AP Psych Quiz 7
What characterizes the debate over the legitimacy of intelligence testing? How do we operationally define intelligence, both in general, and as a cultural construct?
"Should we consider intelligence as one aptitude or many?" - Intelligence experts can agree that intelligence is a concept, not a "thing" Intelligence: whatever intelligence tests measure, which has tended to to be school smarts (general) - People assign intelligence to the qualities that enable success in their own time and their own culture. (Cultural) - EX: intelligence in the Amazon rain forest may be understanding the medicinal qualities of local plants.
How were free association, psychoanalysis, unconscious motivations, pre-consciousness, slips of the tongue, and dreams with their latent content used to piece together his theory?
- free association: a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing - psychoanalysis: Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions Freud's theory was that the mind is mostly hidden with our conscious awareness being the tip of the iceberg floating above the water. What's underneath: - unconscious motivations: (according to Freud) a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories - pre-consciousness: an area in which we store unconscious thoughts that can be brought into conscious awareness Freud believed that nothing was accidental and that glimpses of the unconscious seep not only into people's free associations, beliefs, habits, and symptoms but also into: - slips of the tongue: anything that could have a sexual connotation to it - EX: A patient who didn't want any large pills said- "Please don't give me any bills, because I cannot swallow them." - latent content: the dreamer's unconscious wishes
What are Gardner's 8 intelligences? How have Gardner's critics attacked his ideas?
1. Naturalist (good with nature skills) 2. Linguistic (good at public speaking/language) 3. Interpersonal (socialite) 4. Intrapersonal (good therapists) 5. Bodily-kinesthetic (good at dancing/sports) 6. Spatial (artists) 7. Logical-mathematical (Mrs. Squirlock) 8. Musical Gardner's critics say that just because someone is more skilled in a topic than the other, it doesn't mean that they can't improve with grit overtime in the other ways. There is more to success than traditional intelligence. - "Success isn't a one-ingredient recipe. High intelligence doesn't necessarily mean you'll be successful."
What characteristics are inherent within people with emotional intelligence? How do people with emotional intelligence handle difficult situations?
1. Perceiving emotions (to recognize them in faces, music, and stories) 2. Understanding emotions (to predict them and how they change and blend) 3. Managing emotions (to know how to express them in varied situations) 4. Using emotions (to enable adaptive or creative thinking) People with emotional intelligence are highly socially and self-aware, so in difficult situations, they're able to manage their emotions in a way that allows them to get through it without causing too much harm to themselves or others. - EX: When in a conflict at work, instead of yelling at their boss, they'll respond with a calm tone and then when by themselves, process their emotions. They avoided being fired from work and insulting their boss by being consciously aware of how their emotions could have impacted that situation.
What is the difference between an achievement and aptitude test and what are some examples of each? Does predictive validity of aptitude tests typically increase or decrease as children get older? How predicatively valid are achievement tests, as well as the SAT and GRE? What possible explanations are offered for the change?
Achievement Tests: a test designed to assess what a person has learned - EX: the AP exam (covers what you've learned) - Intelligence scores correlate closely with scores on achievement tests (+.81) (b)ACHIEVE= PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE; (f)APTITUDE= ABILITY TO LEARN NEW THINGS. Aptitude Tests: a test designed to predict a person's future performance; the capacity to learn -EX: SAT test (predicts how well you'll do in college) - predictive validity of aptitude tests tends to DECREASE as children get older The SAT and GRE are less successful in predicting first-year college grades (the correlation is less than +.5) - Possible reasons: when we validate a test using a wide range of people but then use it with a restricted range of people, it loses much of its predictive validity.
How might mental intelligence be similar to athletic abiities?
Athleticism is composed of many things like mental intelligence. Athleticism: the ability to run fast, eye-hand coordination, specifics of the sport, etc. - running speed and throwing accuracy may correlate thanks to general athletic ability mental intelligence: Word fluency, verbal comprehension, perceptual speed, etc. - Word fluency and verbal comprehension may coincide due to general intelligence.
What was Freud's theory regarding the basis for inner conflicts? How did Freud theorize that id, ego, and superego developed and worked together to deal with these conflicts?
