chapter 9 Flashcards
sir francis Galton
earliest attempts to measure intelligence
British mathematician
he had the idea the high intelligence emerged from possessing unusually keen sensory abilities since we must acquire all of our knowledge through sensory experience.
anthropometrics
the measurement of people.
methods of measuring physical and mental variation in humans
James mckeen Cattell
proved with university students that sir Francis Galton theory was false
intelligence
an ability to think, understand, reason, and adapt to or overcome obstacles
Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon
they figured that intelligence was not really a matter of sensory ability
instead they proposed the differences in intelligence should be thought of as reflecting differences in more complexed mental abilities such as memory, attention, and language comprehension
mental age
the average intellectual ability score for children of a specific age
Lewis Terman
modified Binet’s and Simon’s test, he called it the Standford-Binet’s test succeeded in selling his intelligence test to the US military during WW1 and afterwards to the US public school system to prepare the kids for university.
Standford-binet’s intelligence test
a test intended to measure innate levels of intelligence
intelligence quotient (IQ) William Stern
a person’s intelligence might be well captured by a single number
equals: mental age/chronological age *100
deviation IQ
calculated by comparing the persons test score with the average score for people of the same age. it stops the theory that IQ declines as a person gets older.
social Darwinism
the idea of eugenics which means good genes
eugenics was a movement that promoted __
preventing people from reproducing if they were deemed to be genetically inferior so as to improve the human gene pool
Terman’s words
high grade or borderline deficiency is very common among Spanish-indian and Mexican families of the southwest and also among negroes
their dullness seems to be racial, or at least inherent in the family stocks from which they come
meritocracy
people who had the most ability an worked the hardest who relieve the most wealth and power status
the testing situation is inherently culturally-biased because…..
members of different ethnic groups vary in how comfortable they are in formal testing situation, with test administrators and in their motivation to perform well
stereotype threat
occurs when negative stereotypes about a group cause group members to underperform on ability tests.
incremental theory
the belief that a person’s intelligence can be shaped by experiences practise and effort
entity theory
the belief that intelligence is a fixed characteristic and relatively difficult or impossible to change
what is the problem with the Standford-Binet and WAIS intelligence tests
the have questions related to culture (culturally biased)