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Core Studies: Individual Differences Area

Gould (1982) bias in IQ testing: consequences and evaluation

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 02

Overview

Recall questions on evidence against the hereditarian interpretation, the reification of intelligence, the immigration quotas and their consequences, forms of bias, lessons about numbers in psychology, and the strengths, weaknesses and present relevance of Gould's analysis.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Why is the relevance of the study to present-day testing limited?

Key term

Which comparison between states undermines the hereditarian interpretation?

Numbers

Which piece of legislation did the test data help to justify?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Which comparison between states undermines the hereditarian interpretation?

    Model answer

    Black recruits from some northern states outscored white recruits from some southern states, which points to schooling and opportunity rather than race.

  2. 2

    What is meant by the reification of intelligence?

    Model answer

    It is the error of treating intelligence as though it were a single real thing that one number can measure, when it is an abstract summary of many varied abilities.

  3. 3

    Which piece of legislation did the test data help to justify?

    Model answer

    The Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, which imposed quotas that sharply cut immigration from southern and eastern Europe.

  4. 4

    What longer-term human consequence does Gould attribute to those quotas?

    Model answer

    That many people later trying to escape persecution in Europe were refused entry to the United States.

  5. 5

    Identify three forms of bias the programme illustrates.

    Model answer

    Cultural bias in the content of the items, bias in the conditions and procedures under which the tests were given, and the researchers' own prior belief that intelligence is inherited.

  6. 6

    What broader lesson does Gould take from this about numbers in psychology?

    Model answer

    Putting a figure on something lends it a false authority, so a badly constructed measure can carry far more weight than the evidence deserves.

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