Please read chapter 8. After reading the chapter, please respond to the following questions:
What were three (3) things from the chapter that you found interesting? Why were they interesting to you? What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Why? Which of the applied psychologists did you find the most interesting? What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
Think of a topic from an earlier chapter. How does the current chapter relate to the topic from the earlier chapter we have already read?
What PERSON from the chapter would you like to learn more about? Why?
The first thing I found interesting was Alfred Binet and how he developed intelligence testing. Binet took Ebinghaus's basic strategy of assessing schoolchildren with cognitive tests. It was really interesting to me that Binet used his daughters and started to make observations on them as well as other case studies that he took on. Binet's individual psychology is the study of individual differences and Binet used to to look at the different psychic processes and compare. This was a way that special needs students were picked out. Binet believed that intelligence was composed of a variety of skills, which is true. I found it interesting that he developed "strategies" for children to improve their intelligence.
The second thing I came across as very interesting was The Kallikak Family. Henry Goddard had a case study of Deborah Kallikak at a ward that he worked and studied patients at. Deborah Kallikak was sent to live in the ward at 8 when she was labeled as "feebleminded". Deborah could not score a very high mental age and had low math and reading skills. This was interesting to me that someone could send a child away to a ward at the age of 8 because of school difficulties. The fascinating thing to me was the Goddard believed that intelligence could be traced through genetics. Goddard traced Deborah's family and found her great-great grandfather to be feeble, and he made that connection to the rest of the mental deficencies in the Kallikak family. This study was interesting to me, but it did have flaws of course. Especially reading the study in todays time. Goddard never took in the environment and knowing now that is a huge impact on a persons.
Lastly I found Robert Yerkes army testing to be interesting and actually quite useful. It supriesed me that 30% of recruits could not read or write. Yerkes developed 2 versions, Army Alpha test was given to recruits who could read a little and understand directions. If they could not read at all the Army Beta was given. These tests were differently administered and had some type of different content. Army Alpha test takers were told they were testing to see where the person was to be placed in the army and they had 8 different tests. Army Beta had 7 different tests and were told no reason for taking the test. This was interesting because Yerkes was one of the first to use intelligence testing on a large group.
The one thing that was not as interesting was Munsterberg and employee selction. I just didnt find this as attention grabbing as some of the other sections and experiments done in the chapter.
The psychologist I found most interesting was Henry Goddard and how he took the Binet test to America and did studies on patients in the Vineland Training School for the feeble-minded. I found Goddard surprisingly interesting when he used the test to label someones mental age and to place feeble minded children in a home to get help.
I think understanding how the mental test evolved over time is important to understanding psychology's history. I think it is important to know the differnt psychologists contributions to the mental and intelligence tests and how they spread across the world.
This chapter relates to other chpaters because again it is more psychologists explaining and exploring more of psychology. These psychologists focused on applying psychology to intelligence testing. From this chpater mental testing has its origins with Galton in measureing individual differences. In cahpter 5 he had a goal to create measures to idnetify those able to create his vision. He also believed intelligence was inherited.
I think learning about Harry Hollingworth would be beneficial to learning more about the new psychology during that day. I haven't heard of Hollingworth and I think learning more about him and his caffeine studies and other experiments he did would be interesting.
I thought it was interesting that Deborah Kallikak was considered to be feeble-minded, even though she could take care of herself, perform chores and do embroidery work & the like. I wonder how we would diagnose her today?
One thing I found interesting was the terms used to categorize mental disability. At the time terms such as: idiots, imbeciles, and morons were common place and didn’t have the derogatory context they carry today. However, I can’t help but think it is because the terms were given that the terms became offensive. I am interested in this because I am a special education minor and have worked with students with varying degrees of ability; across all three of these past categories.
Another thing I found interesting was James Cattell’s studies that he conducted on himself. Cattell studied the effects of various stimulant drugs on behavior and consciousness including: Caffeine, morphine, hashish, and opium. Today this would be seriously unethical, if not illegal. It is interesting how laws and expectations can change throughout history. He consumed so much of these substances in such high doses no one else had taken unless they were considering suicide.
A final interesting part of the chapter was the section on gifted children never living up to their expected potential. Today education is all about challenging the gifted students. Then, however, the gifted student was defined as a stereotypical nerd today; weak and socially inferior. It is interesting that educators didn’t know how to teach both ends of the academic spectrum, instead the “normal” students got the attention of educational experts for designing curriculum.
One part of the chapter that I didn’t find particularly interesting was the section on how the Army used the testing program. The test the subjects were given didn’t seem like a legitimate test to measure intelligence or even the ability to follow orders. Also the way in which the tests were to be given to promote the best results weren’t followed. This seems like the perfect example of how not to collect data. Another reason I wasn’t as interested in this part of the chapter is because it is out of my experiences: I can relate to education, but not as much to the Army.
I found Alfred Binet to be the most interesting of the applied psychologists. I thought he was the most interesting because of his work with students with disabilities. He was most interested in helping these children. He developed his mental tests to identify weak students. He also believed that intelligence wasn’t fixed, as many of the experts thought; instead he thought intelligence could be gained by students of all levels. Being an education major, and a special education minor, I liked Binet for all that he has done for educational psychology. He may have led to the start of standardized testing, but only indirectly as those who brought it to America changed its original form.
I think reading this chapter can teach us about the history of psychology by showing how norms have changed throughout the decades. For example, in previous chapters psychology done in the laboratory was once the cutting edge of psychology, but by the 1900s the new applied psychology was taking root and psychologists had to prove the work they were doing was relevant to life. It is also during this time that psychology and advertisement met up and worked to bring us the infamous subliminal messages. By studying this part of psychology’s past we can learn how it has changed and continues to do so.
From this chapter I would like to learn more about Lillian Moller Gilbreth. I didn’t know that Cheaper by the Dozen was based on a book and that book was based on the authors’ real life experiences. I also want to learn more about how she was able to complete her doctorates while raising a family in the 1920s.
The first piece of information I found interesting from chapter 8 was the section on James Cattell because even though he was performing mental tests almost all of them didn't really test intelligence at all. They all tested the sensory attributes which today seems kind of foolish that these tests could tell a researcher how smart someone is. When I read that there was no correlation between Cattell's mental tests and overall academic performance which makes sense considering what he was testing. I also thought it was particularly interesting how he studied the effects of drugs on himself. I know many early psychologists also participated in this type of study, but I thought it was kind of funny when he said the drugs he ingested "were perhaps the largest doses ever taken without suicidal intent." Considering he didn't die from these experiences I have to assume to he built up quite a tolerance.
The next piece of information I thought was interesting from the chapter was the classification and names given to children who showed limited capacity based on the scores from the tests they took. I found it very interesting that these are the origins of terms like idiot, imbecile, debile, and later moron. I had never known the origin of these words and it makes obviously makes complete sense now why people use these words to describe or make fun of people doing unintelligent things. It kind of makes me feel bad using these words to call people names knowing they were used to describe children with naturally low mental abilities. It will definitely make me think twice when I throw around these words now.
The third piece of information I found to be interesting was the study on the Kallikaks and feeblemindedness. It was very interesting that one side of the family had a large amount of children who were considered feebleminded, and the otherside was full of relatives of professional occupations. It was interesting also that they note how the study was flawed because the researchers completely disregard the role of environment on the individuals. Goddard's beliefs that feebleminded people shouldn't breed with anyone shows the dark side of intelligence testing and eugenics. Goddard wanted to keep these people institutionalized throughout their life so they wouldn't be able to mate and have children.
The only thing I found to be not interesting in the chapter was the usual amount of information the author gives on psychologist's life and education before their work in the field. It always seems unnecessary for the most part and gets annoying after awhile.
I found Goddard to be the most interesting because his ideas on the feebleminded and immigrants in America I don't agree with and are very controversial. Despite my personal convictions against his ideas to keep the American gene pool strong I wonder if his ideas would have worked to make the gene pool stronger and eliminate people of feeblemindedness? Would keeping feebleminded people from having kids really strengthen the gene pool or would traits of feeblemindedness be exhibited by the children of average mental ability? Either way it is something interesting to think about.
I think learning about the Stanford-Binet IQ test will be the most useful in understanding the history of psychology because intelligence testing has been an integral part of applied psychology for the past century. Intelligence testing has been one of the most mainstream forms of applied psychology to the public so I think knowing the beginnings of standardized IQ tests will be the most useful.
This chapter relates to Galton's study of intelligence as well as his belief in eugenics because Galton attempted to study the inheritance of intelligence just as Goddard did. They were both also believers in eugenics and thought immigration should be limited as well as discouraging (Galton) and preventing (Goddard) the intellectually inferior from having children.
I'd like to learn more about Hugo Munsterberg because I find the application of psychology in business and employment to be interesting. Learning about the variety of applications that can be made through psychology in different fields is pretty awesome so I'd like to know if there was any other work he accomplished.
While reading chapter eight the first thing that I found interesting was mental testing. Mental testing was interesting to me because I wonder sometimes how people have different capabilities when it comes to the mind. Galton was the originator of these kinds of studies. He was measuring individual differences of this.
