Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: American Psychological Association, David Wechsler, Lewis Terman

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Corey Isaacs

Document Summary

The ability to acquire knowledge, to think and reason effectively, and to deal adaptively with the environment. Strongly influenced by darwin"s (cousin) theory of evolution. Showed through study of family trees that eminence and genius seemed to occur across generations with certain families. Exhibited belief bias, and dismissed fact that successful people often came from privileged environments. Approach to mental skills measurement fell into disfavor because measures of nervous system efficiency proved unrelated to socially relevant measures of mental ability. His work created an interest in the measurement of mental abilities. Was interested in solving a practical problem rather than supporting a theory. Developed test to help identify children who require educational help at early age. Made two assumptions about intelligence: mental abilities develop with age, rate at which people gain mental competence is a characteristic of the person and is fairly constant over time (ex: 5?10 same)