Class Notes Flashcards
Alfred Binet’s definition of intelligence
MA - CA = Intelligence
What does MA and CA stand for?
Mental age and Chronological age
What does the psychometric approach assume about intelligence?
It assumes intelligence is a trait in which there are individual differences (normal distributed)
What did the two factor theory propose?
It proposed that “g” or a general factor common to all types of intellectual activity and “s” specific factors to each task
What is the neurological-biological approach to intelligence?
It searches for anatomical and physiological underpinnings of intelligence.
What is the developmental approach to intelligence?
It is concerned with the quality of response or reasoning behind answers.
What are the three types of intelligence according to Robert Sternberg?
Analytical, creative, and practical
What are the three types of scores in testing?
Raw scores, scaled scores, and IQ/Index scores
What is a construct?
A construct is a conceptual concept, e.g. introverted, anxiousness, schizophrenia. Can be assessed.
What is the definition of testing?
The process of measuring psychologically related variables by means of devices or procedures designed to obtain a sample behavior.
What is the definition of assessment?
Gathering and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making a psychological evaluation.
What does assessment focus on?
Focus on understanding rather than merely measuring.
What’s the point of doing assessment?
- To identify or clarify a problem
- To determine the best environment for a person
- To advance justice
- To aid in matching people to opportunities
- To help a person better understand themselves
- As an effective short term therapeutic intervention
- *To protect against bias/human thinking errors
What is fundamental attribution bias?
Someone making a mistake being attributed to their character vs when we make a mistake its due to the situation.
What are four ways to manage thinking errors?
- Mindfulness
- Self-observation
- Willingness to have 6th Sense experiences (stepping outside of yourself to see you’re wrong)
- Nomothetic measures can be helpful/essential
What is our best defense against inaccurate conclusions?
- Using valid and reliable measures to guard against bias/blindspots
- Using multiple methods of measuring to blend the various strengths and weaknesses in an instrument
What are the attributions of a good test?
- Clear instructions for administering, scoring and interpreting
- Efficient use/incremental validity
- Accurate (Reliable and valid)
What are the general domains of psychological assessment?
Personality, intellectual, neuropsychology, vocational
What do personality assessments measure?
emotional and interrelation issues
What is intelligence?
A construct that is a general label for a group of processes that are inferred from observable behaviors.
What is the major goal of psychological assessment?
To reduce/eliminate errors, misattributions, mistakes in characterizations, inaccurate conclusions, etc.
What do intellectual (cognitive) assessments measure?
Academic achievement
What do neurophysiological assessments measure?
- Brain behavior relationships
- brain injuries
- learning disabilities
What are the 5 common definitional aspects of intelligence?
- Abstract thinking
- Learning from experience
- Solving problems through insight
- Adjusting to new situations
- Focusing and sustaining one’s abilities to achieve a desired goal
What do vocational assessments measure?
Career counseling
What is the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence according to Robert Sternberg?
That there are three types of intelligence: analytical, creative, and practical
Factors that influence scores (mainly in cognitive)
- test anxiety
- willlingness to cooperate
- level of distress (hunger, bathroom needs, sleep)
- tendency to agree or disagree
- prior experience with test or coaching
- luck
- examiner skills
BUT - these influences only account for only a small part of the score variant
What was Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence?
“The ability to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural or community setting.”
He recognized that there are many different discrete facets of intelligence.
What’s difficult about defining emotional intelligence?
The facts support a much more complex and varied array of human social-emotional skills than Emotional Intelligence.
What is the Mozart effect?
If you expose a child in utero to Mozart/classical music, it could positively effect their IQ.
Why is it important for a psychologist to know the state of knowledge?
In order to not misuse cognitive testing
Why do people believe ideas like the Mozart effect?
- Credo consolans - idea may be comforting if it supports our existing beliefs, predicts a good outcome, makes us feel powerful, or makes us feel in control
- Immediate gratification - idea may be attractive if it offers instant solutions for difficult problems
- Easy explanations - idea may be accepted if it offers a simple story about something that is difficult to understand.
What is heuristics?
Models that help us think about things in a certain way. Could help us understand the world and process information quicker.
What are the four traditions in approaching intelligence?
- Psychometric Approaches
- Information Processing Approaches
- Neuro-biological Approaches
- Development Approaches
What are the values of theories?
- Allows us to discuss aspects of a construct not previously accessible
- Increase depth and breadth of understanding
- useful in certain predictions
- Motivates effort to operationalize theory
What is the current gold standard for measuring intelligence?
The psychometric model
What do psychometric approaches assume?
Assumes intelligence is a trait in which there are individual differences (normally distributed)
What age group does the WAIS-IV test?
16 to 91 years
What age group does the WISC-V test?
6 to 16-11 month
What age group does the WPPSI-IV test?
2-6 month to 7-3 months.
What is positive manifold?
States that intelligence test are positively correlated
Also states that some portion of the variance of scores on each test is attributed to g