The second thing that I found interesting was the studies performed by James Cattell. I think it is interesting to see how drugs affect somebodies capabilities to react to different types of tests. Reading this made me remember when I was in Iowa City this weekend. I witnessed somebody get pulled over. It was late at night so the police officer assumed he was drinking and made him go through a bunch of sobriety tests. It was interesting to see that for some people certain amounts of alcohol do not have as much of an effect as it could for others. This man seemed to have passed all of the tests, yet the police officer still made him blow and went over because he was arrested. I also enjoyed reading about Cattell’s mental tests he performed on his students. I think that this is the most important thing with studying the history of psychology because it had a lot of data that would help morph psychological studies in the future.
The third thing that I found interesting was how a group of psychologists wanted to see how psychology might help the war effort. Psychologist Robert Yerkes played an important role in demonstrating that psychological testing could aid the war effort. I have always had an interest in the military. I have some family members that are serving right now. I think it would be very interesting to learn what types of tests they give to those in service. I learned that they created tests to figure out who had special skills so they could be placed where they could best serve.
Something that I did not find interesting was applying psychology to business. I have never really been interesting in business. This is why I didn’t have that much of an interest of how psychology could be applied to it. This section of the chapter was just hard for me to follow and I wasn’t curious about it at all.
The applied psychologist that I found to be most interesting was Robert Yerkes. I want to learn more about him and his studies for the Thursday assignment. I feel like working to help the war effort in some ways makes him a soldier. He is helping the country and besides that his work is very interesting. Perhaps his work is one of the reasons why our military is the most dominate in the world.
Some of these topics relate to earlier topics. One in particular was Cattell’s testing on his students. I can relate that to Ebbinghaus’ study and testing of memory. Both of these experiments test the mind in a way that may seem dumb, however they are more useful to finding out who has a higher brain capability.
The first thing that I liked coming into chapter eight was when E.W. Scripture wrote as part of his preface in “Thinking, Feeling, Doing” that he hoped his effort would “be taken as evidence of the attitude of the science in its desire to serve humanity.” This, to me, was a strong beginning of a very informational chapter.
Starting the chapter off with a bang was James Mckeen Cattell. This man really stuck out not only because he was brought up in chapter four when discussing Wilhelm Wundt, but in this chapter did some major work. The first thing that caught my attention was when he studied the effects of various drugs on behavior and consciousness. Later writing the amounts of caffeine, morphine, hashish, and opium he ingested were “perhaps the largest doses ever taken without suicidal intent.” Like we have discussed in class many times, the experiments psychologists used to do seem crazy to us now. The fact is, they were people looking for answers and if using themselves as subjects would get the answer, then they would do what they had to do. I think that it is amazing to read about some of the studies psychologists did just because they proved they were human. Another thing about Cattell is that he liked Galton and both believed that the more one could measure, the more one could know. However, when it came down to it, Cattell found (with help of a student Clark Wissler) when wanting to reveal a strong mathematical relationships between measures (Cattell’s Mental Tests); found that there was no correlation which was a downfall.
The next section I found interesting was the section dealing with Alfred Binet, who I am sure most of us have heard about. Since I have heard about Binet, I didn’t really think that this section would be that appealing, but I was wrong. Like Ebbinghaus, who was discussed in chapter four, Binet was also facing an educational dilemma. “Compulsory education meant that some children would be in school even though their lack of mental ability made it impossible for them to succeed in normal class.” School officials in Paris were faced with the problem of how to identify they could be placed in what would later be called special education classes. That is when Binet was included. I did not realize that this was the reason why Binet made the tests. Another thing that I found shocking in this section was the categories for those with mental disabilities. These were actually considered clinical terms, moron, idiot, and imbeciles were among them. If someone were to say that now, that would be considered rude and not proper. This just goes to show how far psychology and testing has come and the terms used to define the mentally disabled individuals.
The last section I found to be important was Robert M. Yerks (The Army Testing Program). This section stuck out to me because it deals with the military which is a big deal. The army was looking to test new recruits; were going to use the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests. The Army Alpha tests were used for recruits that were literate enough to read and follow written directions. The Army Beta tests were used for those with reduced literacy. If a recruit was not able to complete either one, they would need to be tested individually. While going through the test, I found it to be very intense. For the Army Alpha soldiers would have a score sheet and were told that it was important for them to follow orders in the Army. On the score sheet would be twelve items and the soldiers would be ordered to make specific marks on the page and had a restricted amount to do so. This is nerve racking enough having only a few seconds to respond but even more so when someone is yelling orders at you. I’m not stupid by any means and I don’t even know if I could follow the orders, I would be scared. This test was used on close to two million soldiers, however, the war ended before they could be used effectively by the Army.
Outside of these three sections I listed, I found most of the chapter to be very dull. The section I would have to say I liked the least was Goddards case dealing with “The Kallikaks.” I seemed to have lost interest right at the beginning. When Goddard talked about feeblemindedness had a genetic basis, I thought that it was going to be a weird section. It also just drug out talking about feeblemindedness and heredity and how it should be dealt with. Thinking one can just eliminate the gene and so on and so forth. I just think that this is a thought that can never be accomplished. There is no way to eliminate feeblemindedness, there are ways to assist in helping, but to completely get rid of it seems like an impossible thought.
I would have to say the applied psychologist I found most interesting was Alfred Binet. For some reason, the fact that his intelligence testing is still used today seems like a really big deal. They have lasted this long and after going through some revisions, it continues to work and make progress. The applied psychologist I would like to learn more about would be Robert M. Yerks. He seems like a fascinating person especially since he was in the Army. I would like to learn more about how he got involved in the testing and what his plans were. I know that it mentioned that a meeting was held and discussed how psychology might help WWI and Yerks took the lead, I just want to know more about how he took on the project and made it was it was.
I believe that all of these applied psychologists are important to learn about and study in order to understand the history of psychology. What would psychology be if we didn’t learn how to apply it to society to make changes or benefit people in some way? There have been many people with ideas about psychology, but these psychologists took it to the next level by applying it and having multiple people participate in order to come up with new ideas. Applied psychology isn’t something that is done in a lab, most of the time it is solving a real world problem outside of the lab, which can make a huge impact. That is why it is so important to learn about these psychologists.
Many of the psychologists that were talked about in this chapter relate to previous psychologists that we have already studied. There were a couple examples of this. Starting with Cattell, he agreed with Galton’s ideas which were discussed in chapter five. They both believed that the more one could measure, the more one could know (which I also discussed at the beginning). Another example was when Ebbinghaus was brought up in the section: Alfred Binet. Ebbinghaus was discussed in chapter four where he studied and tested memory. Like Ebbinghaus, Binet faced an educational dilemma and participated in helping form tests to place students. There were other psychologists mentioned that we have learned about and how their studies helped applied psychologists take their ideas one step further.
I thought the section on Cattell was quite boring. I didn’t really learn anything from this section. It was just a bio of his life and it didn’t really cover much into what he did in the history of psychology. It sounded like his mental test didn’t work very well which was the only thing he was researching. He was the precursor for Binet’s IQ testing, but his section could have been reduced by a lot.
I am learning about Binet in another one of my classes so I found more in-depth research of his study very intriguing. He wanted to find a way to measure the average intelligence a person should have at a specific age. I was surprised to find out that he did a lot of research on his own daughters. By studying his daughters he “was surprised to discover that there didn’t seem to be much difference between his daughters’ scores and the cores reported for adults. Adults appeared to be superior only on tasks that involved mental processing that went beyond sensory capacity” (254). Children were good with perceptual tasks, but not tasks that required memory and language. He decided that to measure a person’s intellect you need more complex higher mental processes. Were the child scored Binet called the mental level. For example a 5 year old should score in the five-year range, but about 7% of the population would be below, in the 3 year old range. Children that scored below unfortunately were put into one of three categories: Idiots, imbeciles or debiles. He also believed that “mental levels could increase with training” (256). He was trying to measure the feebleminded, but the study he created to measure IQ would led to the way to how IQ is measured today. I find the measuring of IQ very interesting and the way Binet conducted his test. I would like to look more in-depth into his research.
Goddard took Binet’s test and elaborated on it more. He found through looking at hereditary genes that it was more the “differential effects of poverty and privilege” (260) that was a main factor of families’ feeblemindedness. There is still strong evidence, even today that show that your genes do affect how high or low you can intellectually achieve. After discovering this he wanted to study immigrants coming into the United States. Many people believed the tests to be unfair because, “Goddard failed to consider that the immigrants were undoubtedly intimidated and confused by the entire Ellis Island experience and that they probably failed to understand why they were being asked to complete these odd tests” (262). Many of the tests were also highly verbal, which would be hard for someone coming from another country were English is not their first language. He administered the Binet-Simon scale to 165 Russians, Hungarians, Jewish and Italian immigrants, concluding that 40% of them to be feebleminded and were deported. In 1913 “555 people were deported on the grounds of being ‘feebleminded,’ triple the number deported in each of the previous five years” (262). Ironically after getting so many people deported, he completely reversed his views on feeblemindedness after studying “gifted students”. He said that “when we get an education that is entirely right there will be no morons who cannot manage themselves and their affairs and compete in the struggle for existence” (262).
