Gould Flashcards

1
Q

Who is Yerkes

A

He carried out research into intelligence testing

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2
Q

Who is Gould

A

Reviewed the research done by Yerkes

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3
Q

What is the background to Yerkes study

A

Binet Simon test was an intelligence test designed to identify school children with inferior intelligence who should be placed in special schools
A key debate was whether intelligence was learned or determined by genetics
Yerkes backed the hereditarianism argument

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4
Q

What is intelligence

A

An inferred characteristic of an individual, usually defined as the ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think abstractly, or adapt to changes in the environment.

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5
Q

What is a psychometric test

A

Tools that seek to provide numerical measures of human personality traits, attitudes and abilities.

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6
Q

What is eugenics

A

The belief that it is possible to breed a superior group of people by encouraging those deemed superior to reproduce while inhibiting the growth of those groups deemed inferior.

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7
Q

What is hereditarianism

A

The belief that genetic inheritance is more important than environmental factors in
determining intelligence and behaviour

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8
Q

What were Yerkes aims

A

To produce a reliable and valid measure of intelligence
To prove that psychology could be as objective and quantifiable as the other scientific disciplines

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9
Q

What was the research method that Yerkes used

A

described as a quasi experiment as the IV is ethnic origin (which is naturally occuring) and the DV being intelligence/average mental age

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10
Q

What data collection method did Yerkes use

A

Yerkes obtained his data through self report as recruits would answer questions during the intelligence tests to get their average mental age

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11
Q

What sample did Yerkes have

A

1.75 million men in the US army
Included white Americans, ‘Negroes’ and European immigrants
The sample was of varying education levels

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12
Q

What sampling method was used

A

Opportunity

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13
Q

What were characteristics of the army alpha test

A

A written exam for literate recruits
Made up of 8 parts which take less than 1 hour
Included number sequences, unscrambling sentences and analogies

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14
Q

What are some characteristics of the army beta test

A

Series of tests designed for illiterate recruits and those that failed the Alpha test
Maze running, cube counting and translating numbers into symbols, picture completion
Instructions were written in English and three of the seven parts the answers had to be given in writing

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15
Q

What are characteristics of the individual exam

A

A spoken exam for those who failed Beta
Rarely ever done based on the chaos and demand of the researchers to conduct tests on everyone

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16
Q

What were the three findings

A
  1. Average mental age of white American adults (13) was just above that of a moron
  2. Darker people of southern Europe and Slavs of Eastern Europe were less intelligent that the fair people of western and Northern Europe
  3. Black recruits scored lowest of all with and average mental age of 10.41. Some camps separated black individuals into 3 groups based on skin colour intensity
17
Q

How were the findings interpreted

A

Facts were used to provide a genetic explanation for the differences

18
Q

What is a review

A

A process of subjecting and authors scholarly work, research or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field

19
Q

What are the strengths of reviews

A

Able to reassess research and find a fresh perspective
Highlights strengths and weaknesses of the research (psychometric testing)

20
Q

What are weaknesses of reviews

A

May miss important data or original data may be incorrect
Reviewer could be biased

21
Q

What were the problems with the alpha test

A

Criteria for test was lowered but not consistently across camps

22
Q

What are the problems with the beta test

A

Still required reading, writing and number knowledge

23
Q

How were the tests biased

A

Many questions were culturally biased as they required k owledge om certain cultures

24
Q

What were problems with how the tests were administered

A

Conditions were chaotic
Only 1/5 of those who failed beta were allowed to take individual
Black recruits and immigrants were likely to take wrong test because they couldn’t use a pencil or read English
May who took alpha test should’ve taken the beta test due to their low score

25
What was a problem with the interpretation of results
The questions were framed so that white Americans did best - not because they were naturally more intelligent
26
How were the findings used
To suggest some racial groups were superior to others (eugenics argument) To inform political policy and was used as evidence to restrict immigration (immigration restriction act)
27
What was the long term impact
6 million people from south, central and east Europe tried to enter America but were denied One group with low intelligence was the Jewish. Many tried to leave before WW2 but couldn’t due to immigration restrictions
28
What were goulds conclusions
There were systematic errors in the design of tests and how they were administered which led to black recruits scoring lower Intelligence testing is culturally biased and can lead to racial discrimination
29
What ethics did were broken
Consent Confidentiality Protection from harm Right to withdraw Debrief
30
What ethic was kept
Deception
31
How was the study ethnocentric
Tests assumed knowledge of American culture so was ethnocentric
32
How was the study not ethnocentric
Men came from a wide range of backgrounds so not ethnocentric
33
How was it internally reliable
Tests were standardised and also had instructions of how to do tests but these were rarely followed
34
How is it externally reliable
There was a large sample of 1.75milliom recruits
35
How was it internally valid
Not a valid measure of intelligence but were affected by a range of factors such as how long they lived in USA, how much schooling they had and knowledge of us culture
36
How did it fit population validity
Sample represents a wide set of cultural backgrounds so results should be generalisable except to women
37
How was the criterion valid
Tests were used to predict if recruits were intelligent enough to be considered for roles as offices but the bias meant the findings are unlikely to be a good predictor