individual differences area year 2 studies

Question 1

1) Describe the sample of participants used by Yerkes and described by Gould in the study of bias in IQ testing (2)

Answer 1

All male sample of 1.75 million US Army recruits

Question 2

2) Identify the three tests used to assess mental age described in Goulds study on bias in IQ testing (3)

Answer 2

Army alpha, Army beta and Individual spoken exam

Question 3

3) Describe the Army Beta test as described in Goulds study on bias in IQ testing (2)

Answer 3

Pictoral test that asked for ps to complete the picture with whats missing eg. a pig without a tail

Question 4

4) According to Gould in his paper on bias in IQ testing, Yerkes believed that his IQ test measured ‘native intellectual ability’:
a) What did Yerkes mean by ‘native intellectual ability’. (2)
b) Identify two criticisms of the test as a measure of ‘native intellectual ability’ (2)

Answer 4

a) Yerkes meant that he was measuring intelligence that was hereditary
b) They weren’t a measure of this - they were a measure of knowledge of US culture and access to formal schooling

Question 5

5) From the paper on bias in IQ testing by Gould:
a) Why did Yerkes use three types of IQ tests on the army recruits? (2)
b) Outline one problem with the Beta tests described in this study (2)

Answer 5

a) The alpha was for literate recruits, if they failed this they were given a Beta pictoral test and if they still failed this one, they were given an individual spoken exam
b) The beta used ethnocentric features that included pictures with features other countries outside of America may not be familiar with e.g. A chimney on a house

Question 6

6) In the paper on bias in IQ testing Gould identified three ’facts’ that were created frommthe data collected by Yerkes.
a) identify one of these facts (2)
b) outline a difficulty with accepting this fact (2)

Answer 6

a) Black Americans had the lowest mental age which was 10 years on average
b) These tests were invalid - they are measuring knowledge of US culture e.g. chimneys which Black Americans may not be familiar with

Question 7

7) From the paper on bias in IQ testing in Gould:
a) describe one of the practical problems experienced by Yerkes when he attempted the mass testing of army recruits for WW1 (2)
b) Give one use that was made of the data by politicians (2)

Answer 7

a) Because he was measuring intelligence of 1.75 million people, there were rushed, noisy test conditions which could’ve affected test results
b) Immigration restriction act was bought in meaning nationals from the cities that had done badly on Yerkes were subject to a quota to immigrate to the US

Question 8

8) From the paper on bias in IQ testing by Gould:
a) Explain why Goulds study was sub-titled ‘A nation of morons’
b) From the study, suggest two factors that might affect performance on an IQ test (2)

Answer 8

a) Goulds study was titled this as Yerkes had written Army mental tests designed to measure the intelligence of US army recruits and the average mental age was only 130
b) rushed or intimidating conditions and questions relying on cultural knowledge and access to formal schooling

Question 9

9) In his study of the bias in IQ testing, Gould refers to three scientific facts:
a) Describe one ‘fact’ that was concluded from the study (2)
b) Outline one way in which the ‘facts’ were used to increase social control in the United States of America (2)

Answer 9

a) The average mental age of white American men is around 13 years
b) The immigration restriction act was introduced which was wheee people from other countries whose nationals had been found to have low scores on the army tests were subject to a quota of immigration

Question 10

10) Outline two problems that Gould identifies in his second account of Yerkes’ IQ tests (4)

Answer 10

One problem is the cultural bias as you needed to know about Us culture to do well e.g. bowling/celebrities. Another problem is the ethnocentrism as Yerkes presumes that knowledge of things accepted as normal by Americans are the norm everywhere and White Americans are therefore superior intellectually

Question 11

11) From Gould’s study of bias in IQ testing, identify one way in which Yerkes IQ tests were culturally biased (2)

Answer 11

The army Beta included pictures that were ethnocentric towards American culture by including activities that non westernised countries may not be familiar with e.g, a bowling alley

Question 12

12) The study by Gould on bias in IQ testing is an example of a review article. What is meant by the term ‘review article’. (2)

Answer 12

A review that provides an overview of previous research on a topic and interprets how the research suports/fails a theory

Question 13

13) To what extent were the tests employed by Yerkes in the Gould’s study of bias in IQ testing valid? (3)

Answer 13

Validity is low as the tests were low in ecological validity. This is because being IQ tested isn’t an everyday task. This means that the study is artificial so the black Americans who had an average of 10 could’ve underperformed due to this

Question 14

14) Explain why Gould’s study of bias in IQ testing can be placed within the individual differences area (3)

Answer 14

The individual differences area assumes that in order to understand the complexity of the human mind and behaviour we must focus on and investigate the differences between people rather than what we have in common. Gould reviewed an attempt by Yerkes to develop a way of measuring how individuals differ in their intelligence. Yerkes found that it’s possible to grade individuals by the colour of their skin, for example average mental age of white American men was around 13 years compared roughly to Black Americans whose mental age was 10.4 years

Question 15

15) Outline how Gould’s study of bias in IQ testing links to the key theme of measuring differences (4)

Answer 15

Yerkes measured intelligence of 1.75 million military personnel with the use of Alpha/Beta tests. He found thay bladk men had a lower mental age than white men and concluded that we can grade people by the colour of their skin. However, the way he measured those differences was not valid because questions used were culturally biased, eg. Washington is to Adams as first is to… Only those familiar with American culture would be aboe to answer these questions any therefore it isn’t a valid measure of intelligence

