Chapter 9 Flashcards

Question

What is the scoring system adopted by IQ tests?

Answer 1

- - raw scores are translated into deviation IQ scores that locate subjects precisely within the normal distribution, using the standard deviation ( It tells you, on average, how far each score lies from the mean) as the unit of measurement - - for most IQ tests, the mean of the distribution is set at 100 and the standard deviation (SD) is set at 15 - - a score of 115 means that a person scored exactly one SD (15 points) above the mean. A score of 85 means that a person scored one SD below the mean - - Deviation IQ scores can be converted into percentile scores - ---> -+1 SD = 34.1 - ---> -+2 SD = 13.6 - ---> -+3 SD = 2.1 - ---> -+ 4 SD = 0.1

Answer 2

- -Yes, in comparison to most other types of psychological tests, IQ tests are exceptionally reliable - - However, like other tests, they sample behaviour, and a specific testing may yield an unrepresentative score. - - Variations in examinees’ motivation to take an IQ test or in their anxiety about the test can some- times produce misleading scores

Answer 3

- - Yes, but this answer has to be qualified very carefully. IQ tests are valid measures of the kind of intelligence that’s necessary to do well in academic work. But if the purpose is to assess intelligence in a broader sense, the validity of IQ tests is questionable - - intelligence tests were originally designed to predict school performance - - Typically, positive correlations in the 0.40s and 0.50s are found between IQ scores and school grades - - any factors besides a person’s intelligence are likely to affect grades and school progress (motivation, personality, teacher biases) - - students’ self-discipline are surprisingly strong predictors of students’ school performance - - students’ subjective perceptions of their abilities influence their academic performance, even after controlling for actual IQ - - Keith Stanovich argues that IQ tests do not assess the ability to think critically, weigh conflicting evidence, and engage in judicious reasoning.

Answer 4

- - People who score high on IQ tests are more likely than those who score low to end up in high-status jobs - - Because IQ tests measure school ability fairly well and because school performance is important in reaching certain occupations, this link between IQ scores and job status makes sense - - a meta-analysis of many studies of the issue, Strenze found a correlation of 0.37 between IQ and occupational status - - means that there are plenty of exceptions to the general trend (people probably outperform brighter colleagues through bulldog determination and hard work) - - research suggests that (a) there is a substantial correlation (about 0.50) between IQ scores and job performance, and (b) this correlation varies somewhat depending on the complexity of a job’s requirements, but does not disappear even for low-level job

Answer 5

- - yes in western cultures, but very little in most non-Western cultures - - The tests have been well received in some non-Western cultures, such as Japan but they have been met with indifference or resistance in other cultures, such as China and India - - different cultures have different conceptions of what intelligence is and value different mental skills and using an intelligence test with a cultural group other than the one for which it was originally designed can be problematic

Answer 6

- - refers to general mental ability accompanied by deficiencies in adaptive skills, originating before age 18 - - Adaptive skills fall on 3 domains: are conceptual skills (e.g., managing money, writing a letter), social skills (e.g., making friends, coping with others’ demands), and practical skills (e.g., preparing meals, using transportation, shopping) - - periodic changes in the scoring norms for IQ tests have had erratic effects on the percentage of children falling below the cutoffs - - the most recent version (i.e., the DSM-5) balances IQ and adaptive functioning in determining a classification

Answer 7

- -classified into four levels characterized as mild (55–70) , moderate (40–55), severe (25–40), or profound (Below 25) - - Many individuals with mild intellectual disability are not all that easily distinguished from the rest of the population

Answer 8

- -Many organic conditions can cause intellectual disability - - For example, Down syndrome (extra chromosome and more likely with increased age of mother) is a condition that is associated with mild to severe intellectual disability - - fragile X syndrome (FXS), a common cause of hereditary intellectual disability, phenylketonuria is a metabolic disorder that can lead to intellectual disability if it is not caught and treated in infancy, hydrocephaly, an excessive accumula- tion of cerebrospinal fluid in the skull destroys brain tissue and causes intellectual disability - - A number of theories have attempted to identify the factors that underlie intellectual disability in the absence of a known organic pathology - - vast majority of children with mild disability come from the lower socioeconomic classes where a number of factors—such as greater marital instability and parental neglect, inadequate nutrition and medical care, and lower-quality schooling—may contribute to children’s poor intellectual development

