PSYCH 2AA3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Asian Americans, Job Performance, Stereotype Threat
5 Oct 2017
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Document Summary
Psychometricians are psychologists who specialize in measuring psychological characteristics such as intelligence and personality. When they want to answer a particular question, they usually start by administering a large number of tests to many individuals. They then look for patterns in performance across the different tests. If changes in performance on one psychological test are accompanied by changes on performance on the second test then the tests appear to measure that same attribute or factor. Charles spearman reported findings supporting the idea that a general factor for intelligence (g) is responsible for performance on all mental tests. Thurstone and thurstone analyzed performance on a wide range of tasks and identified 7 distinct patterns, each reflecting a unique ability: perceptual speed, word comprehension, word fluency, space, number, memory, and induction. Emphasized that the specific factors were more useful than the general factor in assessing and understanding intellectual ability. There have also been propositions of hierarchical theories of intelligence.
