1. Chapter 11: Testing and Individual Differences
AP Psychology

2. Intelligence Testing
A term that is used frequently, but often misunderstood is “intelligence.” What exactly is intelligence?
Many people disagree about what exactly intelligence is, but most do agree that it is:
Relative: defined in relation to the same abilities in a comparison group (usually age)
Hypothetically constructed: it is unobservable, but instead inferred from behavior

3. What is Intelligence? Intelligence
ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

4. ‘relative’ and ‘hypothetical’?
SO How do you figure
out something that is
‘relative’ and ‘hypothetical’?

5. Can you truly measure Intelligence?
You decide 3rd
You decide 5th

7. Origins of Intelligence Testing
This foo’ here be Alfred Binet. Better know him!
Intelligence Test
a method of assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them to those of others, using numerical scores

8. Origins of Intelligence Testing: Testing IQ
IQ (intelligence quotient) became a popular way to classify people in the early 1900s when two French psychologists (Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon) developed a test to identify those students who were gifted, and those who needed extra help.

9. Origins of Intelligence Testing: Binet-SimonTest
The test had four important distinctions:
Scores were interpreted at their current performance
Used to identify students in need of help, not label them or categorize them
Emphasized that training and opportunity could affect intelligence
Was empirically constructed
Scoring the test was done by calculating the mental age (MA) and the chronological age (CA).
MA= The average age at which normal individuals achieve a particular score
CA= The number of years since an individuals birth

10. Origins of Intelligence Testing: Mental Age
a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet
chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance
child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8

11. Coming to America Stanford-Binet
the widely used American revision of Binet’s original intelligence test
revised by Terman at Stanford University
The idea of IQ testing became popular in America for three reasons:
A huge increase in immigration
New laws requiring universal education
Military assessing new recruits for WWI
It created an inexpensive and objective way to separate those could benefit from education or military leadership training and those who needed assistance.

12. Downside of IQ Testing
Despite its utility, IQ testing had a big downside. Tests ended up reinforcing prevailing prejudices about race and gender.
Ignored was the fact that environmental disadvantages limit the full development of people’s intellectual abilities.
Same problem of NCLB!!!

13. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
When the Binet test was adopted by a Stanford professor, he changed the equation to make intelligence scores into non-decimal numbers. This now became known as the Intelligence Quotient (IQ).
=IQ

14. Are There Multiple Intelligences?
Savant Syndrome: Individuals with remarkable, but rare talent,(and usually very specific) even though they are mentally deficient in other areas.
Ex. Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man
Based off Kim Peak
Wanna see what he is like
KIM PEEK

15. Savant Syndrome
juxtapositions of severe mental handicap and prodigious mental ability
Savant performances include
Mentally calculating large numbers almost instantly
Determining the day of the week for any date centuries away
Playing long musical compositions after only hearing it once.

16. Savant Clips
Alonso Clemens
Daniel Tammet
Steven Wilcher

17. Are There Multiple Intelligences?
Social Intelligence
the know-how involved in comprehending social situations and managing oneself successfully
Emotional Intelligence
ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions

18. Intelligence and Creativity
the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
expertise
imaginative thinking skills
venturesome personality
intrinsic motivation
creative environment

19. Theories of Intelligence
Spearman’s G Factor: Charles Spearman thought intelligence was a general factor behind all of our mental ability.
Catell’s Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
The G factor
Fluid- ability to change and adapt
Crystal- hard knowledge hard to change

20. Theories of Intelligence
Howard Gardner believed that IQ scores measured only a limited range of human mental abilities. He argued we have seven separate mental abilities he calls the multiple intelligences.
Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"):
Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
Musical intelligence ("music smart")
Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
Naturalist intelligence (“nature smart”)

21. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
WHY IT MATTERS

22. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
1990 – Salovey & Mayer coin term “emotional intelligence
“it is an intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action.”
Daniel Goleman publishes “Emotional Intelligence.”

23. GOLMAN’S THEORY THE BRAIN HAS EMOTIONAL ARCHITECTURE
Limbic structures generate feelings & emotions
Reptilian brain downshift
as the amygdala performs
“neural hijacking”

24. COMPONENTS OF E.I. Self-Awareness Self-Management or trustworthiness
Motivation or resilience
Empathy or recognizing emotions in others
Social skills or handling relationships

25. COMPONENTS OF E. I. FIRST THREE ARE PERSONAL LAST TWO ARE SOCIAL
SELF-AWARENESS
SELF-REGULATION
MOTIVATION
LAST TWO ARE SOCIAL
EMPATHY
SOCIAL SKILL

26. SELF-AWARENESS
“THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE AND UNDERSTAND YOUR MOODS, EMOTIONS, AND DRIVES, AS WELL AS THEIR EFFECTS ON OTHERS
Do I know how I’m
coming off in this
situation?

27. SELF-REGULATION
“THE ABILITY TO CONTROL OR REDIRECT DISRUPTING IMPULSES AND MOODS OR THE ABILITY TO SUSPEND JUDGMENT TO THINK BEFORE ACTING.”
Can I stop the
R brain downshifting?

