January 23, 2013
Psychology – Lecture 15
Intelligence & Psychological Testing
Psychological Testing
Standardization
o Uniformity of procedures
o Test norms & standardization group (Percentile scores)
Reliability
o Consistency of measurement
o Test-retest
o Internal consistency
Validity
o Content validity (Representative)
o Criterion-related validity (Predicted)
o Construct validity (measures construct)
Examining construct validity by looking at concurrent validity and discriminant validity
Intelligence
Definition
o Ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think abstractly, adapt to changes
in environment, etc.
G factor
o General intellectual ability assumed by many theorists to underlie specific mental
abilities
Psychometrics
o Measurement of mental abilities, traits and processes o Common tests (Wechsler, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, GMAT)
Brief history of intelligence testing
Paul Broca (1861) – relates brain size to intelligence
Franz Gall (1880s) phrenology – bumps on head used to assess mental abilities
Francis Galton (1869) – quantifies head measurements & relates to reaction times; Hereditary
Genius
Alfred Binet (1905) – develops (with Simon) objective test to ID children having learning
problems
mental age: chronological age that corresponds with child’s performance
Lewis Terman (1916) – Stanford-Binet in US.
I.Q. = (MA ÷ CA) * 100
The Psychometric Approach
IQ scores distributed “normally”
o Bell-shaped curve
Very high & low scores are rare
68% of people have IQ between 85-115
Reliability & Validity of IQ Tests
Exceptionally reliablrsin the .90s
Qualified validity (within culture)
o - .40 with school success
o r = .60 to .80s with # years in school
o Predicts occupational attainment, but not job performance
Pros and Cons of IQ Tests
Pros
o Predict school success
o Identify gifted and non-gifted students
o Good at measuring verbal, mathematical & some spatial aspect of intelligence
Cons
o Offer a limited assessment of intelligence
o Culture bound (eg. Flynn effect)
Beyond IQ: Expanding the concept of intelligence
Sternberg’s three facets of intelligence:
Analytical – academic problem-solving skills
Creative – insights, synthesis & ability to react to novel situations and stimuli
Practical – ability to grasp, understand and deal with everyday tasks
Another domain of intelligence: Emotional intelligence
Identify your own and other people’s emotions accurately Express your emotions clearly
Regulate emotions in yourself and others
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic
Logical/Mathematical
Spatial
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Musical
Bodily Kinesthetic
Naturalist
Race, Culture & IQ: What is “race?”
Socio-cultural identification with psychological meaning
Numerous historical taxonomies (3 to 37 groups)
o Linnaeus (1758) – geography
Americanus, Europaus, Asiaticus, Afer
o Blumenbach (1795) – geography & hierarchy
Caucasian, Malay, American, Ethiopian, Mongolian
Taxonomies do not neatly map genetically
o Race: When the human genome was first fully mapped in 2000, Bill Clinton, Craig
Venter, and Francis Collins took the stage and pronounced that "The concept of race has
no genetic or scientific basis." Great words spoken with great intentions. But what do
they really mean, and where do they leave us? Our genes are nearly all the same, but
that hasn't made race meaningless, or wiped out our evolving conversation about it.
Tony Frudakis and his company DNA Print Genomics believe they can identify
hair, eye, and skin color and point to the genetic ancestry of test subjects by
scanning their DNA.
o Skin colour – melanin produced by melanocytes
Can IQ Tests be Culture Free?
Different cultures foster different problem-solving strategies
Cultural values & experiences affect person’s
o Attitude toward exams
o Comfort in testing settings
o Motivation
o Rapport with test provider
o Competitiveness
o Ease of independent problem solving Expectations, Stereotypes & Ability Scores
Scores affected by expectations of performance.
Expectations shaped by cultural stereotypes.
Stereotype threat
o Doubt one feels about his/her performance due to negative stereotypes about his/her
group’s abilities
o Effects of stereotype threat found for many visible minorities, low-income people,
(women), & elderly
Steele & Aronson (1995) (Study 2)
African-American & European-American Stanford Students
IV. Threat (makes racial stereotype of intelligence salient)
o Diagnostic of ability (threat)
o Nondiagnostic (no threat – control)
DV. Performance on a verbal test
Steele & Aronson (1995) (Study 4)
African-American & European-Americ
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