Basis for inner conflicts theory: Freud believed personality arises from our efforts to express our aggressive, pleasure-seeking biological urges in ways that bring satisfaction without also bringing guilt or punishment. The three interacting systems are: id: a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. - operates on the "pleasure principle", demanding immediate gratification ego: the largely unconscious, "executive" part of personality that mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality - operates on the "reality principle", satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain superego: the part of the personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations - EX: Chidi from the good place
Why was Binet commissioned to develop objective intelligence tests? How did Binet use mental age to mathematically characterize a child's intelligence? How did Binet measure mental age? What are the limitations, as well as the dangers, of Binet's research?
Binet was commissioned in order to minimize bias that could potentially come from a teacher's prejudice of a child's economic background and other factors. - "test didn't measure inborn intelligence like a meter stick measures height -- it's purpose is to identify kids who need special attention." Mental Age: a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. - Mathematically: a kid who does as well as an average 8-year-old is said to have the mental age of 8, but a kid who's 8 and performs at the level of an average 5-year-old, then they'd struggle with schoolwork/have a mental disability Measurement: Binet tested a wide variety of reasoning and problem-solving questions on his daughters as well as "smart" and "stupid" Parisian kids, leading to the identification of items that would predict how well French children would handle their schoolwork. Limitations: The purpose of Binet's test was to identify children with learning disabilities who need special attention. His fear was that it'd be used to label children and limit their opportunities.
Why is it, in some ways, not fair to judge Freud from a 21st-century perspective? What modern research has subjectively and objectively contradicted Freud's original theories?
Criticizing his theory by comparing it with today's thinking is unfair because Freud didn't have any access to neurotransmitter or DNA studies or the things that we have learned since then about human development, thinking, and emotion. Recent research contradicts many of his specific ideas. - subjectively: today's developmental psychologists see our development as lifelong, not fixed in childhood; they doubt that an infant's neural networks are mature enough to sustain as much emotional trauma as Freud assumed - some think Freud overestimated parental influence and underestimated peer influence - they also doubt that conscience and gender identify form as the child resolves the Oedipus complex at age 5 or 6. We gain our gender identify earlier and become strongly masculine or feminine even without a same-sex parent present. - suppressed sexuality causes psychological disorders is also unsupported by history. Sexual inhibition has diminished; psychological disorders have not - objectively: slips of the tongue can be explained as competition between similar verbal choices in our memory network. (saying "brothel" because you accidentally combined "bother" and "trouble") - new ideas about why we dream dispute Freud's belief that dreams disguise and fulfill wishes - Good scientific theories explain observations and offer testable hypotheses; Freud's theories rest on few objective observations and parts of it offer few testable hypotheses.
How does Damasio's case study on the "emotionless" man contribute to the legitimacy of emotional intelligence? What are the cons to measuring intelligence this way?
Damasio's "emotionless" man: - after having a brain tumor removes, Elliot noticed he couldn't feel emotion - he was shown images of injured people, natural disasters, and destroyed communities, yet he only knew the emotion he was supposed to feel and couldn't feel it. - Elliot lost his job, got divorced, went bankrupt, and now is dependent on a disability check and is being taken care of by a sibling. With a lack of emotional intelligence, even in people with high general intelligence, one can't be successful in society. Cons: - Gardner says that emotional intelligence is important but different. "Stretching intelligence to include everything we compose and it'll lose it's meaning."
What is the correlation between energy and problem solving abilities? How does intelligence correlate with quick wittedness and perceptual processing speed?
Energy vs. problem solving abilities: Brain scans reveal that smart people use less energy to solve problems. Intelligence vs. quick wittedness and perceptual processing speed: In many studies, the correlation between intelligence score and the speed of taking in perceptual information tends to be about +.3 to +.5. - it's been suggested that they correlate because they share an underlying genetic influence
What is factor analysis and how is it used to measure human characteristics?
Factor analysis: a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test - used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score Factor analysis shows which areas we excel in - EX: an exceptional art student can be stumped by a simple math problem.
What is the seemingly perverse phenomenon known as the Flynn effect and what are some possible causes? How does "hybrid vigor" help to explain the Flynn effect?
Flynn effect: College entrance aptitude scores were dropping during the 60s and 70s while intelligence test performances were improving. "hybrid vigor": occurs in agriculture when cross-breeding produces corn or livestock superior to the parent plants or animals - as our society evolves, with better nutrition and education, more stimulating environments, less childhood disease, etc., we're presented with a better environment in which we can grow to be "superior" intellectually.
How did Freud's theory of unresolved childhood conflict develop into the 5 psychosexual stages?
