individual differences year 2 Flashcards
what are psychometric tests?
a test that expresses a psychological construct in a numerical form (eg an IQ test)
what was the aim of Yerkes?
during WW1, Yerkes wanted the APA to get involved in contributing psychological expertise to the war to demonstrate the scientific nature of Psychology
he formed a committee which designed tests to measure intelligence
the aim was to identify army recruits to match them to positions within the army
what was the aim of Gould?
to critically evaluate the cultural bias and validity of Yerkes’ intelligence tests using a review article
sample of Yerkes?
1.75 million US army recruits during WW1
white and Black Americans and European immigrants
what was the army alpha test in yerkes?
this test was designed for literate recruits and could be given to large groups
an 8 part test which included analogies, number sequences, multiple choice questions and other IQ questions
what was the Army Beta Test?
for illiterate recruits or for people who failed the Army Alpha Test
had 7 parts and consisted of picture completion tasks/ maze running
the instructions were written in English– 3 parts of the test required written answers, which is not exactly suitable for illiterate people
what was the individual examination in yerkes?
if recruits failed the other two tests, they were supposed to be given an individual spoken examination. This however rarely happened
how were the tests in yerkes scored
recruits were given a grade from A+ to E- which indicated their suitability for the army
men scoring below a C were not suitable to be an officer in the US Army and were described as having ‘low average intelligence’
what were the findings of Yerkes?
average mental ages found:
- white americans = 13 (just above the level of a moron)
- russians = 11.34
- Black Americans = 10.4
what was the impact of yerkes’ intelligence tests?
the Immigration Restriction Act was passed in 1924
people from countries which had scored poorly on the intelligence tests were no longer welcome in the USA
it is estimated that around 6 million people were banned from entering the US between the end of these tests and before WW2
many people would have wanted to leave Europe and move to the US once the Nazi governments enacted policies of ‘racial purity’
what were gould’s criticisms of Yerkes’ intelligence tests?
said the recruits may have been in fear
the tests were culturally biased. immigrants were instantly disadvantaged
the Beta test required the use of a pencil– many of the men had never even held a pencil before
many of the black men had been segregated in school or recently moved to the USA
conclusions of Gould?
yerkes IQ tests did not measure intelligence
the tests themselves did not produce valid results
race does not affect intelligence. it is likely down to both nature and nurture but not race (Van Leeuwen’s heritability estimate was thought to be 67%)
what was the research method of gould?
review article
what is psychopathy?
psychopaths make up about 1% of the general population
they do not respond to emotional cues in the same way as the rest of us
emotional deficit
appear selfish
manipulative– can fake emotions
little to no conscience
no deficits in intelligence
how is psychopathy measured?
by using a checklist devised by Robert Hare
Called the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)
has been used over the last 20 years
uses 20 criteria, each scored from 0 to 2 for a maximum score of 40
there are 2 categories, known as factors
the clinical diagnostic cut-off for psychopaths is a score of 30 or above
how is hancock linked to maslow’s hierachy of needs?
psychopaths focus on basic needs like the physiological needs, rather than the higher level needs
aim of hancock?
to use statistical text analysis to examine the features of crime narratives provided by psychopathic homicide offenders
sample of hancock?
a total of 52 murderers from Canadian prisons volunteered to participate. they had all admitted their homicide.
14 psychopaths, 38 nonpsychopaths
all male
mean age of psychopaths 39,71, non psychopaths 39.91
time since homicide in psychopaths = 11.87, 9.82 in nonpsychopaths
how were the ps in hancock assessed for psychopathy?
all participants gave consent
prison psychologists had already completed the PCL-R on a majority of ps (39). A well-trained researcher coded the remaining 13 men
A second trained graduate also coded 10 random files to check the coding was reliable. Results showed a high level of consistency in the coding (94%)
a cut off score of 25 was used to determine which participants were psychopaths and which were non-psychopaths. This is lower than the official clinical score of 30
interview procedure of hancock?
open ended interviews were used using the stepwise interview technique, which is a semi structured interview that starts with open ended questions, then asks more specific questions
the interviews were led by 2 senior psychology graduate students and one research assistant. The interviewers were all blind to the psychopathy scores
participants were audio taped and were asked to describe their crime in as much detail as possible
the interviews lasted about 25 minutes
the narratives were transcribed which included any disfluencies. they were also checked to ensure the spelling errors were corrected and all interviewer comments deleted
what was the wmatrix in hancock
a computer analysis program that merged the psychopath’s speech together and separately, the non-psychopath’s corpora
program identifies nouns, adjectives, verbs etc
also identifies subordinating conjunctions
categories words under headings eg ‘cash’ and ‘dollar’ would come under ‘money’
what was the Dictionary of Affect in Language (DAL) in Hancock?
used to examine the affective (emotional) tone of the words
it assesses the emotional properties of words
assigns a score of pleasantness and intensity of language
results of hancock regarding subordinating conjunctions?
psychopaths produced significantly more subordinating conjunctions than the nonpsychopaths
these made up 1.82% of the words used by psychopaths and 1.54% of words used by nonpsychopaths
results of hancock regarding hierachy of needs?
psychopaths used approximately 2 times as many words related to basic physiological needs such as eating, drinking and monetary resources
non-psychopaths used more language relating to social needs like family and religion
results of hancock regarding disfluencies?
psychopaths used 33% more disfluencies
results of hancock regarding past tense and articles?
more past tense verbs such as ‘stabbed’ instead of ‘stab’ and more articles such as ‘a’ and ‘the’
conclusions for Hancock?
psychopaths use different language to non psychopaths
psychopaths are more likely than non to describe cause and effect relationships when describing their murdeer
psychopaths are more likely to focus on physiological needs than higher level social needs
psychopaths are more psychologically distant from their crime compared to non psychopaths