Answer 9

-- a person affected with a mental disability (such as autism) who exhibits exceptional skill or brilliance in some limited field (such as mathematics or music)

Answer 10

- -efforts to identify gifted children focus almost exclusively on IQ scores and rarely consider qualities such as creativity, leadership, or special talent even though experts consistently assert that giftedness should not be equated with high intelligence and they recommend that schools not rely too heavily on IQ tests to select gifted children - -the minimum IQ score for gifted programs usually falls somewhere around 130

Answer 11

- - a major longitudinal study of gifted children begun by Lewis Terman in 1921 found gifted children (IQ <150) to be above average in height, weight, strength, physical health, emotional adjustment, mental health, and social maturity. As a group, Terman’s subjects continued to exhibit better-than-average physical health, emotional stability, and social satisfaction throughout their adult years - - Contrary to the findings of the Terman study, investigators have found elevated rates of mental illness in these samples

Answer 12

- - Terman’s gifted children grew up to be very successful by conventional standards (92 books, 235 patents, and nearly 2200 scientific articles) however, no one in the group achieved recognition for genius-level contributions - - concept of giftedness is applied to two very different groups: one consists of high-IQ children who are the cream of the crop in school, the other consists of eminent adults who make enduring contributions in their fields - -The accomplishments of the latter group involve a much higher level of giftedness - - Joseph Renzulli theorizes that this rarer form of giftedness depends on the intersection of three factors: high intelligence, high creativity, and high motivation - - He emphasizes that high intelligence alone does not usually foster genuine greatness. Thus, the vast majority of children selected for gifted school programs do not achieve eminence as adults or make genius-like contributions to society - - specific subgroups of gifted children exist, including one they refer to as the “hidden gifted" who for a variety of reasons (e.g., learning disabled/gifted, cultural minority gifted, gifted females) may not be properly identified as gifted as they are underperforming academically. As a result, these hidden gifted students are not afforded the opportunities offered by educational programs designed to help gifted students meet their potential

Answer 13

- - the average correlation reported for identical twins (0.86) is very high. The average correlation for fraternal twins (0.60) is significantly lower - -These results support the notion that IQ is inherited to a considerable degree - - critics argue that identical twins are more alike in IQ because parents and others treat them more similarly than they treat fraternal twins (this has some merit. After all, identical twins are always the same sex, and gender influences how a child is raised) - - this explanation seems unlikely in light of the evidence on identical twins reared apart because of family breakups or adoption - - the gap in IQ similarity between identical twins reared apart and fraternal twins reared together appears to widen in middle and late adulthood, suggesting paradoxically that the influence of heredity increases with age - -studies indicate that there is indeed more than chance similarity between adopted children and their biological parents

Answer 14

-- heritability ratio is an estimate of the proportion of trait variability in a population that is determined by variations in genetic inheritance. -- A heritability estimate cannot be applied meaningfully to individuals. Even if the heritability of intelligence truly is 60 percent, this does not mean that each individual’s intelligence is 60 percent inherited. -- the heritability of a specific trait can vary from one group to another depending on a variety of factors (heritability is suppressed by the negative environmental conditions associated with poverty) -- molecular genetics data have yielded heritability estimates that converge nicely with the estimates based on decades of twin and adoptions studies -- molecular genetics research attempted to identify the specific genes that shape intelligence, however thus far they have miniscule effects

Answer 15

- -adopted children show some resemblance to their adoptive parents in IQ. - - adoption studies also indicate that siblings reared together are more similar in IQ than siblings reared apart - - entirely unrelated children who are raised in the same home also show a significant resemblance in IQ - - A recent meta-analysis of relevant studies found that adopted children scored notably higher on IQ tests than siblings or peers “left behind” in institutions or disadvantaged homes - - These findings show that IQ scores are not unchangeable and that they are sensi- tive to environmental influences. - - investigators did find that environmental deprivation led to the predicted erosion in IQ scores