These mental intelligence tests go back to what we have talked about in previous chapters. Past psychologist wanted to understand how the mental process worked in humans, whereas now they wanted to measure these mental processes. All the work that previous people had discovered about the workings of our brains helped them to improve their studies in the future and even today. Understanding these concepts helps us today to learn and discover more about how we reason things. Mental testing today is becoming more and more accurate in measuring our intelligence.
Hugo Munserberg was one of the first psychologists to focus on how to apply psychology to the business world. He wanted to find a way to test people’s success in a particular job before they had even started. His first did tests on a group of motormen. They have the difficult task of “simultaneously responding to an array of stimuli, for example pedestrians, horses, carriages, autos, etc, while making a continual series of decisions about whether these stimuli would affect the progress of the electric trolley” (281). His evidence was poorly reported and not very specific, but he did find that “reports from the drivers that the procedure did indeed involve the kinds of decisions made while driving and some data showing that all the motor men, even the poor drivers, outperformed a group of Harvard students” (282). This test was the beginning for testing for future jobs. This is the start to the study of applied psychology. I took an applied psych class and tests similar to these are given to future employees still today during interviews to see if the employer will benefit from having them on their staff.
The first topic of interest for me from the chapter was how the Binet-Simon test was originally scored. They scored it based on the mental level of a child. The mental level is how a child performs based on their age. A child that is six years old could easily perform at the level of a seven year old or in contrast the level of a five year old. This interests me because it shows how diverse the skill sets of students can be and as a future educator I need to take all of these skill levels into account.
Goddard’s study of the Kalikaks interested me based on how shocking to me the study was. It kind of threw me back that someone would do a study of a family just to prove that sub-par intelligence is a completely hereditary phenomenon. As I read eventually the book disclaimed his findings to my relief saying that intelligence is largely determined not only by heredity but by the environment one grows up in.
The third topic of interest for me is how some of the tests lasted and some didn’t. We still use IQ tests today to determine a person’s intelligence in order to find where they rank against their peers. However, we do not use a lot of the preliminary test that predated the IQ test. We also don’t use the military alpha and beta test anymore. Out of all the tests that failed we were able to discern what worked in testing and what didn’t making tests today much more effective.
The section on James Cattell was uninteresting to me. I realize the chapter was necessary to set the stage on the process of testing and the early start to testing. To me it just seemed like a lot of background information for a relatively simple lead in to a chapter. However, even though the information was a little boring it set a good background for what the chapter would talk about.
One of the psychologists I found most interesting from this chapter was Hugo Munsterburg and his applied psychology. He was one of America’s first experimental psychologists although he originally hailed from Germany. His greatest accomplishments came in the field of applied psychology. He was also famous for how he used psychology to influence employee selection. This was especially useful for railroad work where he tested to see which drivers would be most competent and least accident prone. The studies Munsterburg did relate to the studies of previously talked about experimental psychologists in the chapter. Also Munsterburg was a German psychologist once again showing how psychology not only began in Germany but blossomed there.
The first thing that i found interesting was Alfred Binet and the completion test. As usual anything that deals with education is interesting to me and this idea was no exception. The book says that this kind of testing was totally new and before the strategy for finding differences in people was focused solely on physical attributes. The Completion Test was designed as a way to test the mental fatigue of school children. Education increased dramatically at the end of the 19th century and it is easy to see that this new test was pivotal in the finding and creation of new programs that helped to improve old programs.
Anytime a scientist uses himself as a guinea pig I find it interesting and this was the case with James Cattell as well. I always am amazed at he determination and passion that is shown by men who do this, although, it may not always be the most practical or ethical way to go about these things. By testing himself with drugs like morphine he was looking to see what kind of effect these would have on behavior and conciseness. But perhaps the most interesting thing about this is that the book says he took amounts that were the largest doses ever taken without trying intentionally trying to kill yourself.
Meritocracy and gifted children were the last area of interest for me. I have never met a "gifted" student in the most definite use of the word, but I have met some people who seem like geniuses when standing next to me. This lack of direct exposure has always made me curious to see what a genius may be like in real life. Are they nerdy, introverts, with poor social skills like we see in the media? Or are the just as diverse a group as the rest of the world? I don't know and hope to find out someday. Terman wanted to find out just how these gifted kids' IQ would relate to being natural leaders. While i agree with some aspects of his idea, there are some glaring examples of people with genius intellect almost being hindered by the gift and would not make a promising leader of a country.
Other than Catell the worst thing about this chapter for me was the background information on some of these scientists. Usually i can power through this information because it sets up the base we are going to need to understand these men who come up with all these ideas, but this time i found that to be the exception and not the rule. But his was only a minor hiccup in an otherwise pretty interesting chapter.
I think the inception of IQ and its corresponding test was something that will be useful in understanding pshcyholgy. Not only because it can effect the men we are reading and talking about directly, but because the term IQ has so much baggage to it already we all have preconceived notions about it before we even look into the actual information behind it.
As i said before i was interested in the idea of Meritocracy, and for whatever reason i think that it is slightly related to the whole idea of eugenics that we talked about before. Although it may be a little think i think that they are both trying to get the best possible people in society in a way that is a little alarming and shady. While the intentions may be well, there is a way to shoot tons of holes into the idea, but that does not make it any less interesting, not to me anyway.
I would like to learn more about about Cattell. I liked his self inflicted studies and also the comparisons the books makes the him being an American Galton. I think that he could be very interesting to read about and learn more.
The first thing from chapter 8 that I found interesting is the Binet-Simon Scales. This first version of this test was first published in 1905 by Theodore Simon and Binet. Before 1911 they had revised the test multiple times. The test was used to identify two groups of students (normal and impaired) and gave them a long series of tests that were somewhat different between the two groups. Eventually, the test involved multiple age groups and was used to determine how far behind in school an individual was. Where this particular child scored in the test was called the mental level by Binet. I think this is interesting because a test like this back then was what sent me to summer school, and I hated summer school.
The second thing that I found interesting in this chapter is Lewis Terman's studies of the gifted. Terman was motivated to do these studies due to his ideas about intelligence and his belief that America should be a meritocracy(A system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement).Terman believed that IQ testing would be a good way to identify such people. Terman once wrote that "nothing about an individual [was] as important as his IQ". Although Terman believed that the smartest of the smartest should be placed in positions with high prestige, he also believed that those with low IQ can also contribute to society if placed in an occupation that will meet their needs. He also said these IQ tests could work with placing people in the type of education that they needed based off of their IQ. I found this interesting because we use this testing all of the time for placement in universities and various other institutes.
The third thing that I found interesting about this chapter is Robert M. Yerkes Army testing program. Because nearly 30 percent of recruits could not read or right, the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests were created. The Army Alpha test was administered to recruits who were literate enough to read and follow written directions. The recruits who had lack of these gifts were administered the Army Beta test. These tests were then used for placement in the military based off of an individual’s intelligence. I found this interesting from the standpoint that I have taken military intelligence tests such as the ASVAB. This is one test for everyone and it is not modified for someone that is less literate. Basically, no matter who you are you will take this test and placement will happen depending on how smart you may appear according to testing.
What I found the least interesting from this chapter is applying psychology to business. Perhaps this is boring to me because I had a boring Applied Psychology class. I am more interested in the psychology aspect as to why people emit the behaviors that they do. I am less interested in using psychology in the work place in order to make a certain work setting run as smooth as possible. I can recognize though that it is a very important field in psychology. Work would possibly be chaos without it. In a way this may seem to go against what I found interesting in the chapter since it is about applied psychology, but I like to experimental part of it.
The Applied Psychologist that I found most interesting is Munsterberg. Although I said that psychology in the work setting was not appealing to me, I do enjoy the employee selection process. I think that is very neat that Munsterberg based selection off of simulations of critical features of the worker's task, and analysis into component skills.
The material that I read in the chapter that I think will be most useful in understanding the history of psychology is the different research methods that applied psychologist used. I feel that I would understand why things are the way that they are in social and work settings today based off of where the research idea originated from.
The topic that comes to mind from early chapters is always research methods and where they originated. This chapter is very similar in relating to this material and helping me learn these methods. Each chapter explains the exploration of psychology and makes me interested in reading the material even more.
The person in this chapter that I would like to learn more about is Walter Van Dyke Bingham. While at Carnegie, he developed programs for training people in sales and retailing. I really would like to learn about him more and the different research that he conducted since I work in sales.I would like to know what I apply to my job today that may relate to his studies and the conclusions and theories that developed from these studies.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meritocracy
The first interesting thing I came across happens to be a person named Hermann Ebbinghaus. The reason I found him interesting was because of this research on children and a five hour school day. His main concern was between school performance and skin sensitivity. It’s told that when in a class for five hours adults will start to have nervousness and fatigue. So he decided to take a closer look, but with children instead. He gave the children a sentence in which they would have to fill in the blank to make them complete. What he did find was the different in a stronger student versus a weak student, other than that there was no difference in their performance. This is where Alfred Binet enters. He too, was interested in the education department and mental ability. He used his two daughters as examples. What he did was take their test scoring and compared it to adult scoring. The results were compared to adults. He found that the girls did poorly on a color naming test, but did pretty well on the color matching test. This started his look into the differences in adults in children. Then THAT turned into his research and studying of individual differences. What I find to be a tad bit on the mean side was their way of categorizing child with special needs back then: idiots, imbeciles, and debiles?? Back to Binet, he and his partner Theodore Simon came up with a test that would place children in either the normal category or one of the other three; this test was the Binet - Simon scale. It would test the child’s mental level and from there they would be placed.