Freud said that personality forms during the first few years of life. He developed the psychosexual stages to show how childhood conflict at various ages can affect our development. -EX: if a child's satisfactions are not met during the oral stage, then they're more likely to develop negative oral habits or behaviors (like toddlers biting other kids or adults who suck their thumb) Psychosexual stages: the childhood stages of development during which the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct "erogenous zones" (pleasure-sensitive areas). 1. Oral (0-18 months) - pleasure centers on the mouth: sucking, biting, chewing 2. Anal (18-36 months) - pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control 3. Phallic (3-6 years) - pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings 4. Latency (6 to puberty) - a phase of dormant sexual feelings 5. Genital (puberty on) - maturation of sexual interests
How did Freud use defense mechanisms as an explanation for how "anxiety is the price we pay for civilization?" How do repression, regression, reaction formation, projection, sublimation, rationalization, and displacement serve as replacements for our sexual and aggressive desires?
Freud said that we must control our sexual and aggressive impulses rather than act them out as members of social groups. We get anxiety from having to control them (because of civilization; if you were alone you'd be able to do whatever you want) and sometimes the ego fears losing control over the id and superego. Freud proposed that the ego protects itself with defense mechanisms. defense mechanisms: the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality - repression: the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories; repression underlies all the other defense mechanisms - regression: retreating to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated - reaction formation: switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites - projection: disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others - sublimation: transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives - rationalization: offering self-justifying explanations in place of real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions - displacement: shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person. - denial: refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities
In what ways are Freud's theories like "betting on a horse after the race has been won?" In what was is Freud both a dying psychological/scientific icon and an enduring cultural/social symbol?
Freud's theories offer after-the-fact explanations of any characteristic yet fails to predict such behaviors and traits. - EX: if you feel angry about your mother's death, Freud would say it's because "your unresolved childhood dependency needs are threatened." and if you didn't feel angry, he would again say "you're repressing your anger." Dying psychological/scientific icon: Freud's supporters say that to criticize Freudian theory for not making testable predictions is like criticizing baseball for not being an aerobic exercise, something it was never intended to be. His theories were mainly so psychoanalysts could find meaning in their clients' state of mind. Enduring cultural/social symbol: Freud drew our attention to the unconscious and the irrational, to our self-protective defenses, to the importance of human sexuality, and to the tension between our biological impulses and our social well-being.
What is the g factor and how did Sperman use it to define and characterize intelligence? What scientific evidence supports Spearman?
G factor: stands for general intelligence; a factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test. - basically, general intelligence = common sense Spearman developed factor analysis to identify clusters of related items that would be able to characterize one's intelligence. Spearman found that those who score high in one area, like verbal intelligence, typically score higher than average in other areas, such as spatial or reasoning ability. - This showed Spearman that a common skill set (g factor) underlies all intelligent behavior.
What is grit and how does it tie in with intelligence and success?
Grit: grit is passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals The recipe for success is when talent is combined with grit. Having a high intelligence isn't enough to be successful; One needs drive as well to obtain their long-term goals.
How did Horney and Adler challenge Freud's idea regarding childhood anxieties?
Horney and Adler agreed with Freud in that childhood is important, but they believed that childhood SOCIAL, not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality formation. - Adler himself struggled to overcome childhood illnesses and accidents and believed that much of our behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood inferiority feelings that trigger our strivings for superiority and power. - Horney said childhood anxiety triggers our desire for love and security. She also countered Freud's sexist assumptions of women's "penis envy" and women's "weak superegos" and tried to balance his bias towards men.
How is average, above average, and below average computed using the intelligence quotient? How have IQ tests changed today?
Intelligence Quotient (IQ): defined originally as (IQ= ma/ca x 100). A person's mental age divided by chronological age and multiplied by 100. Average: An average child, whose mental age matches their chronological age, has an IQ of 100. Above Average: An average child whose mental age is higher than their chronological age would have an IQ higher than 100 Below Average: An average child with a mental age that's lower than their chronological age would have an IQ lower than 100 The original IQ formula worked well for children, but not adults. The formula was changed so that they represent the test-taker's performance relative to the average performance of others the same age. The average is still 100 and most fall between 85 and 115.
What is the purpose of an intelligence test?
Intelligence tests assess people's mental abilities and compare them with others using numerical scores. - This helps to diagnose learning disabilities
What were Jung's ideas regarding the collective unconscious and how is it viewed today? How have Freud's views changed to become modern psychodynamic theory?