Answer 16

- - the finding that performance on IQ tests has steadily increased over generations - - James Flynn gathered extensive data from 20 nations and demonstrated that IQ performance has been rising steadily all over the industrialized world since the 1930s - - the level of performance required to earn a score of 100 jumped upward every time the tests were renormed (IQ 100 today would be 120 back in the 1930s) - - attributed to environmental factors, reductions in the prevalence of severe malnutrition among children, including improved schools, smaller families, better-educated parents, and higher-quality parenting

Answer 17

- - reaction range refers to genetically determined limits on IQ (or other traits) - - heredity may set certain limits on intelligence and that environmental factors determine where individuals fall within these limits - - According to this idea, genetic makeup places an upper limit on a person’s IQ that can’t be exceeded even when environment is ideal - - can explain why high-IQ children sometimes come from poor environments. It can also explain why low-IQ children sometimes come from very good environments

Answer 18

- - the average IQ for many of the larger minority groups in the United States (such as African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics) is somewhat lower than the average for whites (10-15 points) - - However, newer data suggest that the gap has shrunk in recent decades - - Arthur Jensen sparked a heated war of words by arguing that cultural differences in IQ are largely due to heredity - - Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray argued that ethnic differences in average intelligence not easily reduced by educational programs for the dis- advantaged, and at least partly genetic in origin. - - Leon Kamin’s analogy shows how between-group differences on a trait (the average height of corn plants) could be due to environment, even if the trait is largely inherited. The same reasoning presumably applies to ethnic-group differences in average intelligence

Answer 19

- - Most minority groups have endured a long history of economic discrimination and are greatly overrepresented in the lower social classes - - lower-class children tend to be exposed to fewer books, to have fewer learning supplies and less access to computers, to have less privacy for concentrated study, and to get less parental assistance in learning - - stereotype vulnerability can undermine group members’ performance on tests, hence when a minority student does poorly on a test, they worry others will attribute the failure to racial/gender inferiority - - for example, standardized tests such as IQ tests may be especially anxiety-arousing for members of stigmatized groups because the importance attributed to the tests makes one’s stereotype vulnerability partic- ularly salient - - this anxiety may impair students’ test performance by temporarily disrupting their cognitive functioning.

Answer 20

- -Historically, measures of intelligence in the U.S. had shown consistent differences between white and minority (African-American and Hispanic) children - -However, it has been proposed that Socio-Economic Status, not race or ethnicity accounts for the majority of these observed differences - -since minority groups, through systemic racism, made up a large portion of the lower socioeconomic class, they got lower IQ scores because these tests of intelligence were biased against poor people - -Because of this, people just assumed that minority people were less intelligent than whites - -because IQ tests are constructed by white, middle-class psychologists, they naturally draw on experience and knowledge typical of white, middle-class lifestyles and use language and vocabulary that reflect the white, middle-class origins of their developers ((the types of games, problems, etc that wealthier children would have regularly encountered)) - - IQ tests measure a combination of ability and knowledge, but factual knowledge clearly has an impact on IQ scores - - cultural disparities in IQ reflect differences in knowledge rather than differences in ability.

Answer 21

- -Creativity involves the generation of ideas that are original, novel, useful, and adaptive (appropriate to the situation and problem) - - Creative ideas do not come out of nowhere but come from a deep well of experience and training in a specific area - - convergent thinking: one tries to narrow down a list of alternatives to converge on a single correct answer (ex. MC test) - - divergent thinking: one tries to expand the range of alternatives by generating many possible solutions - - divergent thinking contributes to creativity, but it clearly does not represent the essence of creativity, as originally proposed (the cognitive processes that underlie creativity are multifaceted)

Answer 22

- - the items on creativity tests assess divergent thinking by giving respondents a specific starting point and then requiring them to generate as many possibilities as they can in a short period of time ( ex. list as many uses as you can for a newspaper) - - Subjects’ scores on these tests depend on the number of alternatives they generate and on the originality and usefulness of the alternatives

Answer 23

- -creativity tests may have limited value because they measure creativity out of context - - evidence suggests that creativity is specific to particular domains - - creative people usually excel in a single field, in which they typically have considerable training and expertise

Answer 24

- - Research suggests that highly creative people tend to be more independent, nonconforming, introverted, open to new experiences, self-confident, persistent, ambitious, dominant, and impulsive - - Creative people tend to think for themselves and are less easily influenced by the opinions of others than the average person is - - the amount of time spent living abroad correlated positively with measures of creativity - - the degree to which people adapted to foreign cultures was responsible for the association between living abroad and creativity.

