behavior
Predict future behavior
Infer hidden behavior
Achievement tests
measure previous learning (the product of a course of training)
Aptitude tests
measure potential for acquiring a particular skill
Intelligence tests
predict future academic performance
Intelligence
refers to a person’s general ability to solve problems, adapt to changing circumstances, think abstractly, and profit from experience.”
Null def of intelligence
I think intelligence is an individual’s ability to acquire and utilize the culture in which they exist, and all that includes.
Intelligence is believed to = potential, not achievement
Personality tests are related to
the overt and covert dispositions of the individual:
Structured: there is a statement and the testee chooses a response to it from a limited set of possibilities
Projective: The stimulus and/or the response are ambiguous
Psychological testing
refers to all the possible uses, applications, and underlying concepts of educational and psychological tests.”
Principles of Psychological Testing
Reliability,Validity,test administration.
Reliability
refers to the accuracy, dependability, consistency, or repeatability of test results
Validity
refers to the meaning and usefulness of tests.
test administration.
The act of giving a test is known
American Civil Service Commission
The idea was that the smarter you were and the more knowledge you had, the more likely you were to be able to do your job effectively
Binet and Simon to develop a way to identify mentally subnormal individuals
- Intelligence develops
- It develops in the same pattern in both bright and dull, just at a different rate
- You can measure it by observing how people solve problems.
- invented mental age
norms:
a sample against which an individual’s score can be compared.-A normative sample should be representative of the group to which one wants to compare the individual
1912–Stern (in Germany)
ratio: MA/CA = IQ
Stanford Binet”
1916—Terman, at Stanford, translated the Binet-Simon test into English, changing it because he discovered that many of the items were culture-specific
“Genius Study”
In 1925 he embarked on the “Genius Study” which followed 1527 kids with IQ scores of 135 or higher from an average age of 11—for the rest of their lives. A very few are still living, and the study is in the hands of the 4th or 5th generation of his students
schools began using IQ tests—
objective and reliable
deviation IQ
1930s– David Wechsler developed the Wechsler-Bellvue (because there was too much variation in the deviations of scores of Binet IQ scales between age groups).
Performance scales
which measured nonverbal ability, and therefore were valid for many people who didn’t speak English as their first language
Woodworth Personal Data Sheet
developed to weed out army recruits who were likely to develop “shell shock”)
Rorschach
“the Royal Road to the Unconscious”
- Exner Comprehensive Scoring System—but even it doesn’t stand up to rigorous experimental study
- the Rorschach is still one of the most used tests, despite a huge, overwhelming amount of research evidence that it can’t be used accurately for the purposes for which it’s being used.
Thematic Apperception Test
1935 by Christina Morgan & Henry A. Murray to measure Murray’s theory about “Needs” and “Presses” (such as “N-Ach”—Need for Achievement)
MMPI,
1937—the first empirically developed personality test
MMPI-2—and now, the MMPI-RF
(shorter, and with a different normative sample, different scales supposed to be more clinically relevant)
new approaches to personality test
MMPI-2—and now, the MMPI-RF, factor analysis and scales such as the 16-PF
“Shakow Report”
1947—the “Boulder Conference” led to a report which is the foundation of formal clinical training standards in psychology
- psychological testing was a unique function of clinical psychologists
- taught only bydoctoral-level psychology students
“scientist-professional”
originated—clinical psychology doctoral students should be taught both how to do clinical work and how to do research appropriate to it.
Psychologists
uniquely trained in scientific methods and the foundations of psychological functions- just as good at doing psychotherapy as the doctors