Jung agreed with Freud, but also believed that we also have a collective unconscious. He said that it explains why spiritual concerns are deeply rooted for many people and why people in different cultures share certain myths and images. Most of today's psychodynamic psychologists discount the idea of inherited experiences, nut many do believe that our shared evolutionary history shaped some universal dispositions. Collective unconscious: Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history some of Freud's ideas have been incorporated into the diversity of modern perspectives that make up psychodynamic theory.
How does Kanazawa use Spearman's theory to divide intelligence into two categories?
Kanazawa argues that general intelligence evolved as a form of intelligence to help people solve novel problems like how to stop a fire from spreading. More common problems, like how to read a stranger's face, requires another form of intelligence. - Novel situations vs evolutionarily similar situations
How has modern research demonstrated the limited access we have to our minds? How has projection become the false consensus effect?
Many of today's research psychologists now think of the unconscious as cooler information processing that occurs without our awareness, like the schemas that automatically control our perceptions and interpretations or the right hemisphere brain activity that enables a split-brain patient's left hand to carry out an instruction the patient cannot verbalize. There's so much that our body does without us being aware of that it shows how vastly limited our access is to all that goes on in our minds. Roy Baumeister and his colleagues found that people tend to see their attitudes in others, something Freud called projection. Today's researchers call it the false consensus effect. People who cheat on their taxes or break speed limits tend to think many others do likewise. false consensus effect: the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and our behaviors
What was Maslow's hierarchy of needs? What is self-actualization and what commonalities and characteristics does a "self-actualized" person possess?
Maslow's hierarchy of needs: if our physical needs are met, we become concerned with personal safety; if we achieve a sense of security, we then seek to love, to be loved, and to love ourselves; with our love needs satisfied, we seek self-esteem; having achieved self esteem, we ultimately seek self-actualization and self-transcendence. physical needs -- personal safety -- love -- self-esteem -- self actualization Self-actualization: one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential - self-aware - self-accepting - open - spontaneous - loving and caring - not paralyzed by others' opinions - secure in their sense of who they are - their interests were problem centered rather than self-centered - focused their energies on a particular task, one they often regarded as their mission in life - most enjoyed deep relationships over superficial ones - many had been moved by spiritual or personal peak experiences that surpassed ordinary consciousness
How did the Oedipus (and Electra) complex, as well as gender identification, oral fixation, anal retentive and anal expulsive personalities emerge from these ideas? How are Freud's ideas controversial in his time and used in our time?
Oedipus complex: a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father - Electra complex: ^^ except gender roles switched - both come from the phallic stage - children eventually cope with the threatening feelings by repressing them and by identifying with (trying to become like) the rival parent (identification process) identification: the process by which children incorporate their parents' values into their developing superegos - gender identity=our sense of being male or female (comes from us identifying with our same-sex parent as described above^^ oral fixation: a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage in which conflicts were unresolved - a person who's been either orally overindulged or deprived might become orally fixated and may exhibit either passive dependence, exaggerated denial of this dependence, or may continually seek oral gratification by smoking or excessively eating. anal retentive: a person who pays such attention to detail that it becomes an obsession and may be an annoyance to others. This person is usually stubborn and/or a perfectionist - this person would hold their shit until they found a bathroom anal expulsive: is an opposite of the Anal retentive personality, and has a lack of self-control, being generally messy and careless. - this person, if they really had to go, would shit wherever they are in that moment Freud was called a "dirty-minded pansexualist and Viennese libertine" in his own time. His ideas of Oedipal conflict and castration anxiety are disputed by later psychodynamic theorists and therapists, but is still taught as a part of the history of Western ideas.
What are projective tests? How are the Rorschach Inkblot Test and the Thematic Apperception Tests designed to tap into the unconscious? To what extent do these tests pass the reliability and validity standard? What are the advantages and disadvantages in the modern world for using each type of test for assessng personality of other psychological issues?
Projective Tests: a personalty test, such as the Rorschach, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics - Rorschach Inkblot Test: the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots. - valid, but not reliable - Some clinicians view it as a helpful diagnostic tool, a source of suggestive leads, or an icebreaker and a revealing interview technique. Others even offer Rorschach-based assessments of criminals' violence potential to judges. - Thematic Apperception Tests: a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes. - the clinician may presume that any hopes, desires, and fears that people see in the ambiguous image are projections of their own inner feelings or conflicts. - isn't proven to be valid or reliable advantages: disadvantages:
What was Freud's basic theory regarding repression and how widely accepted is it? What has modern day research revealed regarding the validity of repression?
