Psychological testing as a form of social control Flashcards
Read the following and discuss how it links to key idea of cultural bias
Although IQ have been used in a positive way to identify students who need support, they also represent a dark period in WW1 in USA. Psychologist Yerkes developed three IQ tests to screen recruits for the US army some of which who were new immigrants to the country, knew little about American culture or may have not spoken English. Alpha Test was for literate recruits, Beta was a 7 part picture completion test and given to illiterate recruits . Third test was a spoken examination for those who failed beta. These tests were designed so large number of recruits could be tested in 1 go and allowed army to identify who could make good officers/leaders.
Over 1.75 million recruits were tested and he believed they were reliable and not influenced by how much or little education someone had received or their cultural background
Criticism
1) issues of test which affects validity and reliability, Some of the pictures were culturally specific and number of questions would require cultural knowledge such as Crisco which is a patient medicine , toothpaste, food product . Crisco is the name of a food product used like margarine in cakes, If you never lived in America you are unlikely to know this = unfair
2) Problem with beta test as way too many recruits were illiterate so alpha test was given to many as it was easier and quicker to run . Those who could not read or write were hugely disadvantaged
3) Result showed average mental age of white American male as 13 . Southern and eastern Europe were found to be ‘less’ intelligent than western and northern Europe. Black people had the lowest mental age of 10.41. However the test was not recognised that many of those tested were new into the country or many had not had opportunity to go school ( expand by talking about the problem of this )
4) Result was used as support for an argument that low intelligent people should not be allowed to immigrate to USA. Huge impact during WW2 as based on these results many people from eastern and southern Europe were prevented from fleeing persecution from Nazi’s. as the American 1924 immigration act barred entry to those who scored poorly on IQ tests
