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level: Gould and Yerkes (ID)

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level questions: Gould and Yerkes (ID)

QuestionAnswer
+ Background to the study- Alfred Binet and the First IQ Test: During the early 1900’s on students were most likely to experience difficulty in schools - He quickly realised that some children could answer more advanced questions - He suggested the concept of a mental age, or a measurement of intelligence based on the average abilities of children of a certain age group
Aim of Gould's article and Yerkes' study- Yerkes: wanted psychology to be considered as a science + was interested in mental testing - Gould: criticises attempts made to measure intelligence
Who was Robert Yerkes- Professor of Psychology at Harvard University - Didn't like that his subject was viewed as a 'soft' science
What did Gould want to show about Yerkes measures of intelligence- That they were flawed with disastrous consequences
IQ definition (kwow-shunt)- ‘Intelligence quotient’ - Measurement of certain abilities - there is no pass or fail - Different types of intelligence, so there are different types of test to measure them
Yerkes' research method- Quasi experiment, country of origin and skin colour is naturally occurring - Large scale psychometric testing - Independent measures
Data- Quantitive
Quantitive data- Scores in the tests - Creating 'average mental age' of people from different ethnic backgrounds
Strengths of the Quantitive data- Objective and easy to analyse - Mean mental ages for each group calculated- numerical so its objective
Weaknesses of the Quantitive data- Reductionist, implies there is a difference, but does not give any insight into why the differences exist
Yerkes sample- 1.75 million USA army men from a range of backgrounds and ages during WW1 - Opportunity sample
Why could measuring differences between people become socially sensitive?- Because not only are you saying people are different, but that they might be worse at something
Psychometric test meaning- Expresses psychological constructs in numerical form
The three Yerkes tests- Army Alpha - Army Beta - Individual Examination
Alpha test- Written examination for literate recruits - 8 parts, took less than an hour - Complete the sequence, complete analogies...
Beta test- Pictorial task for the illiterate who failed Army Alpha - 7 parts including complete the maze, complete-a-picture...
IE test- Individualised exam for those who failed Army beta
The conditions like under which the participants completed the test- Rushed and intimidating
Grading the tests- Graded each man from A to E - Recruits with score of C marked as 'low average intelligence' + rank of 'ordinary private'
The problem with how Yerkes administered the tests- It was hard to keep everything standardised
What did Yerkes say about men who were illiterate in English and what was the problem with this?- He wanted illiterates to take Army Alpha Test - But wasn't always the case due to logistics + practicality - Recruits had spent less time in school than Yerkes anticipated - So many men were queuing for the Beta test - Ended up lowering the definition of literate so more could take the Army Alpha
What happened to the illiterate men who ended up taking the Army Alpha test?- They ended up getting zero therefore they needed to take the Army Beta test anyway - But due to time pressures this didn't always happen
How many cases did E.G. Boring select for analysis?- 160,000 cases were selected for analysis
What did Yerkes claim to be measuring? How does Gould argue against this?- Yerkes claimed native intellectual ability but Gould argued it relied heavily on cultural knowledge
Discrimination in the tests- Black people were less likely to be recalled to complete a beta test
What was the highest mental age? Who did it belong to?-13.04, White American
What was the lowest mental age? Who did it belong to?-10.41, Black American
Average mental ages- White American 13.04 - Black American 10.41 - Russian immigrant 11.34 - Italian immigrant 11.01 - Polish immigrant 10.74
3 conclusions Yerkes made- Intelligence is inherited so can grade people based on skin colour - The average man of most states were moronic - Psychometric testing is a valid, scientific with wide implications for society
Impact of the results- Led to the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 - Up to 6 million southern, central + eastern Europeans were barred entry to the USA between 1924 + near the WW2
What did Gould say about the design of the tests?- He said they were 'ludicrous' and the tests were culturally and systematically biased
What did Gould say about the administration of the tests?- Points out illiterate men were most likely black men (who would have less schooling due to segregation, poor condition in black schools etc) - Or those who only recently migrated - systematic bias
What did Gould say about the way Yerkes findings were used?- Sent many people to their deaths by the Nazis as they had nowhere to go
Gould's study can be described as a review, what does this mean?- An analysis of another persons work/study
Strength of a review- No ethical concerns by the reviewer and is good to update views/research
Weakness of a review- Could be biased in what aspects of other people's work you choose/select
Ethics- Ethical guidelines did not exist at that time and the government had approved of the tests - Confidentiality, actual names of the recruits are not known
Ethnocentricism- Tests were based on American culture - 'scientific racism' - Results were from a wide range of countries
Were Yerkes' ways of measuring intelligence standardised and replicable? (Internal reliability)- No, they were organised differently in different army camps, people were given the wrong tests and rushed - Definition of literate was also varied
Was Yerkes' sample large enough to suggest a consistent effect? (External reliability)- Yes, 1.75 million recruits
Were Yerkes' tests accurate measures of 'native intellectual ability'? (Construct validity)- No, heavily relied on cultural knowledge/ amount of time spent in the USA/ language skills and therefore was not measuring IQ
How representative of the wider population was Yerkes' sample? (Population validity)- Only army recruits so younger and all men
Psychology as a science- Yerkes, standardised, tests objective - Big issue with falsifiability
Nature Vs Nurture debate NATURE- Yerkes, intelligence is innate + unaffected by the environment
Nature Vs Nurture debate NURTURE- Gould, tests affected by environmental factors e.g. how long they've spent in US
Link to area/perspectives- Individual differences area, measuring how individuals differ - Cognitive, trying to measure mental ability - Gould, developmental, nature– nurture debate
Link to key theme- Measuring differences