Repression theory: the human mind often represses offending wishes by shoving them into the unconscious until they resurface. If you can recover and resolve childhood's conflicted wished, emotional healing should follow. - repression is used to explain hypnotic phenomena and psychological disorders. - some of Freud's followers extended repression to explain apparently lost and recovered memories of childhood traumas. Objectively, repression isn't valid. research: 88% of university students agree with Freud in that painful experiences commonly get pushed out of awareness and into the unconscious - researchers agree that we sometimes neglect threatening information, yet many contend that repression is a rare mental response to terrible trauma. -EX: even those who have witnessed their parent's murder or survived Nazi death camps retain their unrepressed memories - some researchers believe that extreme, prolonged stress might disrupt the memory by damaging the hippocampus. However, the more common reality is that high stress and associated stress hormones ENHANCE memory. Rape, torture, and other traumatic events haunt survivors who experience unwanted flashbacks.
What were Rogers' basic theories about humanity via the person-centered perspective? What did Rogers believe were the basic characteristics of a growth-promoting environment? How did thes factors, along with a positive self-concept, the "ideal self," and unconditional positive regard, play a role in his theory?
Rogers believed that people are basically good and are endowed with self-actualizing tendencies. Unless prevented by an environment that inhibits growth, each of us is primed for growth and fulfillment. Basic theories about humanity via the person-centered perspective (requires 3 conditions for a growth-promoting environment): - genuineness: when people are genuine, they're open with their own feelings and are transparent and self-disclosing - acceptance: when people are accepting, they offer unconditional positive regard. It is a profound relief to drop our pretenses, confess our worst feelings, and discover that we are still accepted. - unconditional positive regard: an attitude of total acceptance toward another person - empathy: when people are empathetic, they share and mirror other's feelings and reflect their meanings. These factors, when put together with an unconditional positive regard, give someone a positive self-concept so they can be their ideal selves. - self-concept: all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "who am I?" - "ideal self" : being satisfied and happy
What evidence, including savant syndrome, supports the idea of multiple intelligences? What are Gardner's 8 intelligences? How have Gardner's critics attacked his ideas?
Savant syndrome: a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing. (The Good Doctor) Evidence: - Brain damage may destroy one ability but leave others intact - people with savant syndrome often score low on intelligence tests but have one area in which they're brilliant. If there was only one intelligence, then these two phenomenons wouldn't be possible.
What is the legacy and personal history of Sigmund Freud? How did Freud create his theory that neurological disorders might have psychological causes?
Sigmund Freud: - lived in the Victorian era, known for sexual repression and male dominance (which shows in his theories) - one of, if not the most, well known philosophers/psychologists -set up a private practice after medical school specializing in nervous disorders, through which he came across some disorders that had no biological explanation; observing patients led him to his "discovery" of the unconscious - questioned "might some neurological disorders have psychological causes?"
What is standardization? What are normal curves and how are they used to make meaningful comparisons between test-takers?
Standardization: defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful test scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group Normal curves measure the distribution of various attributes. The scores from test-takers are placed on this curve in comparison with the sample scores to determine your position relative to others.
How does Sternberg simplify Gardener's ideas? How has the College Board worked wth Sternberg to improve the validity of SAT and AP exams? How are Sternber and Gardner in agreement on intelligence?
Sternberg proposed a triarchic theory of three intelligences: 1. Analytical (academic problem-solving) intelligence - assessed by traditional intelligence tests 2. Creative intelligence - reacting adaptively to novel situations and generating novel ideas 3. Practical intelligence - required for everyday tasks with multiple solutions Sternberg and a team of collaborators developed new measures of comprehensive assessments (creativity and practical thinking) to add to the concept of multiple intelligences which improved the predictions of the test takers. They both agree that multiple abilities can contribute to life success. they also agree that differing varieties of gifted ness adds challenges for education.
How and why did Terman modify Binet's test?
Terman modified Binet's test to adhere to the age norms of California school children. He adapted some original items, added others, and established new age norms and extended the upper end of the test's range from teens to "superior adults." He also gave it its name--"Stanford-Binet." -"test reveals the intelligence with which a person is born"
How did Terman's ideas lead to prejudice and discrimination between ethnic groups? What lessons have psychologists learned due to Terman's flawed judgements?
