4: Early Applied Psychology Flashcards
(29 cards)
Why did Wundt dislike IQ testing?
He wanted to establish psychology as a real science and practices such as IQ testing which was mainly done as a service for money was seen as “dirtying the name”
How did evolutionism influence psychology?
It enforced a naturalist vision of men and forced an examination of the human psyche in evolutions. The closeness to animals then developed comparative psychology, the adaptation idea into functionalist psychology and individual variability into differential psychology. It also kick started the nature nurture debate.
What is darwinism?
The theory of the evolution of species by natural selection advanced by Charles Darwin.
What is social darwinism?
It is the belief of the survival of the fittest where people become powerful in society but they are innately better - justifying social inequality. Struggling individuals should therefore be left to their own devices > forming eugenics
What are the two views of IQ testing?
- Psychologists view - IQ testing contributes to societal progress
- Critical Anti-testers view - IQ is a dangerous form of social discrimination
Who was Francis Galton?
He was interested in differential psychology, in the ways in which individuals differ in their capacities and behavior; especially intelligence which he thought was heritable. He used head circumference and time reaction to measure intelligence; finding from his data normal curves > suggesting intelligence was normally distributed. He also founded eugenics. He studied this at the anthropometric laboratory.
Who was Alfred Binet?
He was interested in the intellectual development of his children and he was a member of the Free Society for the Psychological Study of the Child. The society was called upon by the government to create a technique for identifying challenged students. He worked with Theodore Simon to make the first intelligence test that was later revised to arrange the tasks to account for mental age. He was careful in administering the test - not in groups and not if the child was anxious. He also thought intelligence could be developed instead of being entirely inherited like Galton.
How was the first intelligence test by Binet and Simon developed?
They were brought to the US by Galton where Henry H Goddard formed a categorisation of the lower tail end of intelligence that became standardised. The lowest was an idiot, the middle was low to high grade imbeciles and the highest was a moron.
What was the Kallikak family?
A “study” where a man had a kid with a bar maid who was “feeble minded and had terrible offspring” and a high status Quakeress who had “good children”. Each child has a child until society is filled with bad and good people. It was served as a warning to men to pick good women to have good children and citizens.
What developed intelligence tests into the military?
Robert Yerkes and his team tried to screen “American society” to get an idea of the population intelligence level. To do so, they used the soldiers with paper and pencil tests (Army Alpha). However, the soliders did not understand the instructions since they were mainly immigrants, leading to a second version of the test that was cultural neutral (although it wasnt) and not language dependent( Army Beta). They wanted to also use the test to win WW1, but the military distrusted the testing and picked without it and the results showed generally low scores which led to public fear of degeneration of the U.S. of improper genetic stock (immigrants and black people who had the lowest scores)
What was the consequence of Army Alpha/Beta?
Psychology got on the map and the public suddenly knew about psychology based on IQ testing
Who was Helena Antipoff?
She was studying psychology and became acquainted with the intelligence test at the laboratory where Binet and Simon worked. She was trained as a researcher. She returned to Russia where she examined abandoned children on the streets (Besprizorniki) who organised their own groups and even spoke their own language. She studied children at her own institution for them, used IQ tests on them and tried to support them - despite not scoring well, they did good on their own practical intelligence. In Brazil, she introduced the notion of civilized intelligence and exceptional children (special needs). She did questionnaires in schools and made comparisons to european children. She formed an institution in rural areas to educate children in practical and societally relevant knowledge
Why did IQ tests become popular?
Intelligence became relevant due to Darwinism and enabled statistical governance where public institutions could now categorise people. Testing was also relevant in a democracy which valued meritocracy which suggested that American society was modern.
What were the consequences of IQ testing?
While it did put psychology on the map as a study and something that could be pursued professionally, it did encourage eugenics and eugenic programmes (such as sterilisation and murders of people with mental disabilities and others in Nazi Germany and the US)
What, according to Henry Goddard, was the reason for extreme poverty and crime in the US at the time?
He believed it was heritable feeble-mindedness which he thought would lead to criminal degeneracy as it was their “natural inclination and mental weakness” to fall to such temptations. He also produced the tale of the Kallikak family which was largely false and portrayed their family negatively.
Who was William Stern?
He was a German psychologist who proposed dividing mental age by chronological age (and x 100) to obtain a single number - IQ.
How did the Stanford-Binet test form?
Lewis Terman and Robert Yerkes developed the test by combining Binet’s ideas and Galton’s normal distribution principle.
What significant things did Helena Antipoff do?
She formed educational institutions for special needs children and the poor/rural. She also taught and formed the first generation of Brazilian psychologists and their profession.
How was Antipoff introduced to child psychology?
The laboratory of Binet and Simon attracted Claparede who was focused on child psychology and the development of École Active; a school who was supposed to develop children’s autonomy and whose teaching methods relied on the child’s interests. Antipoff joined the school when she met Claparede. She then studied how intelligence was an active process, not entirely heritable or impossible to study.
Why was Antipoff exiled from Russia?
In Russia, her research showed that children from working-class backgrounds did worse on standardised tests than upper-class children. Soviets considered this to be disrespectful even though she suggested that this means that standardised tests have no scope. As her husband also left to Berlin, eventually so did she.
Why did Antipoff move to Brazil?
She was invited to work at the newly established teachers training college in Minas Gerais. Afterwards, she started a psychological laboratory to research more on the local children and how education could best suit them. She later studied the impact of social environment on human cognition. She accepted and renewed her visas until eventually becoming a Brazilian citizen.
What were the criticisms of Antipoff on intelligence tests?
Intelligence tests only somewhat measure what is intended and that other factors of intelligence were not measured such as logical reasoning. Intelligence also appeared to be a mix of dispositions and social environment. She therefore argued that intelligence tests measured civilized intelligence, not intelligence as a whole. She also mapped socioeconomic status to such IQ.
What were the different historical perspectives on intelligence tests?
- Optimistic view - idea that it furthered social and scientific progress
- Rebel view - idea that the negative consequences were too much and that more of intelligence was formed by environment
- Historical research view - the social/philosophical way which condemned IQ testing and its formation and the historicist way which focused on understanding than condemning and merging the first 2 perspectives
What led to the intelligence tests formed by Galton and Cattell?
They tried to use physiological measurements to determine intelligence at the anthropometry laboratory. However, after finding that there was no correlation between such measures and academic achievement.
