Lecture One Flashcards
1
Q
History of testing and why is it good to know about it
A
- Understanding beginnings helps understanding current practices which may not make sense otherwise
- To better grasp strengths and weaknesses of tests
- The dangers of misuse of testing can be learned from history
- Psych testing as we know it has only ben around for 100 years of so but testing started long before that
2
Q
China 2200BC
A
- Emperor’s officials tested every 3 years
- By 202BC written exams introduced testing:
o Civil law, military affairs, agriculture, revenue, geography - By 1370 it was an incredibly gruelling experience
o Started with day and night in isolated booth writing essays and a poem
o 1-7% passed and went on to 3 sessions of day and night testing
o 1-10% passed and went to Beijing for final round
o About 3% passed so were eligible for public office
o These were the original public service exams
3
Q
Psychiatric testing before psychological
A
- 1885 Hubert von Grashey, a German physician developed memory tests for brain injured patients
- German psychiatrist Conrad Rieger furthered tests for brain damaged patients but the battery took over 100 hours to administer
- Contribution was that standardised procedures could reveal nature and extent of symptoms in brain injured and mentally ill patients
- Most tests faded away over time
4
Q
Physiognomy, Phrenology, Psychograph
A
- Physiognomy dates back to Aristotle (384BC) & assumes you an judge a person’s inner character from appearance e.g. straight, thin, fair hair means a man is fainthearted, physically weak but quiet and harmless
- Kept evolving until Lavater (1741-1801) published his essays – 150 editions published
- He believed you can judge moral character by the examining a person’s face
- E.g. round face thought to imply a person who is caring, sensitive with strong sexual fantasies; ideal long-term stable partners or square face meant to imply analytic, intelligent, decisive, aggressive, dominant. Face shape was read with hair type, forehead shape eyebrows, ears etc
- Research still conducted but is more around perceptions associated with faces e.g. mature faces found to be perceived as more dominant which is attractive in males but not attractive in females. Females with eyes that made them appear less dominant were rated as more attractive
5
Q
Physiognomy – Phrenology
A
- Phrenology followed Physiognomy; reading bumps on the head
- Gall first to establish a link between the skull and human character and one of the first to propose that the brain housed mental capacity
- Studies of neural networks have debunked phrenology (Knight, 2007) although you can still find supporters of it (e.g. through non-peer-reviewed internet sources)
6
Q
Psychograph
A
- Phrenology gave rise to the Psychograph
- It could do a phrenological reading complete with printout rating 32 mental faculties (1-5)
- Earned $200 000 for its owners in 1934
7
Q
Brass instruments
A
- Late 1800s move away from subjective and introspective methods and into experimental psychology
- Testing moved to labs where methods could be replicated
- Problem: early experimental psychs thought intelligence could be measured by sensory perceptions measured by brass instruments designed to measure sensory thresholds
8
Q
Psychophysics (Fechner; 1801-1887)
A
- Was a scientist credited with introducing the ‘median’ into data analysis
- Based on the assumption that the human perceptual system is a measuring instrument yielding results (experiences judgements, responses) that may be systematically analysed
- Underlies much of current day research techniques
9
Q
Wilhelm Wundt
A
- Credited with first psych lab in 1879 but was measuring mental process years before that
- He had a ‘thought meter’; a calibrated pendulum with needles sticking out that would swing back and forth striking bells with the needles
- Observer would note pendulum position when bells sounded – he thought the auditory and visual stimuli would be perceived simultaneously – but that was not correct – difference between perceived position and actual proposed to reflect switness of thought
- Foundation of explaining individual differences
10
Q
Sir Francis Galton
A
- Cousin to Darwin and was more interested in problems of human evolution than psychology
- Obsessed with measurement
- Will deal with his theories of intelligence later in semester and his somewhat erroneous views
- Also devised ways of measuring beauty, personality, efficacy of prayer and how boring lectures were
- His legacy is that he demonstrated clearly that individual differences exist and can be measured with standardised procedures
11
Q
James McKeen Cattell
A
- Studied with Wundt and Galton before going to Columbia Uni where he spent 26 years as unrivalled Dean of American psychology
- Used RT to measure differences in mental reaction
- Expanded on Galton’s tests measuring motor skills (e.g. strength of hand, rate of hand movement, degree of pressure to cause pain)
- Based on idea that mental and bodily energy can’t be separated
12
Q
Clark Wissler
A
- One of Cattell’s psych students
- Greatest influence on early psych testing as he was the first to use mental test scores to predict academic performance
- Demonstrated there was no relationship between the mental tests devised by Cattell and Galton with academic achievement and virtually no relationship between the mental tests themselves
13
Q
Issues
A
- Psychs turned away from RT and sensory measures but Wissler had a restricted range of participants’ intelligence so correlations would be reduced
- RT unreliable because too few trials measured
- But it did pave way for more logical tests such as Binet’s and Wechsler’s
- Wissler, discouraged, moved to Anthropology, became an environmentalist and focused on explaining differences between ethnic groups
14
Q
Distinguishing between idiocy and dementia
A
- Esquirol (1772-1840) first to write of the differences saying that idiocy (mental retardation) was a lifelong developmental phenomena and dementia (mental illness) usually had an abrupt onset in adulthood
- Thought the first was incurable and the latter could be improved
- Used language to differentiate between levels of retardation (short phrases, monosyllables, cries with no speech)
15
Q
Seguin (1812-1880)
A
- Helped establish the new humanism toward people with an intellectual disability
- Developed educational programs and an experimental class
- Looked similar to current behaviour modification