The U.S government used Terman's ideas to develop new tests to evaluate both newly arriving immigrants and WWI army recruits. Some psychologists believed that the results indicated the inferiority of other races as they didn't share the same Anglo-Saxon heritage. These findings were apart of the cultural climate that led to a 1924 immigration law that reduced Southern and Eastern European immigration quotas to less than one-fifth of those for Northern and Western Europe. Terman's flawed judgement taught present psychologists that science can be value-laden and that the test scores not only reflect people's innate mental abilities but also their education, native language, and familiarity with the culture assumed by the test (Like how Terman had to reformulate the test originally due to the cultural differences between french children and Californian children.)
What has been discovered about a particular area of the frontal lobe that relates to neurological differences in intelligence?
There's been studies that have revealed associations between intelligence and brain size and activity in specific areas, especially within the frontal and parietal lobes. - Intelligence is having ample gray matter (mostly neural cell bodies) plus ample white matter (axons) that make for efficient communication between brain centers. Duncan suggested that it may be a "global workspace for organizing and coordinating information" as information from various brain areas seem to converge in the frontal lobe just above the outer edge of the eyebrows.
What is the Wechsler Intelligence Scale and some of its subtests? What kinds of issues can the WAIS help show?
Wechsler Intelligence Scale (WAIS): the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance subtests Subtests: the latest version contains 15 subtests including- -similarities; reasoning the commonality of two objects or concepts (ex: in what way are wool and cotton alike?) - vocabulary; naming pictured objects or defining words (ex: "what's a guitar?") - block design; visual abstract processing (ex: "using four blocks, make one just like this") - letter-number sequencing; repeat the numbers in ascending order, and then the letters in alphabetical order (after hearing them) (ex: "R-2-C-1-M-3") WAIS helps to draw attention to cognitive strengths or weaknesses that can be built upon by teachers or therapists. (ex: High scores on other subtests, but low scores on reading/writing could help identify a reading or language disability like dyslexia)
When and how did humanistic psychologists dramatically challenge Freud's and Skinner's thinking?
humanistic theories: view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth Humanistic theorists focused on the ways people strive for self-determination and self-realization in opposition of the bleak focus on drives and conflicts in the psychodynamic theory and the mechanistic psychology of behaviorism. - Maslow, in the 70's, proposed that we are motivated by a hierarchy of needs - Roger's (80's) proposed the "person-centered" perspective.
How is personality defined by psychologists? What are the characteristics of the two historically significant theories of personality?
personality: a person's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting 1. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality 2. The humanistic approach focused on our inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment
What makes a test reliable and how do researchers use split-half and test-retest to ensure reliability of aptitude tests? Are the most commonly used intelligence tests reliable?
reliability: the extent to which a test yields dependably consistent scores - split-half: test-makers may split the test in half to see whether odd-question scores and even-question scores agree (if two scores correlate, then the test is reliable) - test-retest: if someone gets the same scores consistently on a test they keep retaking, then the test is reliable. The higher the correlation between the test-retest or the split-half scores, the higher the test's reliability The Stanford-Binet, the WAIS, and the WISC all have reliabilities of about +.9, which is very high.
What were the ways in which neo-Freudians strayed and stayed with Freud's original ideologies?
strayed: broke off from Freud in two ways: 1. they replaced more emphasis on the conscious mind's role in interpreting experience and in coping with the environment 2. they doubted that sex and aggression were all-consuming motivations. Instead, they tended to emphasize loftier motives and social interactions. stayed: accepted his basic ideas: the personality structures of id, ego, and superego; the importance of the unconsciousness; the shaping of personality in childhood; and the dynamics of anxiety and the defense mechanisms
How do experiments involving terror-management theory support Freudian's theories of unconscious defense against anxiety?
terror-management theory: a theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death Nearly 300 experiments testing this theory showed that thinking about one's mortality (ex: by writing a short essay on dying and its associated emotions) provokes various terror-management defenses. - EX: death anxiety increases contempt for others and esteem for oneself - The prospect of death promotes religious sentiments and deep religious convictions enable people to be less defensive (less likely to rise in defense of their worldview) when reminded of death.
What makes a test valid? What is the difference between content and predictive validity?
validity: the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to do EX: if you use an inaccurate tape measure to measure people's heights, your height report would have a high reliability (consistency) but low validity. -content validity: the extent to which a test SAMPLES the behavior that is of interest -EX: the road test for a driver's license (because it samples the tasks a driver routinely faces) -predictive validity: the success with which a test PREDICTS the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior.