Answer 25

- - a recent meta-analysis of many studies reported a correlation of only 0.17 between creativity and intelligence - - conceptually, creativity and intelligence represent different types of mental ability. Thus, it’s not surprising that correlations between measures of creativity and measures of intelligence are generally weak

Answer 26

- - data do suggest a correlation between creative genius and maladjustment, in particular, mood disorders such as depression - - Recent studies suggest that mental illness may be especially elevated among poets - - creativity and maladjustment probably are not causally related but that certain personality traits and cognitive styles may both foster creativity and predispose people to psychological disorders

Answer 27

Intelligence, a Harvard psychologist famously remarked, is whatever intelligence tests measure. The observation may have been made in jest (joke), but its effects have been all too serious. A multibillion dollar “intelligence testing” industry largely determines which children attend the best schools and universities. So many intelligence tests, such as the MCAT, LSAT, GRE, etc. gatekeep institutions. What we want to know is what intelligence is in essence. Is it something that only intelligence tests can measure? There are different types of intelligence and people can be intelligent in different ways. If there are different types of intelligences, then shouldn’t there be schools or programs that can help students develop their different forms of intellect? Unsurprisingly, this is not how schools work which can be frustrating because students depend on this system for their future success.

Answer 28

* Problem solving skills and the ability to adapt to and learn from life’s everyday experiences * Cannot be measured directly; can be evaluated by studying the intelligent acts that people perform (ex. observing someone solve a problem if we think problem solving is a sign of intelligence)

Answer 29

* Western definitions seem to emphasize adaptation to the environment, basic mental processes, higher order thinking, and speed of processing. * However, some cultures may be suspicious of the quality of work that is done very quickly – hence, emphasizing depth of processing rather than speed of processing.

Answer 30

-- emphasizes the characteristics of benevolence and of doing what is right (understanding the problem and the nature of the circumstance, and then coming up with not an easy answer but the morally right answer). The intelligent person spends a great deal of effort in learning, enjoys learning, and persists in lifelong learning.

Answer 31

--emphasizes humility (recognizing that we don’t always have all the answers), freedom from conventional standards of judgment, and full knowledge of oneself as well as of external conditions.

Answer 32

-- found five factors underlying Taiwanese Chinese conceptions of intelligence: general cognitive factor (general intelligence that we use for any task), interpersonal intelligence (understanding the relationship/dynamics between people), intrapersonal intelligence (understanding ourself), intellectual self-assertion (asserting that you are correct) , and intellectual self-effacement (acknowledging that you may wrong and you may not know everything).

Answer 33

-- found three factors underlying Chinese conceptions of intelligence: nonverbal reasoning ability (engaging in logic/reasoning without the use of words like algebra), verbal reasoning ability (being able to solve word problems), and rote memory.

Answer 34

--suggests that Buddhist and Hindu philosophies of intelligence involve: waking up (waking up to the world around you), noticing, recognizing, understanding, comprehending, determination, mental effort (determination to get things done), and even feelings and opinions

Answer 35

in a review of conceptions of intelligence in Africa, note that these revolve largely around skills that help to facilitate and maintain harmonious and stable intergroup, and intragroup relations

Answer 36

Chewa adults in Zambia emphasize social responsibilities, cooperativeness, and obedience as important to intelligence; intelligent children are expected to be respectful of adults.

Answer 37

Kenyan parents emphasize responsible participation in family and social life as important aspects of intelligence (being able to set aside your own needs and wants to be responsible for the needs of others).

