Gould/Yerkes Flashcards
Who were Yerkes and Gould?
Yerkes carried out the research into intelligence testing, Gould reviewed the research done by Yerkes
Background
Binet-Simon test (1905) - The first intelligence test designed to identify school children who would not benefit from regular schooling because of their inferior intelligence and should be placed into ‘special schools’. A few years later this was adapted to test school children in the USA.
A key debate at the time was whether intelligence was inherited or if it could be learned.
Yerkes said that intelligence is determined by our genetics (hereditarianism argument) and would therefore not be affected by nurture.
Key Terms
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
Key Terms
Psychometric Tests
Tools that seek to provide numerical measures of human personality traits, attitudes and abilities
Key Terms
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
Key Terms
Hereditarianism
The belief that genetic inheritance is more important than environmental factors in determining intelligence and behaviour
Yerkes’ Aims
- To produce a valid and reliable measure of intelligence
- To prove that psychology (intelligence testing) could be as objective and quantifiable as the other scientific disciplines
Research Method
Yerkes’ research has been described as a quasi experiment as the IV is ethnic origin (which is naturally occuring) and the DV being intelligence/average mental age
Data Collection
Yerkes obtained his data through self report as recruits would answer questions during the intelligence tests to get their average mental age
Sample
- 1.75 million men within the US military
- The sample included white Americans, black Americans and European immigrants
- The sample were of varying education levels
Sampling Method
Opportunity - The sample was obtained by using those present at the camps visited by researchers
Procedure
Army Alpha Test
- A written examination for literate recruits.
- It was made up of 8 parts and took less than 1 hour.
- Its tasks included number sequences, unscrambling sentences and analogies.
- Questions included:
Crisco is a: patent medicine, disinfectant, toothpaste, food product.
Washington is to Adams as first is to …….
Christy Mathewson is famous as a: writer, artist, baseball player, comedian
Procedure
Army Beta Test
- A series of tests designed for illiterate recruits and those that failed the Alpha.
- Tasks included maze running, cube counting and translating numbers into symbols, picture completion.
- The instructions were written (in English) and in three of the seven parts the answers had to be given in writing.
Procedure
Individual Exam
- A spoken exam for those who had failed beta
- This test was rarely ever done based on the chaos and demand of the researchers to conduct tests on everyone (only ⅕ of those who failed Beta were given this test)
Procedure
How should the tests have been administered?
- Army Alpha - Should have been taken by literate recruits
- Army Beta - Should have been taken by illiterate recruits and those who failed Alpha
- Spoken Exam - Should have been taken by those who failed Beta
Findings
Another researcher, Boring, analysed the results of the tests from 160,000 of the recruits. He identified 3 ‘facts’ from the data:
1. The average mental age of a white American adults (13) was just above that of a moron (the standard score was set at 16)
2. The darker people of southern Europe and the Slavs of eastern Europe were less intelligent than the fair people of western and northern Europe (e.g. Russians had a mental age of 11.34, Poles 10.74)
3. Black recruits scored lowest of all, with an average mental age of 10.41. Some camps furthered this by separating black individuals into 3 groups based on intensity of skin colour. Lighter individuals scored higher
Key Terms
Review
A process of subjecting an author’s scholarly work, research or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field
What are the strengths and weaknesses of reviews?
Strengths:
* You’re able to reassess research, as it offers a fresh perspective on what was found originally
* Highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the research
Weaknesses:
* May miss important data or the data being analysed may not be accurate in first place
* Reviewer could be biased
Gould’s Review
Problems with test design
- Alpha test - The criteria to sit the Alpha test were lowered but not consistently across camps
- Beta test - The Beta test still required reading, writing and number knowledge
- Bias - Many of the questions were culturally biased (e.g what is crisco?)
Gould’s Review
Problems with administration of tests
- Conditions - Conditions were extremely chaotic
- Spoken Exam - Only 1/5 of those who failed Beta were allowed to take the individual examinations
- Skills - Black recruits and recent immigrants were most likely to be taking the wrong test. This is because they often couldn’t read/use a pencil but due to demand they had to take whatever test was available
- Beta - Many individuals took the Alpha when they should have been taking the Beta. They then should have been picked up due to their low score, but many weren’t
Gould’s Review
Problems with interpretation of results
The questions were framed so that White Americans did best - it was not because they were naturally more intelligent
Use of Findings
- The results were used to suggest that some racial groups were superior to others (eugenics argument).
- This helped inform political policy and in particular was used as ‘evidence’ to restrict immigration (The Immigration Restriction Act, 1924)
Long Term Impact
- It is estimated that 6 million people from southern,
central and eastern Europe (all areas that scored low on
the tests) tried to enter America between 1924 and 1939
but were denied. Many of these people suffered due to
not being allowed to enter. - One of the groups that were found to be low in
intelligence were Jewish. Many tried to leave Europe
before WWII started but were unable to due to
the immigration restrictions.
Gould’s Review
Gould’s Conclusions
- There were ‘systematic errors’ in the design of the tests and how they were administered which led to black recruits and immigrants scoring lower.
- Intelligence testing of this kind is culturally biased and if interpreted incorrectly can lead to racial discrimination.
Quantitative Data (Yerkes)
Quantitative data (from Yerkes) as the number of correct answers in the tests & then a grade given by the army psychologists. This would have yielded an ‘average mental age’ of people from different ethnic backgrounds
Qualitative Data (Gould)
- ‘Yerkes had overlooked or consciously bypassed something of importance’ - recruits tests relying on pencil work
- He also criticized the conditions in which the tests took place saying that they would have been ‘either utterly confused or scared shitless’ and that he struggled to see how ‘recruits could have been in a frame of mind to record anything about their innate abilities’
Evaluation
Ethical Guidelines
Broken:
* Consent - Recruits were forced to take the tests
* Confidentiality - Recruits were told to add their name, age and education level on the test
* Protection from Harm - Stress of the conditions plus harm based on the results
* Right to Withdraw - Recruits faced punishment if they didn’t finish the tests
* Debrief - There was no time to debrief in the chaotic conditions
* Deception - Recruits didn’t know how test results would be used
Kept:
* Deception - Recruits weren’t decieved
Evaluation
Was the study ethnocentric?
- The tests themselves assumed knowledge of American culture so WERE ethnocentric
- The men came from a wide range of backgrounds so we could say the research is NOT ethnocentric
Evaluation
Reliability
- Internal - The tests were standardised and had the same instructions of how to do them but these were not often followed
- External - There was a large sample size of 1.75 million recruits
Evaluation
Validity
- Internal - Obviously the tests were not a valid measure of intelligence but were affected by a range of other factors (how long they had lived in the USA, how much schooling they had, knowledge of US culture)
- Population - The sample represents a fairly wide set of cultural backgrounds with those from Eastern, Central, Northern and Southern Europe as well as white and black Americans and the sample was very large so the results should be fairly generalisable (but no women)
- Criterion - The tests were used to predict if recruits were intelligent enough to be considered for roles as officers (however the bias in the tests means that the findings are unlikely to be a good predictor of this)
