A. P. Psychology

Standardization and Norms

A. Standardized – the test items have been piloted on a similar population of people as those who are meant to take the test.

1. Such a group of people is known as the standardization sample.

B. Norms – what is normal in terms of the group you are to be testing.

1. Example – the SAT is a standardized test that is fairly representative of the population of people taking the SAT in general.

C. Psychometricians – the people who make these tests.

D. Purpose of the tests – to distinguish between people.

Reliability and Validity

E. Overview

1. Reliability refers to a test’s consistency.

2. Validity refers to a test’s accuracy.

F. Reliability – the test can be repeated and is consistent as a means of measurement.

1. The reliability of a test can be measured in several different ways.

i. Split-Half Reliability – randomly dividing a test into two different sections and then correlating people’s performance on the two halves.

a. The closer the correlation coefficient is to +1, the greater the split-half reliability of the test.

b. Many tests are available in several equivalent forms.

ii. Equivalent-Form Reliability – the correlation between performance on the different forms of a test.

iii. Test-Retest Reliability – refers to the correlation between a person’s score on one administration of the test with the same person’s score on a subsequent administration of the test.

G. Validity – a test is valid when it measures what it is supposed to measure.

1. This is often referred to as the accuracy of a test.

2. A test may be reliable without being valid.

a. A test could yield the same results over and over again without measuring what it is supposed to measure.

b. Example – a career test indicates repeatedly that a person should be a chef (thus reliable), yet the person hates to cook (not valid).

3. A number of different kinds of validity exist.

i. Face Validity – refers to a superficial measure of accuracy.

a. A test of cake-baking ability has high face validity if you want a chef, but low face validity is you want a doctor.

ii. Content Validity – refers to how well a measure reflects the entire range of material it is supposed to be testing.

a. The entire content of a chef test pertains to cooking skills.

iii. Criterion-Related Validity – there are two kinds of criterion-related validity.

a. Concurrent Validity – measures how much of a characteristic a person has now.

b. Predictive Validity – a measure of future performance.

iv. Construct Validity – Correlates an independent measure that already exists with any new measure.

a. The higher the correlation, the more construct validity the new measure has.

b. This is thought to be the most meaningful kind of validity.

c. The limitation is that it is difficult to create any measure that we believe is perfectly valid in the first place.

Types of Tests

H. Two common types of tests are aptitude tests and achievement tests.

1. Aptitude Tests – measure ability or potential.

i. Any intelligence test is supposed to be an aptitude tests.

a. Made to express someone’s potential, not current level of achievement.

2. Achievement Tests – measure what one has learned or accomplished.

i. Tests you take in school are supposed to be achievement tests.

a. They indicate how much you have learned in a given subject.

3. Making a test that exclusively measures one of these qualities is virtually impossible.

i. Whatever one’s aptitude for a particular field or skill, one’s experience affects it.

 

 

I. Speed Tests – generally consist of a large number of questions asked in a short amount of time.

1. The goal is to see how quickly a person can solve problems.

J. Power Test – gauges the difficulty level of problems an individual can solve.

1. Consists of items of increasing difficulty levels.

2. The goal is to determine the ceiling difficulty level.

K. Group Tests – administered to a large number of people at a time

1. Group tests are less expensive to administer and are thought to be more objective than individual tests.

L. Individual Tests – involve greater interaction between the examiner and examinee.

1. Example – Rorschach inkblot test.

Theories of Intelligence

M. Overview

1. Intelligence is a commonly used term, but is an extremely difficult concept to define.

2. Typically, intelligence is defined as the ability to gather and use information in productive ways.

3. One fundamental issue of debate is whether intelligence refers to a single ability, a small group of abilities, or a wide variety of abilities.

4. Below are brief summaries of some of the most widely known theories of intelligence.

N. Charles Spearman

1. Spearman argued that intelligence could be expressed by a single factor.

2. He measured the correlations between different items.

i. Underlying the many different specific abilities (referred to a s) that people regard as types of intelligence is a single factor that he named g.

O. L.L. Thurstone and J.P Guilford

1. Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities Theory – intelligence is comprised of seven main abilities (including reasoning, verbal comprehension, and memory).

2. Guilford – posited the existence of well over 100 different mental abilities.

 

 

P. Howard Gardner

1. Gardner subscribes to the idea of multiple intelligences that encompass a large range of human behavior.

2. Gardner, in addition to traditional qualities if intelligence, adds such things as musical, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal intelligence.