The next person of interest was Robert Yerkes. He didn’t seem to be having the best luck when he first started out. He had a love for studying animals, but since this research wasn’t of great value he moved on, well, more like urged on. His other downfall was the Harvard didn’t promote him. This would upset me too. The last was his acceptance at the University of Minnesota, sadly, he never made it there. That’s three strikes but he finally had lucky pull. He got placed in the Army as a Major. This put him at the head of the army of psychologist. To make testing a little easier Yerkes came up with Army Alpha and Army Beta.
Henry H. Goddard is the third interesting person. He changed Binet and Simons mental level to mental age. Instead of being classified in certain levels, Goddard varied the mental level to age. The lowest was the idiots: in this category the mental level would be equal to a one or two year old. The second, the imbecile was at the three to seven age level. Another thing that changed was the final category. Instead of being called debiles Goddard changed it to feebleminded. Those who fell into this category were at an eight to twelve age of mental level. In the years to come Goddard’s test would become the American version of the Binet – Simon Scale.
Applying psychology to business was the uninteresting part. I’m talking industrial psychology this semester as well and I already learned about this stuff. This part is just plain uninteresting and boring all around. I have no plans on going into the business side of psychology.
When I think of psychology I think of the mind and the levels that it can reach, so I think the most useful information out of this chapter and the history of it was the mental testing and the mental age. To this day we still use test simiar to these to help classifly those with special needs.
The most interesting appied psycologist would have to be Binet. He kind of started the whole mental level and catogorying. Atleast that’s what it seems like.
The person I would pick to do more research on is Hugo Munsterberg. He has the coolest name! All joking aside he was in past chapters and is a pretty big name in psychology. He seems like the best person to research.
The first thing I found interesting in chapter 8 was table 8.1 and 8.2, Cattell's Mental Tests and Wissler's study on mental testing. Even though there had been studies of similar mental tests years before Cattell coined the name "Mental Test", these "first" tests are really interesting. I can only imagine how interesting and exciting this had to be to the scientist of the day, as well as the public. To finally have data of mental processes.
The second thing I found most interesting about chapter 8 was the use of the word "moron" back in the day. They used the word to describe the people with "mental ages" between 8 and 12. Other terms like "idiots" were people of the mental ages of 1 to 2, and imbeciles were those with mental ages between 3 and 7. I had never known that these names were actually assigned to certain people of different mental ages. It's kind of silly now because these names are now used to insult people of "regular" mental age.
The third thing I found most interesting about chapter 8 was Lillian Moller Gilbreth. She was a mother of 12 and a pioneer in ergonomics and industrial psychology. I found it extremely interesting/amazing that this lady had 12 children and still managed to educate herself, especially in the times she grew up in, when it was very much the female role to raise kids and take care of the house, it was rare to find such intelligent women with such a huge family to take care of as well. It reminded me of the "cheaper by the dozen" movie, but that's besides the point. I once read an article by Boring and he basically made the argument that it is close to impossible for a woman to become any kind of scholar. So to see a women like Gilbreth succeed with such strides, really makes me happy.
One thing I found not so interesting about this chapter was the "pressures towards application" section. I know it is prefacing what is to come in the chapter, but I wasn't really interested in reading it. I wanted to learn more about what the people did, because I know why and respect what they have done as psychologists.
I had a hard time picking the most interesting psychologist of this chapter, but I happened to land on Lillian Moller Gilbreth as one of the more interesting ones. Almost no one has done what she has done. She raised 12 children with a death of her husband in 1924. She got the first PhD. ever in industrial psychology, which was not her first degree, but her second. She wrote a book but had to diguise her gender by having the book attributed to "L.M. Glibreth", which is crazy now a-days but interesting enough they had to do this back in the day. She was an incredible women of her time, and still today.
It's hard to pick one thing that was the most useful in understanding the history of psychology because it is all pretty important. I would have to say the most useful would have to be the knowledge of how the IQ test came about. Knowing this is interesting and very intuitive for any young psychologist.
In an earlier chapter he talked about the binet-simon IQ tests (the very earliest form of your IQ tests today, which are brought up in chapter eight. Terman took the test and made what is known today as our IQ test.
The one person I would love to learn more about is Ms. Gilbreth. She is quite the inspiration to a young female psychology major.
The first thing I found interesting in chapter 8 was Binet's intelligent testing especially the term "mental level". I found the new testing and mental level to be interesting because that one test for a long period of time determined what children would be put in certain special classes or not. I think that just by a test about how smart you are shouldn't determine how smart you are.
The second thing I found interesting was the Kallikak Family. I found this family interesting because one of the youngest daughters of the family was institutionalized because of the intelligent testing. The testing proved that the daughter should be put into a institution for her mental incapable abilty to read and write. She was in the institution until she was 22, and only had the skills of a 9 year old with reading and writing. Goddard reviewed his findings and found that it was because of her step-father not being able to care for the daughters properly. This woman was instiutionalized for no reason of her mental ability just her father not caring about her.
The third thing I found interesting was the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests. These tests were for army recruits, and would see how they can handle the directions. I found this interesting because one test was for people who could read somewhat, and the other test was for people who couldn't read. If the recruits failed the Alpha test they would be given the Beta test, and if they failed the Beta test they would be tested individually to see if there are any mental problems. I didn't know to be in the army back then you had to pass a test to make sure you were qualified to be in the army.
The one thing I found least interesting was applying psychology to business. This section was least interesting to me because it didn't give you a lot of information about applying psychology to business except for advertising. I thought this section would go more into detail on how psychology has been a part of being in business.
The most useful thing about this chapter was the IQ test and how it was created, and how many children were put into different classes than regular classmates. Without the IQ test, then kids with special needs would be put into regular classrooms without knowing what to do with those kids.
In an earlier chapter, the author talked about The IQ tests being the earliest forms of the IQ test today. In this chapter the IQ tests went on more detail.
The most interesting psychologist is Lillian Gilbreth. I thought she was interesting because she was a woman in her time, and became an applied psychologist.
The one person I would like to learn more about is Henry H. Goddard. I want to learn more about the Kallikak Family and is contributions to the IQ test.
I found it interesting how applied psychology became popularized. This is definitely one of my favorite aspects of psychology because of how practical it is. While I find research from the past incredibly interesting and is initially what brought me into the major, I find that I am incredibly practical and see myself using the knowledge I have gained to improve the lives of others, especially in the work place. Most psychologists in the past were interested in figuring out why we did something or how we did it. But the people of that time were not satisfied with scientists doing research for research’s sake; they wanted to apply what was being learned to everyday life, and the improvement of everyday life. Initially psychologists were skeptical and uninterested but because of the increased popularity of the field, many were forced to take jobs in that area because there were no longer enough lab jobs.
I also found Cattel’s mental tests very interesting. When first reading, I assumed it would be something similar to an IQ test or something that incorporated knowledge into the testing. After reading some of the tests he administered and how he did so, I was very curious as to whether or not it was actually going to be successful. Of course, as I assumed it had no correlation with academic performance or mental ability at all and Cattell focused his attentions elsewhere. What I find to be most curious is that he thought any of his tests would be successful. Dynamometer pressure was one of his tests which measured grip strength. How does a person’s strength relate to their mental abilities at all? I know some very small girls who do not have a large amount of strength, but could out-test most huge juice-heads out there. I do understand that we are supposed to be looking at the history in terms of the time they were doing the research, yet I still do not see how he could believe that there would be anywhere near a large correlation.
Finally I found it interesting that Goddard administered the Binet-Simon tests to immigrants upon their entrance into Ellis Island. He found that most of these people scored at a mental level of twelve or below and deduced that these people were “feebleminded.” How can these people, shocked by such a new experience, be expected to test well? Especially on a test most likely meant for American people. What really shocked me, though, was that these “feebleminded” people were sent back had their scores been too low. This to me deters from America’s diversity, especially at a time when immigration was so popular and for all of the right reasons.
I really enjoyed this entire chapter and cannot say that there was something I did not find interesting. Applied psychology and specifically Industrial-Organizational Psychology is the area I hope to get into someday. Comparing how they did things in the past to how they are done today is incredibly interesting and really points to how far we have truly come.
What I think will be most useful in understanding the history of psychology is the progression of mental and intelligence testing. This is something that is widely used today, whether it be in elementary school or high school, in applying for the military, of even a job, it is something that is still highly popular today. It is crazy to see all of the differences and how all the issues of the past have been changed to be less biased and be fair to all individuals who are taking it. While it is not exactly perfect yet, it is incredible the differences that have been made.
