PSYC1002 Flashcards
Mental abilities
What does mental ability mean?
the capacity to perform the higher mental processes of reasoning, remembering, understanding and problem solving
How do you measure mental abilities?
• Individual differences approach is how mental abilities are studied and measured, and see what gives the rise of individual resources
o First step to measuring is to define what is being measured
o Second step is to think about what the behaviour influenced by that trait looks like
Devise tests to look at intelligence, and look at the score to determine future performance
What are the different types of intelligence?
- Analytical intelligence
- Practical intelligence
- Emotional intelligence
What is analytic intelligence?
the ability typically measured by intelligence tests and crucial for academic success
What is practical intelligence?
the ability to solve everyday problems through skilled reasoning that relies on tacit knowledge
What is emotional intelligence?
the ability to understand one’s own emotions and others’ and also the ability to control one’s emotions when appropriate
o Ability to perceive emotions accurately
o Ability to use emotions to facilitate thinking and reasoning
o Ability to understand emotions, including use of language
o Manage emotion in oneself and others
o Measured by the MSCEIT test
What is a manifest variable?
what we can see
What is a latent variable?
what we infer- constructs
What is the definition of a construct?
Theoretical terms which cannot be directly observed, but are assumed to exist because they give rise to measurable phenomena
Why are constructs useful?
o Description and explanation of behavioural and performance data
o Basis for prediction of behaviour
What are constructs defined by?
Empirical indicators
Relationships to other constructs
• Correlation between intelligence and personality- if they correlate tightly, they might be the same thing
Network of constructs (nomological network) becomes the basis of the theory
What is the implicit intelligence theory?
informal definitions of intelligence and are based on beliefs
What do entity theorists believe about mental abilities?
Abilities are fixed
What do incremental theorists believe about mental abilities?
Abilities are changeable
What did Blackwell, Trzesniewski and Dweck look at?
Looked at the learning trajectories of 7th graders
The ones that believed that intelligence is malleable (incremental theory) predicted an upward trajectory in grades over two years of high school, while a belief that intelligence is fixed (entity theory) predicted a flat trajectory
Concluded that an incremental theory led to more effort and a more positive response to failure
What did Sternberg do?
What behaviours show
• Intelligence/unintelligence
• Academic intelligence
• Everyday intelligence
Came up with three factors
• Verbal intelligence
o Good vocabulary, converses easily on lots of subjects
• Problem solving
o Makes good decision, poses problem in optimal way, plans ahead
• Practical intelligence
o Sizes up situation well, determines how to achieve goals, displays an interest in the world at large
Intelligence relates to success in cognitively demanding tasks but not necessarily highly related
What is explicit intelligence theory?
use data collected from people performing tasks that require intelligent cognition
What are steps in testing the explicit intelligence theory?
Start off with a hypothesis
Then test it
Then look at how performance on that test correlates with performance of other cognitive tests
How are theories supported?
Internal consistency of the measure (that is, within-measure)
Correlate with other behaviour measures
• Such as academic tests for verbal intelligence
How can theories be challenged?
Theory doesn’t fit with task data
Tasks are too narrow (lack ecological validity)
• Don’t capture enough aspects of the construct
Tasks are too broad
• Can be contaminated by other constructs
What did Binet make and why?
• Binet
o Goal- to develop techniques for identifying those children whose lack of success in normal classrooms suggested the need for some form of special education
o Only originally designed for children
o He devised a series of numerous reasoning tasks related to everyday problems of life but involving basic reasoning processes
o Learned skills like reading were not tested explicitly
Wanted to separate nature from education
o Kids of different ages can do different things
Age level assigned to each reasoning task
The youngest age at which a child of normal intelligence should be able to complete the task
Determined by the age at which a majority of “normal” children in the standardisation sample passed the task
Mental age- the age assigned to the most difficult task that you could complete
o Concerned to identify children whose mental age was below biological age
What were Binet’s stipulations?
o Scores are a practical device
Do not buttress any theory of intellect
Do not define anything innate
May not designate what they measure as “intelligence’ or other reified entity
o Scale is rough
It is an empirical guide to identifying mildly-retarded and learning disabled children
Not a device for ranking normal children
o Low scores shall not be used to mark children as innately incapable
Emphasis should be placed upon improvement through special training
What was Binet’s goal?
o Identification and education- the scale was devised only to identify students in need of remedial education ( help and improve)
o Intelligence in any meaningful sense of the word can be augmented by good education, it is not a fixed and inborn quantity
o Was an incremental theorist
What did Goddard do to the Binet test and what did he use it for?
o Goddard used Binet’s test to prevent immigration and propagation of “morons”
o Testing of new immigrants at Ellis island so that America wouldn’t be tainted
o By women trained in the detection of feeblemindness
o Thought people who couldn’t pass his test were degenerate and wouldn’t be allowed to migrate in
o Binet refused to define his scores as intelligence, Goddard regarded the scores as measures of a single, innate entity
Classification
• Idiot: mental age (<2)
• Imbecile: mental age (3-7)
• Feebleminded: mental age (8-12)
• Moron: Highest functioning mentally retarded