Answer 38

--intelligence means to be prudent (careful) and cautious, particularly in social relationships.

Answer 39

-- The Yoruba emphasize the importance of depth (thinking about something deeply) (listening rather than talking) to intelligence, and of being able to see all aspects of an issue and to place the issue in its proper overall context.

Answer 40

- - the point of all these definitions is to recognize that all cultures all over the world have their own definitions of intelligence and that these definitions are equally as legitimate as the western definition we have - - We have to also recognize that if we are going to use intelligence tests based on the western definition of intelligence to gatekeep schools and programs such as law schools or medical schools, then it will create a problem - - is it possible to create a test that is not culturally biased

Answer 41

-- Galton studied family trees of wealthy people and found that success and eminence appeared consistently in some families over generations -- discounted the advantages of such an upbringing to better demonstrate that intelligence is governed by heredity (coined nature vs nurture) --invented the concepts of correlation and percentile test scores Defined intelligence in two ways: •Energy – the capacity for labour – the intellectually gifted have remarkable levels of energy • Sensitivity – the sensitivity of our perceptual systems would permit more/less environmental information to reach our minds – thus, there would be differences in our capacity for the range of information on which intelligence could act Test: •Weight discrimination – three cases of varying weights – participants had to arrange them in order of weight •Created a whistle to assess the highest pitch that individuals could perceive (higher pitch = higher intelligence) •Discovered that people’s ability to hear high pitches declines with age •Discovered that people’s ability to hear high pitches was not as sensitive as the ability of cats (this presented a problem for his theory of intelligence testing since cats are obviously not as smart as humans)

Answer 42

* Clark Wissler (1901) tested Columbia University undergraduates using a number of Galton’s tests – and compared the results of the testing with the students’ college grades. * Results: the test scores did not correlate with each other (ability to discriminate weights and hear high pitched sounds did not correlate with each other), and these test scores did not correlate with grades. * Thus, a new approach to intelligence testing was needed.

Answer 43

-- Intelligent thought is composed of three distinct elements: •Direction: knowing what has to be done and how it is to be accomplished •Adaptation: one’s selection and monitoring of one’s strategy during task performance -- Selecting a problem solving technique and then paying attention to how well you are solving the problem •Control: the ability to criticize one’s own thoughts and actions -- Binet realized that it was important to examine individuals with age - appropriate testing (this was a gigantic breakthrough). •Infant: “Le Regard” – a lighted match is moved back & forth before the eyes – the tester is looking for the ability to orient and coordination of movement -- If they are able to follow/focus on the lighted match, and how long they are able to keep their focus before they get bored or distracted •Age 2: place a triangle, circle & square into the appropriate holes on a board -- And how fast they are able to do this •Age 8: defining words; recognizing verbal absurdities (e.g., “Why is the statement foolish?”); recognizing and explaining similarities or differences between two objects •Age 14: solve arithmetic word problems •Thus, developed the concept the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) •Chronological Age (CA) •Mental Age (MA) – the individual’s level of mental development relative to typical others (of varying ages) -when doing IQ tests, this is what you are being tested on --- to get this, you have to sample and test thousands of people in a particular age (like 12 years old) and we give them a range of really hard tests and we look at how well someone of that particular range can solve those problems. For example, on average, a sample of 1000 12 year olds can solve geometry problems but not algebra problems •IQ = (MA/CA) x 100 •Having an IQ of 100 would indicate that the person’s intelligence is “average” (the norm) for the person’s age.

