Individual differences area: Gould Flashcards
In what country was there initial development of IQ tests?
France
What did Yerkes want to show in terms of intelligence?
That it could be measured scientifically
What did Gould want to show about Yerkes measures of intelligence?
That they were flawed with disastrous consequences
What was Yerkes aim in terms of psychology?
He wanted psychology to be considered as a science and was interested in the field of mental testing
What did Yerkes think that an intelligence test would be a good measure of?
That this would create a good measure of someone’s innate intelligence
What was Gould’s aim?
To highlight problems in Yerkes’ methodology, materials and conclusions from his IQ testing
What was Yerkes’ research method?
Quasi experiment
What evidence is there that Yerkes’ research method was quasi?
Country of origin and skin colour is naturally occurring
What experimental design did Yerkes use?
Independent measures
Describe Yerkes’ sample
1.75 million US military recruits
What was Yerkes’ sampling method?
Opportunity
What was the name of the written examination given to literate recruits?
Army alpha
How many parts did the army alpha consist of?
8
Most of the test included filling in the next number in a _____ (army alpha)
Sequence
Recruits had to _____ sentences (army alpha)
Unscramble
Give an example of an analogy used in the army alpha
Washington is to Adams as first is to second
Give an example of a MCQ used in the army alpha
Crisco is a:
Patent medicine, Disinfectant, Toothpaste, Food product
What was the problem with the basis of many of the questions in the army alpha?
They were American/Western based questions
What was score in the army alpha dependent on?
Length of time in the USA
Who was the army beta designed for?
Illiterates or men who had failed the army alpha
How many parts did the army beta consist of?
7
How long did the army beta take to complete?
Less than one hour
Give 3 examples of things within the army beta?
Maze running, cube counting, finding the next symbol in an X-0 series
What did pictoral completion require the recruits to do (army beta)?
To draw whatever was missing from the picture
Who was the individual examination intended for?
Failures from the army beta
What was a problem with the army beta test in terms of answering the test?
Required pencil work which may not have been used before by some of the recruits
What was the problem with the pictures provided in the pictoral completion section of the army beta?
They were culturally biased
Give another problem with the alpha beta in terms of the recruits being illiterate
They were required to write down numbers
What was the problem with the individual examination?
It was not carried out
What is a problem with ‘illiterate’ people being chosen for the beta test across camps?
The definition of ‘illiterate’ changed across camps
What was a problem with people failing the alpha having to complete the beta?
That the beta queues were too long so some never got the chance to complete the beta and therefore their score of 0 on the alpha was counted
What was the overall problem for the administration of the tests?
It was a stressful/rushed situation for all and caused much confusion
From Yerkes’ findings, what was the mental age of white American adults?
13 (moronity)
Based on Yerkes’ tests, what did he find in terms of which nations appeared more intelligent than others?
Southern and Eastern countries were least intelligent and Northern and Western countries were most intelligent
Which ethnicity scored the lowest in the tests?
Black
Can Yerkes’ research be considered to be measuring intelligence?
No - it wasn’t actually measuring intelligence
What was Yerkes’ tests measuring instead of innate IQ?
It was measuring an awareness of American culture (recruits who had been in the USA for longer did better on the tests)
Describe features of Yerkes’ research that proves systematic bias
Culturally biased questions, unfamiliar equipment
How were the findings from Yerkes’ study applied in terms of commercial and educational use?
Commercial and educational establishments were using the tests
In 1924 how many people were barred entry to the USA and why?
6 million due to the Immigration Restriction Act (quotas were given based on restricting ‘inferior stock’ from certain nations)
What is a problem with how Yerkes’ problems were applied?
It led to scientific racism
Would Yerkes claim that it is possible to grade individuals by the colour of their skin and why?
Yes because ‘intelligence is an innate quality with a hereditary basis’
What would Yerkes say about the average man of most nations?
That they would be considered a ‘moron’
What would Yerkes say in terms of validity of his tests?
That they were a valid and scientific technique with wider implications
What would Gould say about Yerkes use of science?
That he misused it
What would Gould say in terms of harm to soldiers?
That there was major harm to soldiers and people trying to flee persecution
What would Gould say in terms of Yerkes’ explanations?
That he had failed to see alternative explanations for the ‘facts’
Give 2 examples of quantitative data in Yerkes’ study?
Scores in the tests (grades given)
Creating ‘average mental age’ of people from different ethnic backgrounds
Give an example of qualitative data in this core study?
Gould: ‘The paths to destruction are often indirect but ideas can be agents as sure as guns and bombs’
Gould’s study can be described as a review, what does this mean?
A review is an analysis of another persons work/study
What is a strength of a review?
No ethical concerns by the reviewer and is good to update views/research
What is a weakness of a review?
Could be biased in what aspects of other people’s work you choose/select
In what two ways can Yerkes’ research be defended in terms of ethics?
Ethical guidelines did not exist at that time and the government had approved of the tests
Confidentiality, actual names of the recruits are not known
On what grounds can Yerkes’ research be considered ethnocentric?
Tests were based on American life culture, ‘scientific racism’
How might Yerkes claim that his research was not ethnocentric?
Results were from a wide range of countries
Were Yerkes’ ways of measuring intelligence standardised and replicable? (Internal reliability)
No, they were organised differently in different army camps, people were given the wrong tests and rushed. Definition of literate was also varied
Was Yerkes’ sample large enough to suggest a consistent effect? (External reliability)
Yes, 1.75 million recruits
Were Yerkes’ tests accurate measures of ‘native intellectual ability’? (Construct validity)
No, they were more likely to be measuring awareness of USA culture/ amount of time spent in the USA/ language skills and therefore was not measuring IQ
How representative of the wider population was Yerkes’ sample? (Population validity)
Only army recruits so younger and all men
How were the test results supposed to predict future performance? (Criterion)
Predicts effectiveness at job in the army
