Intelligence Testing
Enjoy
* * *
Lecture 1: Intro to Individual Differences Psychology
* * *
ID seeks to find generalisations and universal dimensions upon which we can all be compared and this allows us to discriminate between people on a range of issues.
Discrimination - to understand what makes us the same, but also what makes us unique
It assesses the effects of heredity vs environment
Origins of Individual Differences:
Gall: 18th Century
Craniology is the study of the shape and size of the skulls of different human races (also known as phrenology)
It was believed that an individual's character could be determined by the shape of the cranium.
The Mind: the left side: the memory for words or the lexical component of language. Above it: the motoric component or the faculty of spoken language.
Gall believed that the clinical-pathological correlation of brain lesions to aphasic disturbances could be evidence to support his model.
Francis Galton - 19th Century
He was the forefather of intelligence tests - suggested testing the reaction times, keenness of sight and hearing, the ability to distinguish between colours, eye judgement and strength as a way to determine intelligence through responsive stimuli.
Galton mainly focused on positive eugenics, encouraging healthy, capable people of above average intelligence to bear more children, with the idea of building an improved human race. (Note to self: is an ass)
Intelligent people show the ability to respond to a larger range of information experienced through the senses but "idiotic" people demonstrated problems dealing with information gained through the senses. He felt that people of low intelligence show less response to sensory information, such as being unable to distinguish between heat and cold and being unable to recognise pain.
Galton developed measures of intelligence, aptitudes and statistical techniques that allowed the scientific investigation of individual differences.
Eugenics put simply means 'well-born' - is the science that deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a being.
Alfred Binet:
Binet was the first to create a test of intelligence: provided the techniques for identifying children at primary school age whose lack of success or ability might lead them to require special education.
He created the Binet-Simon scale (along with Theodore Simon), the first intelligence test. The test had 30 short tasks that related to everyday life. The tests ranged from easy to difficult.
Tasks included; following a lit match with your eyes, shaking hands, naming body parts, counting coins, naming objects in a picture, recalling a number of digits after being shown a long list, word definition, filling in mission words in a sentence etc.
The Binet-Simon test could be used to determine what level in an intelligence test a child should be attaining at any given age - this was a turning point in psychology as they created a test that can compare the performance of children against those of their own age.
YOU ARE READING
Psychology
Non-FictionI'm a struggling Psychology student with a lot of time on my hands and this is one of the ways I've been trying to make myself study. Lets hope it works. (This is the real, boring psychology with the essays and the sources and the diagrams, not the...
