PSYC 406 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2.3: Chitling Test, Scientific Racism, Face Validity

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 406
• Professor: David Vachon

Document Summary

There are two potential explanations for why some children do more poorly on standardised tests than do other children. One explanation is that they are less intelligent, the other is that some children do more poorly because they are ignorant of the right responses for a particular test. Because of poverty and discrimination, minority and nonminority children grow up in different environments. To succeed in each requires different skills and knowledge. The chitling test was developed to demonstrate that there is a body of information about which the middle class is ignorant. Currently, no more than face validity has been established for the test. The use of intelligence tests is seen as a subtle and thus more dangerous racist move because the tests are supported by scientific validity studies. This phenomenon has been labelled as scientific racism. Little convincing validity data on the bitch are available.