Psych -final Flashcards
(115 cards)
a person’s ability to adapt to the environment and learn from experience
intelligence
a subarea of psychology that develops psychological tests that assess an individual’s abilities, skills, beliefs, and personality traits in a wide range of settings
psychometrics
reported to have measured intelligence in an objective way. One of the first to use the psychometric approach.
charles spearman
intelligence has a general mental ability factor, g, that represents what different cognitive tasks have in common (one # defines how smart you are)
general intelligence theory
rejected the idea that a single # can tell us our intelligence. We actually have many difference kinds of intelligence…
howard gardner
there are at least nine different types of intelligence; verbal, musical, spatial, mathematical, movement, understanding self, understanding others, naturalistic, and existential. (gave you a number based on these, at least 9 numbers)
multiple intelligence theory
a better way to measure intelligence is to analyze three types of reasoning processes, being able to solve problems…
robert sternberg
intelligence can be divided into three reasoning processes: analytical, creative, and practical
triarchic theory
measured intelligence by the size of your head
francis galton
said the bigger the brain, the more intelligent the person
paul broca
: appointed to a committee to distinguish between normal children and intellectually deficient children (idiots, imbeciles, and morons). How can we easily measure a person’s ability to perform cognitive tasks?
alfred binet
items arranged in order of increasing difficulty. The items measured vocabulary, memory, common knowledge, and other cognitive abilities.
binet-simon intelligence scale
a measure that estimates a child’s intellectual progress by comparing the child’s score on an intelligence test ot the scores of average children the same age.
mental age
developed the Stanford-Binet intelligence Scale. Improved on the concept of mental age
lewis terman
mental age/chronological ageX100
IQ
a. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
b. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
examples of IQ tests
the test is measuring what it is supposed to measure(hitting the target)
validity of IQ tests
consistency…a person’s score on the test at one point in time should be similar to the score obtained at a later time
reliability of IQ tests
How far the scores are from the mean.
standard deviations
a statistical arrangement of scores where the vast majority of scores fall in the middle range and fewer falling near the extreme ends of the curve
normal distribution
the various physiological and psychological factors that cause us to act in a specific way at a particular time
motivation
3 characteristics of motivation
- You are energized to engage in some activity
- You direct your energy toward reaching a specific goal
- You have different intensities of feelings about reaching that goal
humans are motivated by a variety of tendencies or biological forces that determine behavior.
instinct approach
we are motivated to seek out activities that provide a level of stimulation that allows us to maintain our optimal level of arousal
arousal theory