Question 16

1) From the study by Hancock et al into the language of psychopaths, explain what is meant by a psychopath (2)

Answer 16

A person with certain traits such as lack of empathy, manipulative and pathological lying

Question 17

2) What was the aim of the study by Hancock et al into the language of psychopaths? (2)

Answer 17

To compare the crime narratives of psychopaths compared with non-psychopathic murderers . Speech was analysed for instrumental worldview, unique socioemotional needs and poverty of affect

Question 18

3) Describe how the measurement of psychopathy was done in Hancock’s study on the language of psychopaths (3)

Answer 18

Done using the PCL-R which measures 20 traits - some are affective whilst others are impulsive by trained prison psychologists and 9 researchers. Inter-rater reliability was checked as a trained student (graduate) recorded 10 randomly selected case files

Question 19

4) Describe the sample used in the study by Hancock on the language of psychopaths (3)

Answer 19

All Canadian, 52 murderers, 14 psychopaths and 38 non psychopaths, all male

Question 20

5) Describe the procedure used in the study by Hancock et al into the language of psychopaths (4)

Answer 20

PCL-R was administered to all murderers. All murderers were interviewed - it was 25 mins long and audiotaped and then language was analysed by Wmatrix and DAL

Question 21

6) From the study by Hancock et al into the language of psychopaths, outline one feature that the researchers expected to find in the language used by psychopaths (2)

Answer 21

more subordinating conjunctions e.g. because, since, and, so that

Question 22

7) From the study by Hancock et al into the language of psychopaths identify the independent and one dependent variable (2)

Answer 22

IV is being a psychopath or not a psychopath and the DV was an interview researching language in terms of unique socioemotional needs

Question 23

8) From the study by Hancock into the language of psychopaths, describe how the measurement of psychopathy was assessed for reliability and outline the results found from this assessment (3)

Answer 23

Inter-rater reliability was assessed by a graduate student checking 10 of the PCL-Rs at random. It was found to have good inter-rater reliability between them.

Question 24

9) Outline one way in which Hancock et al analysed the use of language by participants in his study on the language of psychopaths (2)

Answer 24

One way was by using the Wmatrix after conducting a 25 minute interview - this analysed speech and semantics

Question 25

10) From Hancocks study into the language of psychopaths: outline two quantitative findings (4)

Answer 25

One finding was that psychopaths produced more subordinating conjuctions e.g. because,so - they made up 1.54% of the words used by controls but 1.82% of the words used by psychopaths. Psychopaths had 33% ,more disfluencies in their speech

Question 26

11) From Hancock’s study into the language of psychopaths, describe two ways the assessments of the psychopaths were standardised (4)

Answer 26

All psychopaths had their language researched by the Wmatrix and all psychopaths psychopathy was identified by a PCL-R

Question 27

12) suggest one reason why the study by Hancock et al on the language of psychopaths may be considered to have an ethnocentric bias (2)

Answer 27

All murderers were Canadian and language works differently across countries so results may not generalise to other countries OR
all murderers were Canadian so other countries may talk about unique socioemotional needs as a basic standard but they aren’t psychopaths

Question 28

13) Assess the validity of the Hancock study into the language of psychopaths (4)

Answer 28

Validity was good as researcher bias wasn’t a problem as the results of the PCL-R was kept from the graduate interviewers and a double-blind procedure was used. However, Hancock used a score of 25 on the PCL-R to identify psychopathy rather than 30 so some of the criminals may not have been psychopaths which reduces validity

Question 29

14) Explain why Hancock et al’s study into the language of psychopaths can be placed within the individual differences area (3)

Answer 29

ID area assumes that to understand human behaviour, we should look at the differences between people rather than the commonalities. Hancock studies the differences in language between psychopaths and non psychopaths in terms of predatory worldview, unique socioemotional needs and poverty of affect. Results showed that psychopaths used 33% more disfluencies (um, ah) compared to non-psychopaths in their language which shows poverty of affect

Question 30

15) Outline how Hancock et al’s study of bias into the language of psychopaths links to the key theme of measuring differences (4)

Answer 30

Hancock studied language differences between 14 psychopathic murderers and 38 non psychopathic murderers from Canada. They were interviewed using the step-wise technique for 25 minutes and their speech was analysed using the Wmatrix + DAL. Results showed that psychopaths used 33% more disfluencies (um,ah) compared to non-psychopaths in their language which shows poverty of affect.

Question 31

1) Outline one difference between Gould study of bias in IQ testing and Hancock et al’s study into the language of psychopaths (4)

Answer 31

One difference is that Hancock used a volunteer sample whilst Gould used an opportunity sample. This means that Hancocks volunteer strategy was more ethical as ps willingly decided to take part. Hancocks sample consisted of 14 psychopaths and 38 non psychopaths. Goulds sample consisted of 1.75 million US army recruits

Question 32

2) Outline one similarity between Gould study of bias in IQ testing and Hancock et al’s study into the language of psychopaths (4)

Answer 32

One similarity is that they both use quantitative data. This means that results from both studies allow for easy comparison due to numerical data. In Hancocks study, psychopaths used 33% more disfluencies than non-psychopaths. In Yerkes study, the average mental age of a white American is 13 years