Psychology Chapter 13
Psychological & Intelligence
Testing
Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities

Eight factors make up intelligence
 Visual
and spatial ability
 Perceptual speed
 Numerical ability
 Verbal meaning
 Memory
 Word fluency
 Deductive reasoning
 Inductive reasoning
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple
Intelligences

Initially formulated a list of seven
intelligences
 Linguistic
intelligence
 Logical-mathematical intelligence
 Musical intelligence
 Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
 Spatial intelligence
 Interpersonal intelligence
 Intrapersonal intelligence
Additional Intelligences
Naturalist intelligence
 Spiritual intelligence
 Existential intelligence
 Moral intelligence

Daniel Goleman

Emotional Intelligence
 Why
are smart people not always as
successful as might be expected
Self-awareness: recognize own feelings
 Mood management: distract from

uncomfortable feelings
 Self-motivation: moving ahead with
confidence
Impulse control: ability to delay pleasure
 People skills: ability to empathize

Alfred Binet
Devised the 1st modern intelligence test
 Mental age: the level of intellectual
functioning in years, compared to
chronological age
 4 elements important for intelligence

 Direction:
set a goal
 Adaptability: adjust the goal
 Comprehension: understand the problem
 Self-motivation: assess the problem
Louis Terman
1916 Binet’s test was brought to the US
and revised by Terman of Stanford
 Standford-Binet Test
 Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is a number
that reflects the relationship between a
child’s mental age and chronological age

David Wechsler
Wechsler Scales, more widely used today
 Intelligence tests for children and adults
 Scores on the Wechsler tests are based on
a comparison of a persons answers with
the answers of others in the same group
 Measures both verbal and nonverbal ideas
 Beneficial for identifying particular learning
disabilities

Charles Spearman
Two factor theory: proposes that 2 factors
contribute to an individual’s intelligence
 Factor g: represents a person’s general
intelligence

 Complex

mental work, problem solving
Factor s: represents a person’s specific
mental abilities
 Verbal
or math skills
2 points critics make
Argue that g does not measure many
other kinds of mental abilities such as
motor, musical, or creative abilities
 Argue that intelligence cannot be reduced
to just g and expressed by a single IQ
score
 Thurston was a major opponent

Robert Sternberg
Triarchic Theory: intelligence can be divided into
three ways of processing information
 Analytic thinking: the ability to solve problems
 Creative thinking: applying creative thinking to
solving problems and dealing with new
situations
 Practical thinking: skills to help adjust to and
cope with one’s environment

Reliability and Validity
Reliability refers to a tests consistency, it is
reliable if it gives highly similar scores every time
it is used
 Validity is high if the test measures what it is
supposed to measure
 Problems with testing:

Education level
 Economic background
 Cultural bias
 Motivation to do well

Mental Retardation
Defined as below average intellectual
functioning
 Individuals are unable to handle tasks
appropriate to chronological age
 Affects between 7-8 million people, 3% of
the population
 1 in 10 families has a member affected

Classifications





70-79 Borderline: slow learners
52-69 Mild: most people legally termed
“retarded” fall into this category
35-51 Moderate: when fully grown will have the
skills of a 4-7 year old (reading, writing,
speaking)
20-35 Severe: require constant supervision, 75%
have a physical defect or major disease
19- Profound: rarely mature beyond 2,
communication minimal
Distribution of IQ Scores








80-89 Slow learner
90-99 Low average
100-109 High average
110-119 Above average
120-129 Superior
130-144 Gifted
145-159 Highly Gifted
160- Genius

Einstein’s IQ was about 160
MENSA
Founded in England in 1946
 Aim was to create a society that is nonpolitical and free from all racial or religious
distinctions
 Membership is open to anyone whose IQ
is in the top 2% of the population
 Today there are some 100,000 Mensans in
100 countries

6 Points on IQ Scores
IQ scores seem to be most useful when related
to school achievement
2) Are somewhat accurate in predicting which
people will do well in school
3) Critics of IQ testing wonder whether such tests
actually measure intelligence
4) Most Psychologists agree that intelligence is
the ability to acquire new ideas, behaviors, and
to adapt to new situations
1)
5) Generally, IQ tests measure the ability to
solve certain types of problems
6) An IQ score measures performance: it
does not explain it
Controversy over IQ testing
Do IQ tests directly measure ability? (no)
 Do genetic differences or environmental
inequalities cause two people to receive
different scores on IQ tests?
 Are IQ test culturally biased?

Heritability
The degree to which a characteristic is
related to inherited genetic factors
 As genetic relationship increases (parent
and child, identical twins) the similarity of
IQ also increases

Twin Studies and IQ
The best way to study the effects of
Nature and Nurture is to study identical
twins separated at birth and raised in
different environments
 Thomas Bouchard: leading authority on
Twins

 His
study has researched more than 100 sets
of twins that were raised apart from one
another
Bouchard concludes that IQ is affected by
genetic factors, supported by the
discovery of a specific gene for human
intelligence
 Bouchard believes 70% of IQ variance can
be attributed to heredity

9 points on the effect of environment
on IQ
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Studies show that brothers/sisters raised in the
same environment are more likely to have
similar IQs
Quality preschool programs help raise IQs
initially (head start)
Participating children are less likely to be in
special education classes
Participating children are less likely to be held
back
Participating children are more likely to
graduate from high school
6) Each year of school missed may drop a person’s
IQ as much as 5 points
7) The richness of the home environment affects
IQ
8) The quality of food in the home affects IQ
9) The number of brothers and sisters in the
family affects IQ
Family size and IQ
Research suggests that the brightest
children come from the smallest families
 Larger families increase the amount of
time a child spends with other children
and decreases the amount of parental
attention, development of intelligence has
been known to suffer
 Interpersonal skills however may improve

Adults and intelligence
Older people who retain their health have very
high levels of intellectual functioning
 Seattle study links several factors

Level of income
 Level of education
 Stimulating jobs
 Intact family life
 Attendance at cultural events, travel, and reading
 Married to a spouse with high level of intellect
 A flexible personality

Objective personality Inventories
List of statements about beliefs, habits,
hopes, needs, and desires
 Consists of multiple-choice/ true-false
-MMPI Minnesota Multiphasic personality
-CPI California Psychology Inventory

Projective Personality Test

Projects innermost self onto the stimulus
provided
Ink Blot Test (Rorschach test)
- TAT Thematic Apperception Test
-
Aptitude Tests

Mechanical comprehension, verbal skillls,
clerical speed and accuracy
Achievement Tests
Tests used to measure student progress
 SAT Scholastic Assessment Test

 The
SAT has good validity and reliability