Q. Daniel Goleman – has added a lot to the recent discussion on emotional intelligence (EQ).

1. EQ roughly corresponds to Gardner’s notions on interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence.

2. He points out that people with the highest IQ’s are not always the most successful people.

3. Researchers point out that both EQ and IQ are needed to succeed.

R. Robert Sternberg

1. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory – holds that three types of intelligence exist.

i. Componential (analytic intelligence) – involves the skills traditionally thought of as reflecting intelligence.

a. Includes the ability to compare and contrast, explain, and analyze.

ii. Experiential Intelligence – focuses on people’s ability to use their knowledge and experiences in new and creative ways.

iii. Contextual (practical) Intelligence – what we consider street-smart; able to apply what they know to real-world situations.

2. An unresolved issue in the study of intelligence: does intelligence depend upon the context? Sternberg says yes.

3. The most common type of intelligence tests used are based on the view of intelligence as ability based.

Intelligence Test – two widely used individual tests of intelligence are the Standord-Binet and the Weschler.

S. Stanford-Binet

1. Alfred Binet (France) – wanted to design a test that would identify which children needed special attention in schools.

i. His purpose was not to rank or tract, but to improve the children’s education by finding a way to tailor it better to their specific needs.

ii. Binet came up with the concept of mental age, an idea that presupposes that intelligence increases as one gets older.

iii. Binet created a test that would identify children who lagged behind most of their peers, were in step with their peers, and were ahead of their peers.

2. Louis Terman (Stanford University)

i. Created the measure we know as IQ and the test known as the Stanford-Binet IQ test. (IQ stands for intelligence quotient)

ii. A person’s IQ score on this test is computed by dividing the person’s mental age by his chronological age and multiplying by 100.

a. Examples:

- A child of 10, with a mental age of ten (10/10x100=100).

- A child of 10, with a mental of fifteen (15/10x100=150).

iii. Terman assigned all adults an arbitrary age of 20.

T. Weschler

1. David Weschler used a different way to measure intelligence. Although it does not involve finding a quotient, it is still known as an IQ test.

2. Three different Weschler tests actually exist.

i. Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) – used for testing adults.

ii. Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) – given to children between the ages of 6 and 16.

iii. Weschler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) – can be administered to children as young as four.

3. The Weschler tests yield IQ scores based on what is known as deviation IQ.

i. The tests are standardized so that the mean is 100, the standard deviation is 15, and the scores form a normal distribution.

a. In a normal distribution, the percentages of scores are predetermined.

- 68% fall within one standard deviation.

- 95% fall within two standard deviations.

- 98/99% fall within 3 standard deviations.

b. People’s scores are determined by how many standard deviations they fall from the mean.

ii. Weschler tests result in scores on a number of subscales as well as a total IQ score.

iii. 11 subscales

a. Six are combined to produce a verbal IQ score.

b. Five are used to indicate performance IQ.

iv. Differences between a person’s score on the verbal and performance sections of this exam can be used to identify learning disabilities.

Bias in Testing

U. Researchers seem to agree that although different races and sexes may score differently on these tests, the tests have the same predictive validity for all groups.

V. Other researchers argue that advantages seem to accrue to the white, middle, and upper class.

1. Members of other groups may not have been exposed to the vocabulary and range of experience that writers of the test assume or believe they should have.

Nature vs. Nurture: Intelligence

W. One of the most hotly contested aspects of the nature-nurture debate is intelligence.

1. Human intelligence is clearly affected by both nature and nurture.

2. Solving this controversy once and for all is essentially impossible because we cannot ethically set up the kind of controlled experiment necessary to provide definitive answers to this question.

3. Many researchers have studied this issue, and some of their findings are presented below:

i. Flynn Effect - performance on intelligence tests has been increasing steadily throughout the century.

a. Since the gene pool has remained the same, this finding suggests that environmental factors play a role in intelligence.

- Examples: Nutrition, education, television, internet, video games.

ii. Monozygotic (identical) twins score more similarly on intelligence tests than do dizyogotic (fraternal) twins.

iii. Research on identical twins separated at birth has found strong correlations in intelligence scores.

iv. The majority of psychologist agree that racial differences are more likely explained by differences in environments, particularly by socioeconomic factors.

v. Participation in government programs such as Head Start correlate with higher scores on intelligence tests.

4. Remember, "within-group" differences are larger than "between-group" differences.

i. We need to be careful about how we use information about differences between groups.

a. We should ignore it and evaluate each person, regardless of group membership, as an individual.

A Cautionary Note

X. Keeping in mind the limitations and extraordinary labeling power of these instruments is particularly important.

1. We need to take care not to ascribe too great a meaning to a test score.

2. Schools that used to base admission to programs for exceptional children solely on these tests now frequently gather information in other ways as well.

3. While well-designed tests can be extremely useful, we must recognize their limitations.