Cattell’s mental abilities test can be compared to the tests done earlier which were based on physiology. Another one of Cattell’s tests of mental ability was the Sensation- areas test. This test measured the two-point threshold on the back of a person’s closed right hand. Not exactly a good test of mental ability, it was helpful in learning about reflexes and different nerves. Many of his tests were similar in this way and were more practical in measuring physiology.
The person I am most interested in learning about is Henry Goddard and his use of the Binet-Simon mental test. I find it very interesting the way he can call a person feebleminded or moron based on an imperfect test.
The first thing I found interesting in chapter 8 was the section on metal testing, specifically the section about Alfred Binet. I have read about him before because as an education major, a great deal of the history and process of testing and intelligence was created by him. I found it interesting how Binet tested some of his theories on his daughter. It is also amusing and amazing reading about the tests they did, or their reasoning behind why students were fatigued, or a certain mental capability.
The second topic from the chapter I found extremely interesting was the section on Henry Goddard and the Kallikak family. I was amazed at this test and how he deemed this family feebleminded and how the family was split into good or bad sides. It was really interesting to see how the society’s misunderstanding of genetics, intelligence and how big of a role environment plays in the upbringing and outcome of humans in society. It was also amusing how inaccurate and wrong some of the new psychologists were in their studies, and this shows how much more there was left to learn in the field of psychology.
The third thing I found interesting and also probably my favorite part of the whole chapter was the section on the Binet-Simon intelligence tests and their use on Ellis Island. These tests were grossly unfair, inaccurate and I could go on and on how many things were wrong with these tests. It was interesting to read that some people at Ellis Island were against these tests. It was nice to read that they did make some cultural adjustments to the test. But regardless of the cultural adjustments this testing of immigrants, I can’t imagine taking a intelligence test in a foreign language, using vocabulary of a foreign culture and asking questions about things that some immigrants may possibly have no idea what or how to answer. The fact that this person claimed that a whole class of people was basically morons is ridiculous. It just shows that if you get the wrong answer, maybe you asked the wrong question!
The section I found least interesting was the section on the other leading psychologists. After reading the section about the IQ testing of the immigrants I couldn’t really focus on much else.
I found Lillian Gilbreth to be the most interesting of the applied psychologists. I had no idea that the idea or cheaper by the dozen actually was based on a true story. It is amazing that she was so accomplished and had 12 children and that all of them were intelligent. I see her as a source of inspiration that nothing is out of reach. I can’t imagine raising 12 kids in the 20’s when household work was much more difficult than it is now with modern technology and obtaining the prestigious degrees.
The sections I read about the IQ tests, as well as the sections on applied psychology and how it has been incorporated into business I find will be the most useful in understanding the history of psychology. I feel that this aspect of psychology is very important part of our society because psychology helps us to better teach, run our businesses and interact with those around us.
Some of the topics from previous chapters were ones that discussed new advancements, discoveries or the building upon of older theories. I feel that this chapter and all the content on IQ testing is another step towards our current position in psychology. Each chapter provides more knowledge to build on for the next chapter.
I would like to learn more about Lillian Gilbreth. I was really inspired by her story, the fact that she had so many kids in a time where common household tasks were much more difficult to complete and that she had so many accomplishments. It was really interesting to read about her household and how it may have served as ideas behind how factories and industries should be run.
One of the things I found interesting in this chapter was how Cattell came about with mental testing. This interested me because we all do have individual differences and he looked further into this. Like I had stated in previous posts, I was also interested by Galton, and one of his biggest supporters was Cattell. He also interested me because of how young he was when he started his research, which at first was on reaction time. when first starting his mental tests, he used a lot of his info from Galton, but took out physical measurements, which we see now have nothing to do with mental ability and intelligence. He was still young when he took the position as the head of the Psychology program at Columbia at just age 31. Impressive.
I also found it to be of interest in reading about the Binet Simon scales, which are more intelligent tests. I enjoyed reading about how Binet’s way of solving the diagnosis problem was to add age levels. He belived that kids intelligence could be measured by how far behind or ahead they were of other children. He was one of the first to believe that children testing years behind their actual age group should be put in special classes, something we still do today with children with learning disabilities, to help them get further ahead and get more attention. He had a test he used to measure where kids should be at certain ages. I just got a similar sheet from the doctor at my daughters five year appt.
I also enjoyed reading, although didn’t agree, with the section over the controversy over intelligence. The idea that intelligence is based primarily on genetics and has nothing to do with environment is always a good argument to read and hear about.
The thing I found least interesting in this chapter was the Army Alpha and Army Beta test, mostly because I didn’t completely understand it.
The people that I learned about in this chapter, especially Binet, will be the most useful to me in understanding the history or Psychology. I have heard a lot about Binet, and the intelligence test, but this chapter helped me to understand him and the way it came about much better.
I am going to try and find out some more info on James Cattell.
I am currently taking Clinical Psychology. In this course, we have covered intelligence scales, such as the Binet-Simon Scale. I found it very interesting to read more about this topic. I found it interesting that instead of using a definition of intelligence, they empirically tested two groups of individuals. One group appeared normal, while the other appeared impaired. I also found it interesting that he was reluctant to only use one score to identify the mental level. I find this interesting because it is currently the norm, but the topic is still controversial.
In relation to the Binet-Simon Scales, I also found the section on Henry Goddard to be interesting. I was not aware that he was the individual who translated the scales into English. I also found it interesting that he was at first unimpressed, but after using the test, he began to favor it. I also found it very interesting and slightly bizarre that based on the score of these scales, people would receive labels such as, “moron, idiot, or imbecile. “ These terms today are not considered to be socially appropriate, but in that time period were considered acceptable.
I also found the section on the Army Testing Program interesting. Something I was not aware of in regards to these tests was that Army Alpha was created for people who were able to read, and Army Beta was for those who could not. I also found it interesting, and somewhat disappointing that the war ended before the tests could provide any benefit to the army. I think it would have been very interesting to see how beneficial the tests were.
A part that I did not find interesting was on Applying Psychology to Business. For some reason I had little to no interest in the section. I found it difficult to complete because of my lack of interest.
I believe that Binet was the most interesting Applied Psychologist that I read about. I find his concept of intelligence testing to be very interesting and the fact that the Binet tests are still utilized today, although not as popular as the Weschler tests.
I think that the use of psychology in this chapter is most important in understanding the history of psychology. We have learned about how psychology stemmed from laboratory experiments, and now in this chapter it is being used on the public for uses such as intelligence testing. I think it helps us to understand how psychology can be taken from the lab and used in everyday settings.
In chapter 8, we are seeing many of the people previously discussed arise again. For instance, Galton is brought up from chapter 5 when introducing the Mental Testing Movement. Cattell supported Galton, and Cattell was also previously discussed in chapter 4. We are seeing how the individuals involved in the basis of psychology are continuing to make contributions to the field.
I would like to learn more about Lillian Moller Gilbreth. I think that from the short section on her life she seems to be an interesting woman who made a lot of accomplishments. I was particularly surprised by the fact that she raised 12 children, ran a consulting business, and taught part-time. I would like to learn more about her accomplishments and contributions.
This chapter was full of interesting people and topics. One thing that I found particularly intriguing was the Kallikaks family study done by Henry Goddard. The nature versus nurture debate still goes on today, and this was a major case for nature. I was surprised that the field workers looking back at the girl Deborah’s ancestry were able to pinpoint when the man had intercourse with the “good” woman and the “bad woman” since I doubt there were records of who one man slept with. I thought it was also interesting that there were such a large number of “feebleminded” relatives (out of 186, 143 were)! I was not surprised when the author revealed that the study was very flawed.
Goddard also caught my attention with his work on immigration to the United States. These intelligence tests performed at Ellis Island prevented so many immigrants from entering America, it made me wonder how our country would be different if these people were let in. We know now that these tests have a large cultural bias, so many of these people turned away could have been extremely intelligent, but we just wouldn’t know. It was also strange that some of the physicians at Ellis Island did not agree with the intelligence tests, but they were administered anyway.
Another part of the chapter that stuck out in my mind was Hugo Munsterberg and how he was virtually condemned from America. I felt really bad for the guy because he seemed to have good intentions by promoting the German culture, it was just at a terrible time. To go from a well-known figure to a potential spy must be a rough transition.
Although I found most of the chapter very interesting, Munsterberg’s studies on employee selection for electric railways and telephone operators were probably the least interesting. It is still an important aspect to psychology, but it was just not something I wanted to read more about. It was odd that his results were so vague as well, and that made dismiss the studies as well.
I think Lewis M. Terman’s IQ testing is an important idea to know in the history of psychology because it is still used today. These tests changed the way people thought of intelligence, and categorized individuals according to a single number. Someone’s IQ score was a major aspect of one’s life, and a lot of times determined his or her entire future. I have taken an IQ test before, so this topic from chapter 8 relates to me and probably most people today.
The intelligence debate of whether it was nature verses nurture reminded me of chapter 2. Chapter 2 gave the beginnings of the nature verses nurture debate when it comes to someone’s thoughts, and this chapter furthers the debate on intelligence. I’m sure both of these characteristics have had lively discussions supporting both sides throughout psychology’s history.
