Gould Flashcards
Who is Yerkes
He carried out research into intelligence testing
Who is Gould
Reviewed the research done by Yerkes
What is the background to Yerkes study
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
What is intelligence
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.
What is a psychometric test
Tools that seek to provide numerical measures of human personality traits, attitudes and abilities.
What is eugenics
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.
What is hereditarianism
The belief that genetic inheritance is more important than environmental factors in
determining intelligence and behaviour
What were Yerkes aims
To produce a reliable and valid measure of intelligence
To prove that psychology could be as objective and quantifiable as the other scientific disciplines
What was the research method that Yerkes used
described as a quasi experiment as the IV is ethnic origin (which is naturally occuring) and the DV being intelligence/average mental age
What data collection method did Yerkes use
Yerkes obtained his data through self report as recruits would answer questions during the intelligence tests to get their average mental age
What sample did Yerkes have
1.75 million men in the US army
Included white Americans, ‘Negroes’ and European immigrants
The sample was of varying education levels
What sampling method was used
Opportunity
What were characteristics of the army alpha test
A written exam for literate recruits
Made up of 8 parts which take less than 1 hour
Included number sequences, unscrambling sentences and analogies
What are some characteristics of the army beta test
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
What are characteristics of the individual exam
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
What were the three findings
- Average mental age of white American adults (13) was just above that of a moron
- Darker people of southern Europe and Slavs of Eastern Europe were less intelligent that the fair people of western and Northern Europe
- 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
How were the findings interpreted
Facts were used to provide a genetic explanation for the differences
What is a review
A process of subjecting and authors scholarly work, research or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field
What are the strengths of reviews
Able to reassess research and find a fresh perspective
Highlights strengths and weaknesses of the research (psychometric testing)
What are weaknesses of reviews
May miss important data or original data may be incorrect
Reviewer could be biased
What were the problems with the alpha test
Criteria for test was lowered but not consistently across camps
What are the problems with the beta test
Still required reading, writing and number knowledge
How were the tests biased
Many questions were culturally biased as they required k owledge om certain cultures
What were problems with how the tests were administered
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
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
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)
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
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
What ethics did were broken
Consent
Confidentiality
Protection from harm
Right to withdraw
Debrief
What ethic was kept
Deception
How was the study ethnocentric
Tests assumed knowledge of American culture so was ethnocentric
How was the study not ethnocentric
Men came from a wide range of backgrounds so not ethnocentric
How was it internally reliable
Tests were standardised and also had instructions of how to do tests but these were rarely followed
How is it externally reliable
There was a large sample of 1.75milliom recruits
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
How did it fit population validity
Sample represents a wide set of cultural backgrounds so results should be generalisable except to women
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
