Gould

Question 1

Who is Yerkes

Answer 1

He carried out research into intelligence testing

Question 2

Who is Gould

Answer 2

Reviewed the research done by Yerkes

Question 3

What is the background to Yerkes study

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is intelligence

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

What is a psychometric test

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What is eugenics

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

What is hereditarianism

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What were Yerkes aims

Answer 8

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

Question 9

What was the research method that Yerkes used

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What data collection method did Yerkes use

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What sample did Yerkes have

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What sampling method was used

Answer 12

Opportunity

Question 13

What were characteristics of the army alpha test

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What are some characteristics of the army beta test

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What are characteristics of the individual exam

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What were the three findings

Answer 16

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

Question 17

How were the findings interpreted

Answer 17

Facts were used to provide a genetic explanation for the differences

Question 18

What is a review

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What are the strengths of reviews

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What are weaknesses of reviews

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What were the problems with the alpha test

Answer 21

Criteria for test was lowered but not consistently across camps

Question 22

What are the problems with the beta test

Answer 22

Still required reading, writing and number knowledge

Question 23

How were the tests biased

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What were problems with how the tests were administered

Answer 24

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

Question 25

What was a problem with the interpretation of results

Answer 25

The questions were framed so that white Americans did best - not because they were naturally more intelligent

Question 26

How were the findings used

Answer 26

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)

Question 27

What was the long term impact

Answer 27

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

Question 28

What were goulds conclusions

Answer 28

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

Question 29

What ethics did were broken

Answer 29

Consent
Confidentiality
Protection from harm
Right to withdraw
Debrief

Question 30

What ethic was kept

Answer 30

Deception

Question 31

How was the study ethnocentric

Answer 31

Tests assumed knowledge of American culture so was ethnocentric

Question 32

How was the study not ethnocentric

Answer 32

Men came from a wide range of backgrounds so not ethnocentric

Question 33

How was it internally reliable

Answer 33

Tests were standardised and also had instructions of how to do tests but these were rarely followed

Question 34

How is it externally reliable

Answer 34

There was a large sample of 1.75milliom recruits

Question 35

How was it internally valid

Answer 35

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

Question 36

How did it fit population validity

Answer 36

Sample represents a wide set of cultural backgrounds so results should be generalisable except to women

Question 37

How was the criterion valid

Answer 37

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