I thought Lewis M. Terman was the most interesting person from this chapter because he revolutionized the way people viewed intelligence at his time. I also thought the longest-running research project of all time, started by Terman, was an amazing accomplishment. I would like to find out more about his life and research.
There were many things that I found interesting in chapter 8. First of all, I was instantly intrigued by the section titled Pressures Toward Application. This section appealed to me because it talked about the pressures that psychologists, philosophers and many others faced around 1900 when technology was sweeping the nation. Our textbook talked about the invention of telephones, typewriters, electric lights and skyscrapers. The idea was that science improved lives. At this time, psychologists felt pressure to prove to universities that psychology was helpful to society. I found this very interesting because it seems as though we live in a world with similar attitudes even today. Everytime I turn around, there is an ad for the newest smartphone with the most innovative features. It sometimes feels like everyone is just trying to up-technologize one another. As I read further into chapter 8, I learned that psychologists such as Cattell and Binet used mental testing to prove that psychology was useful to society. Of these two men, I found the reading about Binet much more interesting. In other psychology classes, I had heard of the Binet-Simon Scales, but I had never read about Binet himself. Some of the language in this particular section caught my attention. Because the term mentally retarded did not exist in the early 1900's, Binet had his own vocabulary in regards to the intelligence of others. Our book states that Binet used three catergories to define children with limited capacity: idiots, imbeciles and debiles. He collected research for tens of years and eventually invented the first genuine intelligence test, The Binet-Simon Scales. It was also interesting to go back and reread the section on Goddard and the Immigrants. I did my first blog on this subject and it was fun to see how Goddard fit in with other psychologists that I have now learned about due to this class.
This chapter was about applied psychology. It had a lot of information about the different scales used to measure several mental processes. The first thing that I liked about this chapter was reading about Alfred Binet and the intelligence scale developed by him. It was interesting to read about his work and how he was inspired by Galton and that is what prompted him to study the intelligence levels. I really liked the fact that even a psychologist like Binet did not start off as being the most successful and having the best status.Binet started his work after observing his daughters and doing his initial research on them. I also liked that fact that how Binet himself wasn’t sure what he was trying to conclude and amazed at how popular his test is in the present time.
The second aspect of this chapter that I really liked was reading about Catell was interesting to know that although catell’s research did not yield successful results he is still known as a distinguished name in the field of psychology. It was Catell who came up with the term Mental Test Catell worked hard to give psychology the status of a science through development of tests which measured various concepts that we study in psychology.
The third thing that I really liked about this chapter was reading about Robert M Yerkes. I have heard about Yerkes’s work in some of my other psychology classes and was interested to know more about him. I read that Yerkes developed the Army Alpha and Army Beta versions of his tests, this was very interesting because it shows how psychology was considered an important tool back then and how Yerkes took into consideration the various aspects like illiteracy in context before he administered these tests i.e., how this test measured mental capability and was not biased by any individual differences that might exist between people.
The aspect of this chapter that I found did not like was the possible reasons that gave birth to the mental testing .I did not particularly like reading about the topic of Goddard and the Immigrants.
This chapter is about one of the most important topics in psychology which is the application of knowledge of psychology and intelligence tests which makes it relevant when considering the history of psychology.
I have always found mental testing of some interest. This chapter helped to further the information that I knew about mental testing and new psychology. The most interesting thing to me however, was the use of four special terms. These terms are idiot, imbeciles, debiles, and moron. I never really knew much about the history of these terms. It was shocking to me that these terms are often used now a days as a way to demean someone or make fun of an individual who seems to think or behave in a childish manner or have a lesser intelligence in a negative light. Idiots meant that an individual was severely handicapped and no capable of caring for themselves. Imbeciles meant that they were somewhat capable but not able to be independent. Debiles were those whom qualified for special education. This term was later replaced by moron. Who would be considered to have a mental age between eight and twelve.
I also found the Binet tests interesting because they dealt with discovering an individual’s mental age. It was interesting to me because I may one day have to work with individuals that in the past would be called morons or feebleminded. It is interesting to see the development of this area and how it may still be used today and still be relevant.
One other thing I was interested in was the section over army testing. It was interesting to me because of the controversy it ended up causing because after a report on the program suggested that an average American soldier scored barely higher than the moron level. When you think of the army and armed forced we usually don’t think of them being mentally incapable of performing their job so I can understand the uproar it caused.
The least interesting thing to me was Munsterberg’s studies on employee selection for electric railways and telephone operators. I just had a hard time really getting into it because the topic had no real personal pull with me.
The most interesting person to me was Henry H.Goddard. It was interesting to see how he took Binet's work and adapted it and how he refined the current classification of mental age/level. This is also the person I would like to learn more about.
When browsing the chapter titled "Applying the New Psychology," I find the pressures intensified the progress of psychology. I find stories of Ellis Island very interesting. Goddard, Terman, and Binet were involved in a process that has such a heavy historical implication. These tests are going to have their flaws and discriminants but I had not thought of process from a psychologist perspective. I thought that it was the "government" who made the choices. Well maybe the government employed the psychologists.
I thoroughly enjoyed the section describing work of Leta Hollingworth. Women are really smart, and they used to be smart as well. I think folks can learn more while being intelligent. I think identity is more smart than intelligence. My father always tells me back then I could read good. I feel that advanced students should be trained in mentoring other students to provide student-teacher meaningul member relationships and a diverse workforce and centripital force of intelligence and increase at a decreasing rate. thanks!!
First off, I love that we’re getting into the IQ tests. I’ve always thought taking these IQ or aptitude tests were more fun than reading a horoscope.
One of the most controversial aspects of these kinds of tests is their application. Galton felt that all citizens should be tested and either encouraged or discouraged to procreate according to whether or not they’d strengthen the “racial stock.” I understand how this could be an innocent quest for the betterment of humanity as a species, but there are so many unethical uses for this kind of testing.
Closely related to that is Cattell who combined a whole bunch of unusual physical and mental tests to determine how intelligent they were. To take lessons from earlier chapters, we combine the reaction time testing and two-point thresholds that we discussed previously with other simple tests. It’s interesting that these items are recurring from Chapter 4 except in a more applied sense that deals with mental testing.
I find it fascinating how language can change over time. I never knew exactly when or for what purpose the terms ‘idiot’ and ‘imbecile’ were used in clinical diagnoses, and that was discussed in this section. It was in this era that Binet helped create the first true intelligence test. I had to laugh, though, at one example of their “absurd sentences” that an 11-year-old child should be able to criticize: ‘The body of an unfortunate girl was found, cut into 18 pieces. It is thought that she killed herself.’ Seriously? To an 11-year-old child? Like there couldn’t be something absurd that isn’t quite so graphic? Different era, I guess!
I loved reading about the Kallikak families… how one man began two branches with his same surname. One was with a “feebleminded” woman who bore feebleminded generations, and the other with a good, respectable woman who bore a long, respectable line of descendants. As I read, I found the author of our text teased out all of the serious flaws I sensed in the Kallikak research – the presence of potential poverty on the one side along with lack of care leading to illness and infant mortality that wasn’t present on the “good” Kallikak side. After this flawed research, Goddard became a eugenicist who felt that these bad families’ genes should be eliminated from the gene pool. He also viewed immigrants as a threat to American intelligence since there was a shift to Southern and Eastern European immigrants rather than the uppity WASPs that had previously been the majority. He decided that “the intelligence of the average ‘third class’ immigrant is low, perhaps of moron grade.” Yikes.
I thought the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests were interesting, too. The tests were just weird! Make a 2 in a square with a circle but not a triangle? Over and over again would make a person mad!
As for the least interesting part, I was less interested in the psychological applications in the business fields. Specifically, ergonomics. It makes me think of those chairs that they pay a buttload for in offices because they fit your back properly.
Probably the most valuable portion of the chapter in understanding the history of psychology would be the description early on of the transition to applied psychology and away from the laboratory psychology, simply due to lack of available labs for new psychologists to work in! It’s amazing how people can create a shift in a field just because of lack of employment.
I would like to learn more about Robert M. Yerkes. His army tests seemed so unusual and his experiences were much different than a traditional psychologist since most of them never had to apply their knowledge to anything quite as serious as wartime training and testing.
The first thing that stood out to me as interesting about this chapter is that life of Lillian Moller Gilbreth. I think that it is highly impossible for anyone to read about her and say that she was not an overachiever. Being able to raise twelve kids is a big enough accomplishment in itself, but she did not stop there. She went on to help pioneer the field of ergonomics which is something that is essential to the world today. This is just the tip of the iceberg for things that she did in her life. I think that her life was definitely the most interesting thing in the book.
The testing of individuals in the army was also something that interested me. I think Yerkes had a lot of good ideas about how test. Having an alpha test and the beta test would have produced a lot of great data for psychologist if Yerkes would have had enough help to retest those who needed to be retested. What interested me the most about the army testing is that it although it was going on during the war; it did not produce much if anything that helped during the war.