28. SELF-REGULATION ABILITY TO RELAX ABILITY TO MANAGE STRESS
ABILITY TO CONTROL MOODS
ABILITY TO RECOVER FROM EMOTIONAL UPSET MORE QUICKLY
ABILITY TO EMPLOY THE 6 SECOND PAUSE

29. SELF-REGULATION PEOPLE WHO SELF-REGULATE
CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE OF TRUST AND FAIRNESS
REDUCE EMOTIONAL REACTIVITY IN ENVIRONMENT

30. MOTIVATION
“A PASSION TO WORK FOR REASONS THAT GO BEYOND MONEY OR STATUS”
JOB CAPABILITIES
Achievement drive
Commitment
Initiative
Optimism

32. EMPATHY
“THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE EMOTIONAL MAKE-UP OF OTHER PEOPLE.”

33. EMPATHY ABILITY TO TAKE OTHER’S PERSPECTIVE CARING ATTITUDE
CAN BETTER READ VERBAL & NONVERBAL CUES
ATTUNED TO NEEDS & EMOTIONS OF OTHERS

34. EMPATHY EMPATHY BUILDS ON SELF-AWARENESS.
THE MORE OPEN WE ARE TO OUR OWN EMOTIONS, THE MORE SKILLED WE ARE IN READING OTHERS’ EMOTIONS

35. SOCIAL SKILLS
“PROFICIENCY IN MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS AND BUILDING NETWORKS.”
Using your empathetic knowledge

36. ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS
Work Profile Questionnaire—EI Version
Emotional Competence Inventory 360
Emotional Intelligence Appraisal
BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory
Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-EI Test

37. Emotional Intelligence: Criticism
Gardner and others criticize the idea of emotional intelligence and question whether we stretch this idea of intelligence too far when we apply it to our emotions.

39. Assessing Intelligence
How do we measure intelligence?….if we even really can!

40. Assessing Intelligence
Aptitude Test
a test designed to predict a person’s future performance
aptitude is the capacity to learn
Achievement Test
a test designed to assess what a person has learned

41. Assessing Intelligence
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
most widely used intelligence test
subtests
verbal
performance (nonverbal)

42. Assessing Intelligence: Sample Items from the WAIS
From Thorndike and Hagen, 1977
VERBAL
General Information
Similarities
Arithmetic Reasoning
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Digit Span
PERFORMANCE
Picture Completion
Picture Arrangement
Block Design
Object Assembly
Digit-Symbol Substitution

43. David Wechsler
Wechsler developed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and later the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), an intelligence test for preschoolers.

44. WAIS
WAIS measures overall intelligence and 11 other aspects related to intelligence that are designed to assess clinical and educational problems.

45. Intelligence Tests The Wechsler Intelligence Scales
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Third Edition is the most commonly used test of intelligence for adults
WAIS-III is divided into to parts, one that focuses on verbal abilities and one that focuses on performance skills
Also a version for children, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Third Edition

46. Intelligence Tests Group Tests
Intelligence tests that can be given to large groups
Advantages
Quick scoring
No examiner bias
Easier to establish norms
Disadvantages
Less likely to detect someone who is ill or confused
Might make people nervous
Learning disabled children often perform worse

47. Intelligence Tests Performance tests Culture-fair tests
Tests that minimize the use of language
Used to test very young children or people with retardation
Also can be used to test those unfamiliar with English
Culture-fair tests
Tests designed to reduce cultural bias
Minimize skills and values that vary from one culture to another

48. Measuring Individual Differences
Psychology relies heavily on testing individuals, it is part of the foundation for psychological analysis. To be effective, however, strict guidelines must be followed.
Validity: Does the test actually measure what we say it does/what we want it to?
Ex. Reading on a math test
Face validity: Does the test look like it tests what it is supposed to test?
Content validity: Each part of the test is representative of the larger body of knowledge.

49. Measuring Individual Differences
Criterion Validity: The behavior (such as college grades) that a test (such as the SAT) is designed to predict
Predictive Validity: The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict.

50. Assessing Intelligence
Greater correlation
over broad range
of body weights 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Little corre-
lation within
restricted
range
Football linemen’s
success
Body weight in pounds
As the range of data under consideration narrows, its predictive power diminishes

51. Measuring Individual Differences
The second part of a credible test is reliability.
Reliability: A test yields the same results over time
Test-Retest or Split-Half Reliability
Reliable, but not valid
Not reliable, not valid
Reliable and valid

52. Assessing Intelligence
Standardization
defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested “standardization group”
Normal Curve
the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes
most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes

53. Creating Validity and Reliability
The most efficient way to create validity and reliability is to use a standardized test.
In the most basic sense, a standardized test means:
The administration and scoring is the same for each test
The results of the test can be used to draw a conclusion about the test takers in regard to the objectives of the test.
Ex. AP test, S.A.T.

54. Judging Normal
A “normal curve” is applied to test to determine establish “norms.” When a statistically significant sample of the population has been tested, strong conclusions can be drawn.
A normal range for IQ scores is Scores below 70 indicate mental retardation while scores above 130 are considered gifted.

55. Normal Distribution of IQ Scores

56. Degrees of Mental Retardation

57. Causes
Not much is known for reasons behind mild retardation (90% of all diagnosed)
PKU (phenylketonuria) – liver fails to produce an enzyme necessary for early brain development
Down Syndrome – is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome.
Fragile X syndrome – boys harder hit due to only one X chromosone

58. Types of Tests There are two main types of tests:
Objective Tests: Tests that have one set answer, that can be scored easily by machine
Ex. Multiple choice
Subjective Tests: Tests in which individuals are given ambiguous figures or an open ended question which requires some interpretation and analysis.
Ex. FRQs
Inter-rater reliability

59. Sample Subjective Test
The Rorschach Inkblot Test is one of the most widely known, and inaccurate subjective tests.
The following slides are real inkblots from the test that was, at one time, a widely used test. Today, it has lost much, if not all of its credibility in determining intelligence or mental illness.