Answer 44

- -Sampled African-American, Hispanic and white participants on a number of measures of IQ and demographic variables (age, SES socioeconomic status, level of education, gender, region of the country, number of parents living at home, etc.) - -Found differences between the three groups on measures of IQ (the white americans were outperforming the African-americans and hispanics) - -However, considerable variation in the differences between the three groups depending upon which scale is used (the difference in IQ scores between the three groups might be larger or smaller depending on the type of IQ test used) - -To investigate the relation between SES and IQ, they matched their samples on a number of variables (age, region, sex, parental education level, number of parents living in the household, and SES) - - • matching people of the same age (ex.18 year old white, black, and Hispanic), sex (ex only female white, black, Hispanic), etc - -The variable that showed the most disparity was when they matched them on SES (a wealthy black, white, Hispanic and poor white, Hispanic, black). What was shown was that the difference in IQ scores between the different races in the same SES disappeared - -Saw that the difference in IQ scores between younger participants of the different races (5-6 year old black, white, Hispanic) was lower but the difference was more noticeable between older participants of different races - -• The younger participants have not lived that long in that impoverished environment so the impacts of being in a lower socioeconomic class have not had a chance to accumulate so it has not affected them as much and the same goes for wealthier children because their wealthy environments have not had a chance to lift them up and benefit them - -thus, indicating that the observed differences may be the result of socio-economic and cultural variables

Answer 45

-- Participants randomly assigned to one of three conditions •Listening to a Mozart sonata •Listening to a relaxation tape (beach waves, sound of birds, etc) •Silence --Assessed on just one part of an IQ test -spatiotemporal ability (measured by tests of pattern analysis, matrices, paper-cutting and paper-folding) --Calculated “IQ” after the three conditions •Silence = 110, Relaxation = 111, Mozart = 119 --The silence/relaxation difference is not statistically significant, but it is for the Mozart one --The effects of listening to Mozart do not last more than 10-15 minutes and is only limited to this particular kind of logical, spatial task being tested

Answer 46

-- Proposed that the “Mozart Effect” is not specific to the composer or the music – rather, is a result of an arousal effect that is produced by the tempo of the music --First study was on uni students and second study was on younger children STUDY 1 --48 Canadian Undergraduates listened to music composed by Mozart or Albinoni (10 minutes) and subsequently completed an IQ test. • Mozart (uptempo & bright), Albinoni (very slow, sad and sonder, think “funeral”) -- Arousal and mood were measured before and after music listening. -- Result: only when arousal and mood were significantly elevated, was there a difference in performance on a measure of IQ STUDY 2 --Participants were 39 Japanese children, age 5 --Each child made a “baseline drawing” (to establish baseline measures of creativity, which is a sign of intelligence) --Four conditions 1. Mozart 2. Albinoni 3. Listening to familiar children’s songs 4. Singing familiar children’s songs --Dependent variables: A set of adult raters compared the 1st and 2nd drawings on drawing times, creativity, energy, and technical proficiency --Results: Listening/Singing familiar music significantly increased drawing times, as well the drawings in these two conditions were rated as more creative, energetic, and technically proficient. The music of Mozart or Albinoni did not produce the same results --Conclusions: •Mozart effect is not specific to composer or music. •Music-enhanced cognitive performance is a byproduct of arousal and mood •Cognitive enhancement after music listening extends to tests of creativity •Enhancement depends on a match between the music and the listener (can’t just be any music, it has to be music that makes the person feel better and energized)

Answer 47

--Also called the “g Factor” Theory --Two-Factor Theory because there are two intelligence factors (two components of intelligence) that are involved in any mental task/activity. •A general factor (g) common to all tasks requiring intelligence (rational, comprehension, or deductive operations, etc.) •And one specific factor (s) that is unique to each different type of task

Answer 48

--111 undergraduate students •Questionnaires on Humour Styles, Emotional Intelligence, Social/Interpersonal Competence •Individuals who are better able to regulate their emotions tend to experience more cheerfulness and less negative moods. •Low abilities in accurately perceiving and understanding emotions in oneself and others are associated with a prevalence of sad, distressed and grumpy moods •People who have difficulties with accurate emotion perception may tend to use humour in inappropriate ways, either to tease and disparage others (aggressive humour) or to excessively disparage themselves and hide their true feelings (self-defeating humour) and report a lower ability to provide emotional support to others and to manage conflicts in relationships. •Interpersonal competencies (asserting one’s personal rights, providing emotional support, managing conflicts) were related to a lack of negative humour styles. •Positive styles of humour were related to a better ability to initiate relationships (striking up conversations with strangers and initiating friendships).

Chapter 9 Flashcards

(73 cards)