The third thing that interested me in this chapter was some of Goddard’s ideas. The most interesting idea I thought he had was about the family that he called the Kallikaks. I found it interesting because of the biases that he had about those who were smart and those who were feeble minded. He claimed that this family was split into part successful part incompetent because the father had a child with a woman he called feebleminded, and then with a woman that was normal. The problem with this was that he was not sure whether the first woman was feebleminded or not. At the end of his life he began to think differently about his theories and that was interesting to me also.
The section about John Mckeen Cattell was the section that I found to be the least interesting. I was not a very big fan of this section because it started off by stating a lot of facts about him that I had learned from my research on him earlier. This caused me to tune out and I am sure I probably missed out on some the information in this section. When I did read new information on Cattell it talked about mental test. I found this information to be somewhat useless because although he did coin the term mental test and all he did not propose any particular ways in which testing could be useful.
I found Harry Hollingsworth to be the most interesting of all the applied psychologist. I found it interesting that he was married to such an intelligent woman. I also found it interesting that he claimed to not have interest in applied psychology but, this was the psychology that he is most known for. It was also his greatest source of income. I think that in the end Hollingsworth put more value and emphasis on living comfortably than following his true passions.
The section that talked about the application of psychology is what I believe will be the most useful part of this chapter. Being able to apply psychology to the real world was the insurance that psychology needed to become a respectable field. By moving what was learned inside laboratories out into the world common people could now see that the field was a legit one. It is essential to know about how psychology became applicable because, without this step the field may have never flourished.
Mental testing was a subject that has been talked about in the earlier chapters of this book. Earlier in the book I read about Galton and how he wanted to figure out who was competent enough to procreate and who was not. In this chapter Psychologist were not only testing people to find out if the needed special education, but also to see what students were gifted.
The individual that I would like to learn more about is Hugo Munsterburg. I would like to learn more about him because there was controversy that surrounded him. First off I want to learn more about the contributions that he made to American psychology. The things he did with employee selection were interesting to me and I would like to learn more about that. Secondly I want to research and learn about how a man can go from having dinner in the white house with Teddy Roosevelt to later being looked at as a
The least interesting thing, or person, I read about was Robert Yerkes. I think why I was so disinterested in it was because I felt so bad for him! Reading about his struggles was very depressing and made me not want to read his story. Yerkes was the definition of Murphy’s Law, or at least some version of it: what can go wrong, will go wrong. From not being promoted at Harvard to not getting into Minnesota, he just had the worst of luck. By the time things did start going his way, I was already too annoyed with his sad life to appreciate his success! And, even though I am EXTREMELY grateful for out military and the life they allow me to live, it isn’t the most interesting topic to me. I think because I was never very good at government classes, those topics disinterest me.
Goddard’s study on the Kalikak family was very interesting to me. I’m extremely interested in nature vs nurture debate. Unfortunately, my parents split up when I was young and instead I was raised by a different amazing father. I’m so very blessed to have two wonderful dads in my life, but what’s interesting is how extremely different both of them are. Therefore examining intelligence at a nurture level as Goddard did, though rather bold and a bit intrusive, was needed. Unfortunately for him, his findings were found to be incorrect, and environment also plays an extreme role in intellectual development.
Another person I found interesting was Terman and his extreme passion about IQ. What I liked about Terman was he seemed so insightful and caring. He realized the importance of the gifted and how their gifts shouldn’t be hidden but nurtured. However, he also realized that those who are less fortunate in the intelligence area could still contribute to not only society, but also their own well-being. Though I wouldn’t agree with Terman and say IQ is the most important aspect of one’s life, it certainly is high on the list.
The last thing I found interesting was Binet and his mental levels. I thought it was out of the ordinary how he named each level. Some I found to be somewhat offensive (such as idiot or imbecile) and can’t imagine that I would be the only one to think so! However, his work was extremely important. Even before the multiple levels of intelligence, he worked with Simon to develop tests that scored children either normal or impaired. Though no one likes intelligence testing, they’ve become extremely important to society, so it is important to see where they originated. So this is also ties in into what I believe is the most important thing read in the chapter. As I just said, most people hate standardized tests. However, that’s the name of the game folks, whether you like it or not. So people, rather than complaining, need to learn how to play or get off the field. Learning about where intelligence tests originated can be useful into helping taking these tests, if not only to realize their importance.
Right now I’m thinking about taking a new path with my psychology education. Lately I’ve been toying with the idea of becoming an I/O psychologist, so I found Hugo Munserberg to be the most interesting applied psychologist. He was the first to dabble psychology into the business world. Therefore, I’d like to learn more about him. In applied psychology, we talked about him somewhat, but I still feel like there is much more to be learned. We learned details about his first tests of jobs, and found out that his research lacked structure. But what about his tests later on in his career? I’m sure they were much more developed and I would love to hear more about them.
Finally, all of the talk on IQ, mental age/level, intelligence testing, etc. relates to the previous chapters we’ve read in the book. In multiple chapters we have read about psychologists trying to study the brain, how it works, and so forth. Using intelligence tests is another way on how to study the brain. Figuring out the differences in IQ scores from person to person is one way on how to study the differences in our lives and how that impacts our thinking and our brain. Psychology is such a connected science, one of the many reasons why I love it.
I found the section about Alfred Binet interesting. It is interesting that his motivation for creating an intelligence test was not to see who was smart and excelled in intelligence, but wanted to provide academic accommodations for people who were considered “weak”. Now we would view this as mentally challenged or mentally retarded. He believed that children who were not at their “mental age” should be placed into special classes, so they would be able to learn in a more specialized setting. It wasn’t until later that Binet’s work was used to set apart the very intelligent people into more accelerated education. Binet began a trend of standardized intelligence tests being created, which are still heavily used today in education, and other fields such as business. Binet had the intentions of helping a small group of people, but ended up going beyond that to something still very useful today. This interests me because I am a student, so I have taken many standardized tests, so it is interesting to see where they came from.
I also found the section about Yerkes interesting. Yerkes built off of what Binet had started with the intelligence tests and applied it to the military since the country was in the middle of a war. It is unknown whether the army actually benefited from this, but the aftermath has changed society. Psychology was given more credit, because the application of this science to help the country was a very positive thing. This is also what spread standardized testing to other settings like academia and businesses. Yerkes’ test helped to apply psychology to a specific topic, and I find this interesting, because I this psychology can be applied in many areas, and one that really interests me is obesity, and working out. I think applying psychology to different fields can be very beneficial.
The last thing that I found interesting was Terman and his giftedness studies. He took what Binet had started and turned it the opposite way to use it to benefit the opposite end of the spectrum with the highly intelligent individuals. He saw that there was a need to acknowledge the intelligent, because these individuals are typically successful leaders. Today, in most schools there are programs for students who are intelligent, so they can receive accelerated academics so that they can be challenged. This is interesting to me because my little brother was placed in an accelerated program, so it is interesting to see why programs like this came about.
I found Binet most interesting. This was likely because I have always just associated Binet with creating standardized testing, which in my mind isn’t the greatest thing to create. It was interesting to learn about why he created this intelligence test, which was to help those who are mentally challenged. This changed my view about him, and I see his work as being a very positive thing.
I think the most useful thing from this section for understanding psychology is the importance of applying it. Sometimes people view psychology as being an east major, or just a major people get when they don’t know what to do, I do not agree with this. I think psychology is so important to our society, because it can be applied everywhere. I hope psychology will continue to gain credit, and people will realize how much their life has benefited from psychology if they just see how much it has been applied to their life.
The section I found least interesting was about psychology and business. I think this field is very important, and is definitely necessary to be in this chapter. I however, have never been interested in business, and I have never desired to work a business job. This is a reason why I am a psychology major, because I have never desired to work a job sitting in a cubical all day, but I want to interact with people and not be so confined to an office. This is why this section didn’t particularly interest me.
I would like to learn more about Cattell. I have learned about him before with mental tests, but it talked about him trying drugs for research. This was new information to me, and seems very obscure, so it would be interesting to know more about him. This chapter also relates to chapter seven, because it was about learning, and this is about intelligence. The knowledge about learning was probably very beneficial and crucial for the intelligence tests to be created, and it gave the individuals creating the tests a better understanding of learning and in turn intelligence.
The first portion of the text I found to be quite interesting was the section on James McKeen Cattell. I enjoyed the part about how he studied the effects of drugs on behavior and consciousness, using himself as the only subject! This was very interesting to me; he went to such great (and dangerous) lengths to do research! I also found Cattell's "mental tests" to be very interesting; the ten tests were a wide range, testing everything from reflex movements to short-term memory.
The next thing I found interesting was found inside the section about Alfred Binet and his intelligence testing. It concerned Herman Ebbinghaus and his completion test. It would be interesting to find out just how exactly a long school day affects children and their mental capabilities. His completion tests aimed to find out if the fatigue and irritability experienced by many students was a result of a long school day. Ebbinghaus began to test children's cognitive abilities at the end of the day compared to the beginning using various tests, but didn't end up finishing them. This was very interesting to me, and I would have liked to see the tests completed.
