Context/background
Innate behaviour = natural, what people are born with
Learned behaviour = nurture, what we've learned from experience
If learned, IQ tests measure experiences, so we would need to work out who needs more teaching
If innate, testing would be for predetermined physical or mental normals
IQ tests can be culturally biased
Spearman's 2 factor theory = g + s factors, g influences all mental tasks in general, s influences ability on specific tasks
(g for general) (s for specific) if it wasn't obvious before lol
Hereditarians = believe heredity is more important than environment when determining IQ
Binet thinks intelligence is not fixed, and that it can be improved with support/learning
Thurstone = primary mental abilities: verbal, word fluency, number facility, spatial, memory, perceptual speed and reasoning
Cattel = fluid and crystalized intelligence
Fluid = the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge
Crystalized = the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience
Gardner's multiple intelligence theory =
IQ = intelligence quotient
way to measure it = MA (mental age) divided by chronological age (CA) x100
Aim
To reveal problems in attempting to measure IQ
Method
Psychometric researchers seek valid assessments and provide numerical measures of personality traits, attitudes and abilities, for example IQ tests
This was a review article
Procedure
(By Yerkes in 1904)
1.75 million army recruits during 1st world war, the recruits were white americans, 'negroes' and europeans
From may-july, Yerkes wrote army mental tests, 3 in total
1. Army Alpha test = for literate recruits, 8 parts, included analogies, sequence tests etc. was measuring native intellectual ability, but they were extremely biased because foreigners couldn't achieve a decent score on certain questions based on England
2. Army beta test= for illiterates or people who failed the 1st test, 7 parts, was picture completion tasks, but the pics were also culture specific, there was maze tests, counting cubes, symbol patterns, the instructions were in english and 3/7 of the parts had to be written, even though the test was for illiterates ???? doesn't make much sense lol
3. Individual spoken test= if they failed the first 2 tests, they were meant to go through this test (this rarely ever happened) and they were given a grade from A-E with -'s and +'s
Issues with testing
Illiterates should've been given the beta test but this only happened in some camps = they often scored nothing
Queues for the beta test built up, which lowered the standards
Lower levels of literacy from black people but this was because they weren't able to be educated as well, this was a confounding variable
only 1/5 of beta test fails could go ahead to take the 3rd test
Findings
Selected data to look for racial and national averages
Mental age of white USA males at the time was on average 13.04 years = "nation of morons", this was taken as "proof" that black men had been mixing and lowering the IQ of the country
Black men were on average 10.41 years of mental age, so the lighter the skin, the higher the score, but this correlation was misleading because the only reason black men scored lower was because education was limited for them
Analysis and developments
Had a large impact on officer screening, by the end of the war, 2/3 of promotions were from good test results
The mental age of 13 was worrying, but the racism was even more worrying because it was just accepted as evidence that races differed in intelligence (inaccurate)
The 'evidence' was even used by Carl Brigham in Princeton as part of a racist propaganda book
The tests were not reliable for non english speakers
The immigration restriction act was passed in 1924 and shaped by yerke's findings, the people with lower scores were no longer allowed into the USA
As many as 6 million immigrants were denied entry between 1924-1939, leading to the fate of many from the nazi regime
Gould's conclusions (1982)
IQ tests = culture and history based
IQ tests do not measure innate intelligence
IQ testing is unreliable and unvalid
Poor IQ tests = tragic results in history
Gould suggested America was a nation of morons
Evaluation
Research method- standardised psychometric testing = scientific, simple to do, huge amount of data but it assumed intelligence was fixed which is inaccurate
Data types- quant. data only, so overall intelligence score was straightforward to compare
Ethics- daunting experience, no consent or right to withdraw
Validity- did not account for cultural biases, barely any validity, immigrants are at a major disadvantage
Reliability- standardised tests so reliable method but the camp conditions were all different
Sample- huge sample = highly representative, very ethnocentric