What are the two studies in the individual differences area
Gould (1982)/ Yerks
Hancock (2011)
In the Gould study how did Sternberg define intelligence
1- the possession of knowledge
2- ability to efficiently use that knowledge to reason about the world
3- ability to employ that reasoning adaptively in different environments
What was the aims of the Gould study and the Yerks study
Gould = to highlight the issues of intelligence testing carried out by Yerks
Yerks = to devise a way to scientifically test intelligence on a mass scale
What method was used in the Gould study
Review article of problems with IQ testing
What was the sample in the Yerks study
1.75 million army recruits during world war 1 and therefore all men
What were the three stages of the procedure in the Yerks study and briefly describe them
1) The army alpha = a written test taken by literate recruits (could read and write) It consisted of 8 parts Participants for this test included: 86% native american born white recruits 44% foreign born recruits 67% northern blacks 35% southern blacks
E.g. Cristo is a) medicine b) disinfectant c) food product
2) The army beta = a pictorial test for the illiterate (cant read or write) or those who failed the alpha test
This test involved pictures and had 7 parts
Participants for this test included:
14% native american born recruits
56% foreign born recruits
33% northern blacks
65% southern blacks
E.g. Fill in something thats missing in the picture
3) a spoken test - supposed to be administered to large groups and took less than an hour to complete
What were some of the problems in the Yerks IQ test
- Very reductionist approach only tests one aspect of someones intelligence which id the army and general knowledge
- Illiterate people taking the beta test were still expected to draw with a pencil and paper, and many had not been educated
- ethnocentric= relied on knowledge in america at that time
What were some of the findings in the Yerks study
1-the average mental age of white, american adults stood at 13, this is just above the level of moronity
2-it was possible to grade European immigrants by their country of origin. They were all deemed ‘morons’. Apart from those from northern and western Europe
3-black people scored lowest of all, with an average of 10.41. When studied further, if they lighter the skin colour the higher the IQ
What were Yerks’ conclusions
- IQ is genetic and inherited
- The average man of most nations could be considered a ‘moron’
- Mental testing is valid and scientific
- The lighter the skin colour the higher the IQ
What were some of Goulds conclusions
- Systematic bias = protocols not followed, inconsistent measuring
- Cultural bias = IQ test was not measuring “native intelligence”
Internal validity - Yerks
-Administration of tests caused numerous problems:
Not all illiterate recruits took the beta test, they took the alpha test, when they weren’t supposed to and therefore invalidated results because they couldn’t read the test
- To ease congestion many were told to move ques and took the wrong test
- Many black men who failed the alpha test were not allowed to re-sit the beta test
Internal reliability - Yerks
+ same test for everyone
-not everyone took the test they were supposed to, some recruits stood in the wrong line
Define psychopath
Psychopath = people who exhibit a wholly selfish orientation and profound emotional deficit, appear to have little or no conscience, but no deficits in intelligence
What are the symptoms of psychopathy
No sense of guilt, lack of empathy, egocentric, pathological lying, disregard for the law, shallow emotions
What were the three aims of the Hancock study
1) psychopaths use more rational ‘cause and effect’ statements
2) psychopaths use more semantic references to food, drink, clothing, sex and resources than to family, religion etc
3) psychopaths may produce fewer and less intense emotional words. A high rate of past tense and produce more disfluencies (um,ah)
What methods were used in the Hancock study
- Semi-structured interview/ open ended
- Quantitative data through content analysis
- nominal data
What was the sample used in the Hancock study
52 male murderers from Canadian prisons that had admitted to their offence
14 psychopaths
38 non-psychopaths
All of them were detained for at least 9 years
What sampling method was used in the Hancock study
Volunteer sampling
Briefly describe the procedure of the Hancock study before the interviews
Before the interviews:
- Same diagnostic tool used (PCL-R checklist)
- 20 criteria, in each criteria the person can score from 0-2
- 30 or above = cut off diagnosing psychopathy
- All participants took part in this
- Specialist was blind to the participants condition
Briefly describe the procedure for the Hancock study during the interviews
- At the start of interviews participants told purpose of study and to describe their homicide offence in as much detail as possible from beginning to end
- interviews were conducted by 2 senior psychology graduate students and 1 research assistant, all were blind to conditions and PCL-R score
- interviews lasted 25 minutes and all audio taped and transcribed word for word
What were the findings of hypothesis 1 in the Hancock study
- psychopaths used 1.82% more subordinating conjunctions (because, so)
- non-psychopaths used 1.54%
- significant difference due to 0.01% due to chance of using this language
- suggests that psychopaths would have viewed their crime as a logical plan
What were the findings for hypothesis 2 in the Hancock study
-psychopaths are more likely to reflect on food and drink rather than to religion and family
Drink = 196 referenced
Religion = 36 referenced
-used approximately twice as many words to describe their survival needs compared to social needs
What were the findings for hypothesis 3 in the Hancock study
- psychopaths used 33% more disfluencies (um,ah) compared to non-psychopaths
- psychopaths used significantly higher percentage of verbs used in the past tense - due to being murderer because so did non-psychopaths
- no significant difference in emotional content but there was in ‘affective language’
What were the conclusions from hypothesis 1 in the Hancock study
-psychopaths are more likely to have viewed the crime as a logical outcome of a plan
