Summary sheet for core study describing the basics for the study as well as ethical consideration and evaluations of validity and reliability within the study.
Background: Aim of Gould: Validity
-Psychology was viewed as a Interested in the way +High In population validity as they completed tested on 1.75
soft science that lacked intelligence has been million recruits, which is a large sampling representing male
objectivity. measured through intelligence Americans.
-Yerkes wanted it to be and the problems with -Low in population validity as many recruits were illiterate and
recognised as a science, like measuring and testing the tests were aimed at literate people, so was unfair to
physics, through number and intelligence. recruits making them at a disadvantage.
quantification. Looked at implications of -Lacks validity as it did not take into account that intelligence
-Yerkes believed that biased data leading to may be innate, which is an extraneous variable.
intelligence and behaviour is -Lacks face validity because many questions did not look like
inherited and unaffected by Sample of Yerkes
Alpha Test they were assessing intelligence.
the environment. 1.75 million WW1 recruits from
For literate recruits to test -Lacks construct validity as many recruits were illiterate but
the USA. They were
literacy and native intellectual the tests were aimed at literate people, so they test didn’t
predominantly white
ability to see if they can be cater to the majority of American recruits making it
Americans and European
officers. ethnocentric.
immigrants.
Had 8 parts and took less
than an hour, with analogies,
Findings of Yerkes Gould Reliability:
-Half black recruits -Lacked internal reliability as there was low levels
sequences, unscrambling, etc. Review of
scored D- on beta but of consistency when assigning ppts to the
It was culturally significant to Yerkes
only 1/5 were recalled appropriate test and this differed between army
Beta Test for ISE. Ethics of Yerkes: camps.
Did Beta if they failed Alpha. -2/3 officers started -Informed consent +Can be argued that Yerkes did the test-retest
Had 7 parts and only carries doing tests. as Army recruits method on the recruits, as if they failed the
contained pictures, numbers -USA had a mental did not consent to alpha, they took the beta, which was meant to be
and symbols and required age of 13, when it data being used in equivalent. However, this lacked consistency as
pencil work. Culturally specific should have been 16. that way. not everyone that failed had the chance to retake
to America. They explained this -Inconsistent data another test.
down to interbreeding was used to
Individual Spoken Exam inform social
Did if they failed Beta. with black Americans.
-Eastern Europeans policy. Ethnocentrism:
To see if they were suitable -Socially sensitive
were less intelligent. Yerkes can be seen as not ethnocentric as he
for the army, however, was research about
-Changed immigration used a large sample of 1.75 million recruits from
rarely used when supposed to giving people from
act to allow less different backgrounds of white Americans,
be. different countries
immigrants in as they European immigrants, and black Americans.
They were grade from A-E. mental ages. However, Yerkes can be seen as ethnocentric as
Conclusions of Yerkes: he used tests that were all culturally significant to
-Lack of consistency with testing if recruits failed. America and a western perspective that didn’t
-IQ tests are biased depending on culture. really measure intelligence but measures how
-Allows you to grade countries based on intelligence, which can lead to tragic well the recruits knew America. All tests were
consequences. designed for literate people but many were
-Doesn’t measure innate intelligence. illiterate making it ethnocentric.
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