Week 1 - Investigating Psychology

Page 1

Introduction: pp 3-7

intelligence investigated since mid C19th

fascinating but controversial

can be measured - major preoccupation - a central assumption

measuring intelligence > 1 psych ^ achievements

Used in many ways:

education selection

job recruitment

diagnosis

etc.

wide belief - good score predicts success

Not all agree :

'failed idea'

?capture diversity of skills & ability

belief that tests show some groups better than others (interpreted as)

Many different interpretations of what intelligence is - common sense, clever, adaptability, etc.

agree only on these 3 points:

all abilities underpinned by one ability - intelligence

varies between people

it's important.

Page 2

page 17 - 25

craniometry - belief that head size = intelligence, but subject to confirmatory bias (where only see what want to see), objective test showed unreliable - binet's belief - not objective so used psychometrics instead

Francis Galton - craniometry + physical tests (eye, hearing, color vision, grip, etc) 1884 lab in south kensington musium

early tests used to establish some groups as more superior than others - often due to bias - causing oppression and discrimination

Binet (1857-1911)- french - pioneer iq tests worked with founding neurologist jean-martin charcot

1891+ moved to universuty lab - sorbonne

psychometrics - assesses knowledge, attitutes, mood, personality and mental ability. Individuals differ from each other - individual differences.

believed in role of environment and education - intelligence can be improved, NOT innate as previously believed.

1885 - begins work on 'battery of tests' - measure intelligence (higher mental power)

1895-collaborates with theodore simon

1904- asked binet/simon to devise test to assess childrens ability - who had special needs.

1905-first test published, updated regularly till binet dies

1916 - updated by henry goddard and Lewis Termon - renamed stanford-binet test

gold standard of tests - still revised every 20 yrs

todays wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS) builds on this.

tasks included:

following commands

naming objects

defining words

momorising

comparisons

54 tasks - arranged in order of difficulty

each task looks at different abilities

general knowledge

short term memory

non-verbal reasoning

verbal ability

numerical skills

results compared with norms expected for a specific childs age. this gave 'mental age'

only relevant when compared with others of same age, culture, etc.

so not absolute standard but just a comparison with others in same group (test norms)

test standardisation is used to establish test norms

pages 26 -

outline what IQ is, and discuss the assumption of normal distribution of intelligence

spearman (1904) - general intelligence (g) - underlying factor - believed correlation between ability in different areas.

William Stern - early c20 - IQ

formula - mental age/chronological age

Terman foruma - mental age/chronological age x 100

IQ = number that shows intelligence score in relation to others in age group

100 = average for age (applies to any age) but only for children

binet opposed IQ - makes it look more precise than it is. abilities can not be a single score., only good as rough diagnostic tool.

page 28 -31

Adults assessed using 'normal distribution' - this is a concept that assumes that abilities will be distributed in such a way that most will be around average, with fewer outliers.

used by retailers to estimate how much to order in different sizes - eg shoes.

results look like a curve, - 'bell curve'

100 still denotes average IQ (mean)

curve shows:

2/3 score between 85-115

95% score between 70-130

<2.3% score <70

<2.3% score >130

new tests calibratd so the norms will fit this bell curve

advantages

can immediately see where someone fits

useful for comparing different test versions

simple to use - most understand the scoring

disadvantages

never been demonstrated, just an assumption

based on galtons research that physical attributes are normally distributed

not an 'absolute' measure of intelligence

understand complex nature of intelligence and the challenges posed by atttempting to measure aspects of human psychology that cannot be directly observed

Page 3

pages 32 - 40

Anatomy of an Intelligence Test

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) - widely used for adults

developed - 1939 - american, david wechsler

originally called - Wechsler-bellvue intelligence scale

10 core subjects tested, devided into 4 components, 14 -33 q's in each increasing difficulty

verbal comprehension - 3 subtests - general verbal skills (give meaning of words), identify what in common, and general knowledge

perceptual reasoning - 3 subtests - non-verbal reasoning - reproduce patterns, manipulate pics and problem solving. involves pics not words

working memory - 2 subtests - repeat sequence 2 - 9 #'s and simple sums.

processing speed - 2 subtests - looks at speed and accuracy, identify pairs in a sequence of symbols. succesful if completed in <90secs.

processing speed NOT seen in Binet-Simon test

10 core area results = iq

also gives 4 'index scores' - for each component. Wais acknowledges not always a correlation.

so results show IQ + whether good, or bad in one or more components.

The number of different kinds of intelligences has changed over time, sometimes upto 8 components have been considered.

Fluid Intelligence - p37

fluid and crystallised attention - distinct components - 1970's Raymond Cattell

Fluid intelligence - icludes logical thinking & problem solving - even without knowledge

crystallised intelligence - language and general knowledge - knowledge required

no well developed theory, or definitive idea of what intelligence is. tests measure something, but what?

where shoe size in normal distribution can be measured, intelligence can't be observed or measured

only way to ensure validity is to compare it with others - test norms, by test standardisation which is give the test to a large number of people.

Galton suggested by testing someone believed intelligent and someone not, if difference shown in score it is valid

problem - need an idea of who is or isn't intelligent

in children - good grades = >intelligent - so test valid if iq score reflects this, first used by binet

This is an issue as schools can teach the skills needed to do well in the IQ tests.

to predict school performance parents support more important than IQ. more support = Duckworth (2011) - incentives improve IQ performance )pp.39) so motivation an influence

Investigating Intelligence - chapter 1 Keywords

Page 4

Video: Measuring Intelligence

How tests used in, how administered, what conclusions from results.

clinical - Sarah McKenzie Ross - diagnosis, court expert, accident, assault, any brain damage? test memory, verbal etc. what does the loss mean.

occupational - Almuth MacDowell selection (job recruitment) aka ability testing - measure maximum performance. tests based on skills used for the job. paper based 'exam'

educational - learning needs, selection (school admission/streaming) Jenny Taylor - Weschler scale, determine overall IQ, adminsitered face to face, observing performance - how is task completed. paper based 'exam's ie: 11+

Jenny Taylors definition of intelligence - It includes personality as well as IQ

why doesn't Sarah McKenzie ross report IQ to doctors? no, they don't know how to interpret an IQ score, more helpful to give more discriptive info.

In-text citation: Investigating psychology (The Open University, 2014)

Reference list: The Open University (2014) ‘Investigating psychology’ [Video], DE100 Investigating psychology 1. Available at https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=842330§ion=7 (Accessed date).