The final thing I found interesting here was Goddard's concept of Binet's work, changing the mental level concept to "mental age." So-called "idiots" would be ages 1-2, and "imbeciles" would be ages 3-5. For the next level, Goddard suggested using the word "moron", who scored ages 8-12. Goddard proposed that morons needed to be identified and easily recognized, since they were responsible for many of society's ills. This was fascinating to me, if only because of how controversial it would be today! We would not only outlaw the use of the word "moron" to refer to mentally handicapped individuals, but our society today would never think of blaming them for society's downfalls.
The portion of the chapter I found to be uninteresting was the section on business and industrial psychologists. It was just dry and boring to read; the first portion on intelligence testing was much more interesting. I also think the author should have related the history of industrial psychologists to how we could use the concepts today, and they didn't really go into that.
I think I found Goddard to be the most interesting of the applied psychologists. His antiquated views on mentally retarded individuals were horrifyingly fascinating to me, and his study on "The Kallikaks" was very interesting as well. His results persuaded him to become a firm supporter of eugenics, a science that I find to also be very interesting.
I think the portion on Binet and his intelligence testing is probably the most important in regards to the history of psychology. These are tests and scales that are still used widely today, and I think it's important to understand where and who they came from.
This chapter relates back to the topic of Ebbinghaus' studies in chapter 4. Ebbinghaus was talked about in this chapter in regards to research on "completion," which kind of relates back to his research on memory in chapter 4.
I would like to learn more about Goddard and his research and views. There was a lot of information about him in the chapter; however, he was by far the most interesting person discussed here, and I'd love to find out more about him.
I thought the mention of the American Association of the Feeble-Minded (HMP, 257) was interesting, simply because it seemed like a good start for a joke about Republicans.
The section discussing Goddard’s creation of the term ‘moron’ was also interesting because it said that this “helped to legitimize psychology as a professional discipline” -God knows why- and also that Goddard claimed that these ‘morons’ were “responsible for many of society’s ills” (HMP, 258). (See above.)
It was also a good example of how an individual can ‘interpret’ data to support any view that they desired (e.g., the hereditability of retardation or screening immigrants for feeblemindedness).
Goddard’s work ties in with Herbert Spencer’s theory of social Darwinism (HMP, 223), in that he believed that retardation could be selected out of the gene pool through eugenics (HMP, 260).
I did like the fact that Goddard reversed his position later in life, however (HMP, 262).
I think that either Walter Dill Scott (who applied psychology to advertising and to industry) or Hugo Muensterberg (who wrote about forensic psychology and eyewitness reliability, and then later about industrial psychology and advertising) would be interesting to learn more about. I think that these areas have all had a great impact on American society and culture. If I had to choose, I might say Muensterberg: he was described as being more eclectic in his research, and he also argued that “prevention of crime is more important than the treatment of crime (HMP, 280). You could easily substitute ‘substance abuse’ or ‘mental illness’ or ‘disease’ and it would reflect current thought.
The thing I disliked most was how Walter van Dyke Bingham, Lillian Moller Gilbreth and Harry Hollingworth were given such short shrift at the tail-end of the chapter. They all seem to have made large contributions to psychology, but were paid scant attention after lengthy sections on Goddard and Terman.
The most useful thing I got out of this chapter was the understanding that economic forces had as much to do with shaping the history of psychology as any theory out there.
I was first intrigued by James Cattell because of his self-experimentation on himself with various drugs to see what sort of effect they had on his own body. So I decided he would be a person I wanted to look into a little more and see what he was like. In my first source it talks a lot about how Cattell believed that in order for the field of psychology to grow, it needed to become more quantitative in its methods, at the time this seemed to be highly controversial. We as a class discussed this idea back in class a long time ago and I was glad to see that this idea was being challenged right before the 1900s. I always also interested in the Mental Tests the book listed, even though after the word itself there is not much of a definition or explanation. So upon further exploration I found my second source and it showed me that while his mental tests were important they were in fact slightly unreliable and were eventually outdone by Binet. This was not directly mentioned in the book possibly because they do not care, didn’t know, or did not want to bring down this guy’s work as a scientist. Lastly and sadly I used a Wikipedia site because I could not find another website that gave me enough information without getting off track of my topic. Surprisingly there was very little information and no videos that covered the correct area. However, the web page seemed valid and provided me with proper information about his early life, schooling and academic career which can only help to expand knowledge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McKeen_Cattell While sometimes laughed at this website still provided me with good information when it became more difficult to find information on my main topic/person.
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/jcattell.shtml this first website was used because it showed specific actions of James Cattell and what exactly his contributions were to the field. He was one of the first people in America to promote quantitative data, ratings, and rankings.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/cattell.htm: This second website was important because it showed that Cattell was more renowned for his publishing and editing rather than his creation of those “mental tests”, which I thought would carry more academic weight.
I thought the difference between Binet's and others' approaches to intelligence testing was interesting, because Binet seemed to be more motivated by a desire to help people and less influenced by the social darwinism of the time. This might be because he was French, and the social darwinists seemed to be strongest in the land of rugged individualism: the good ol' USA.
I thought the historical lesson we can learn from this chapter was really interesting as well, especially because I consider myself to have a scientific worldview. This chapter teaches us that we have to take into account the quality of the science as well as the use of the science. Science which, when applied, has these kinds of implications for so many people should be studied very closely and should not be given priority over the well-being of so many people. This is particularly concerning when we employ the historicist view: these people were all really smart, capable scientists. If people smarter than I am could be hoodwinked by the zeitgeist of their generation, I need to be careful as a scientist not to get too carried away and neglect the human implications of research.
Finally, I was interested in the Army's application of intelligence testing in WWI. I think this is an interesting idea, but it ran into the trouble of doing research in a setting that is not designed for research. The military's first priority was (rightly) the war effort, not the tests the psychologists were developing.
I wasn't particularly interested in the applied industrial psychology, which is odd because I think the concept of IO is interesting, and I really like the organizational psych class I'm taking right now. I think it was probably because this chapter was a bit long, and by the time I got to the industrial bit I was ready to be done! I was really impressed by Lillian Gilbreth, though: two PhDs (including the first ever industrial doctorate) and twelve children!
I was most interested in Alfred Binet, because I had heard of the Stanford-Binet test, and I thought it was cool to read about the originator of the intelligence test (after Ebbinghaus, I suppose). As I said above, I was also interested in Binet's approach to intelligence testing, which seemed to be less socially darwinian than his contemporaries. I think characters are part of what add color to history, and I would be interested to learn more about the character of Alfred Binet. I think that as the originator of what would (after some modification) develop into the dominant measure of intelligence for the next century, Binet is also the most important figure in this chapter for the history of psychology.
In terms of earlier topics, the recurring theme here is Darwin, or rather a perversion of his original idea, which is unfortunate (as the text notes, it was Herbert Spencer, not Darwin, who coined the "survival of the fittest" maxim of the social darwinists).
While reading I was very interested in the mental testing movement. This is because I currently work with the mentally disabled. I find that these people are not always born from disabled people. Many times a child is born with a defect from two parents who are perfectly healthy. This chapter was one that did however spark my interest.
The first thing that I found interesting was Galton and his thoughts and beliefs about the someone’s mental state. Galton felt that intelligence was inherited and that was the reason for encouraging procreation to those who were able. However he discouraged procreation among those that were less capable. His thoughts were shared among many other psychologist who later caused a large controversy. This topic became very touchy for many as the years went on.
I found it interesting that later James Cattell was one of Galton’s greatest supporters. Cattell conducted studies which later allowed him to coin the term mental test. A mental test was a series of ten different test. Cattell eliminated the strictly physical measurements. These test estimated to take an hour. It was stated that the results could possible show an indication of a disease. What I found very interesting about Cattell was that he was working at Columbia and was lobbying to test every freshmen coming into Columbia, he stated that he would be able to determine the condition and progress of students. This is funny because every student is different and he later found out that his tests did not correlate with the students. HAHA He found that student’s performance was more correlated with what classes they were taking.
Next I found it very interesting on how many test and studies that all the psychologist preformed. First we have Cattell with his mental test which was found unrelated to student’s performance. Next we have Binet with his completion test which was asses the effects of mental fatigue in schoolchildren. He did find some results but were not fully what he was looking for. The completion test showed him that he was able to distinguish the strong compared to the weak but was not find anything regarding the performance over the five hour school day. Binet then also had paired with Simon and were able to develop a mental level. With this test one was able to see where a child’s brain level was at. There was a long series of tests that appeared to be conceptually related to intelligence. After doing this test and observing what was happening, it turned into a series of thirty tests and then by 1908 there was a series of fifty eight tests. This was called the Binet and Simon’s tests of mental levels. Later mental level was called mental age. There were many other tests that we conducted and researched. Ex- IQ test and Army tests.
I did not like reading about how psychology is to be applied to business. I found this section of the chapter to be very dry and boring. I found it funny that I could not pronounce some of the names in the reading which is not beneficial. I found that the end of the chapter was full of people who did not have major contributions. There was not much that I did not like though; this chapter was more interesting than the chapters in the past.
Over all I could like to know more about Binet and all of his testing’s. I am curious to know which mental tests are still being applied today.