Gould Flashcards
what is the aim of goulds study
to examine the early history of intelligence testing as conducted by yerkes on army recruits in the usa during ww1
what did gould aim to identify
-problematic nature of intelligence testing
-the problem of theoretical bias influecning research in psychology
-the problem of the political and ethical implications of research
what was the method
review article that looks at the history of yerkes intelleigence testing of rercuits for the us army in ww1, and his attempt to establish psychology as a scientific disapline
what was the sample
1.7 million army recruits in the usa during w11. included white americans, afro carribean and european immigrants
what was the psychometric test
tests used to measure individuals mental capabilities and behaviours
what was the army alpha test
a written test for litrerate recruits . had eight parts such as analogies and unscrambling a sentence. these tests are often used in iq tests now
what was the army beta test
a pictoral test for men who were illeterate or who failed the alpha. 7 parts such as a running maze and the picture completion task
what was the individual examination
an individual spoken test for men who failed beta
why would recent immagrants be disadvantage
many of the questions rely on knowledge of america (cullturally biased)
eg. is crisco as medicine, disinfectant, tooth paste or food
denver is in…
what are the administration issues
-recruits who were illiterate shouldve immediately been assigned to Beta test. but this only happened in certain camps
-men, especially black men who failed the alpha test werent allowed to sit the beta test
-only one fifth of people who failed beta test were allowed to resit the individual examination
what were some of the results
-the average age of mental age of white american adults was just 13
-‘nation of morons’
-russain- 11.34
italian- 11.01
poliaj- 10.74
black men 10.41
what are some of the conclusions
-intelligence tests do not meausre innate intelligence
-innopropriate iq tests can lead to tragic consequences
advantage and disadvantage of a review article
+allows an independant person to evaluate research
-can still be open to interpretaion and secondary data can be open to interpretaion
ethical considerations
competence- the testing was not carried out very expertly both in terms of test design and administration
validity
his ideas are subject to his own personal bias - yerkes believed that intelligence was inherited and unaffected by environment by environmental factors and therefore could not be changed. therefore his own personal beliefs could have influenced his ‘scientific testing’
