Chapter 11
Testing and Individual Differences
Intelligence: metal quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
Intelligence tests: a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.
General Intelligence (g): a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test. Intelligence Quotient: defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100. On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100.
IQ = (mental age /chronological age) x 100
I. What is Intelligence?: A. Charles Spearman (1863-1945)
1. General Intelligence
2. Factor Analysis
B. Theories of Multiple Intelligences
1. Howard Gardner’s Eight Intelligences: (Please list all 8 Intelligences)
2. Savant Syndrome
3.) Robert Sternberg’s (1985, 1999, 2003) Three Intelligences (tirarchic theory) – (Please list all 3 Intelligences)
C.) Is Intelligence Neurologically Measurably?
1.) Brain size (only +.33 correlation between brain size and intelligence scores) 2.) Neural Plasticity
3.) Gray Matter (more gray matter = greater intelligence scores) (especially in areas linked to memory, attention, and learning)
4.) Processing Speed (greater speed correlates to higher IQ scores) II. Assessing Intelligence
A. Alfred Binet (1857-1911) and IQ tests
1.) Why was the IQ test originally created?
2.) What were Binet’s fears about his test?
B.) Lewis Terman (1877-1956) and the Standford-Binet 1.) What was the Standford-Binet and how was it used?
C.) William Stern derived the famous intelligence quotient, or IQ, from these tests
D.) What exactly is mental age?
E.) Achievement Tests
F.) Aptitude Tests
III. Principles of Test Construction: A. Standardization
B. Norms and Psychometrics
C.) Reliability and Types of Reliability
D.) Validity and Types of Reliability
E.) Normal Curve
F.) Flynn Affect
IV: The Dynamics of Intelligence A. Stability or Change?
1.) pre-school years vs. adulthood (consistency and ability for prediction?) 2.) Scotland Study
3.) SAT and GRE score comparisons
V. Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence A.) Nature ns. Nurture?
Genetics Environment
B.) Gender Differences?
Male Female
D.) Cultural Differences, Test Bias
AP PSYCHOLOGY UNITS 8A AND 8B OVERVIEW
I. Theories of Motivation
A. Instinct – some behaviors are instinctual; they do not need to be taught.
B. Drive Reduction Theory – behavior is motivated by biological needs, such as food, water, and shelter. A drive is the impulse to satisfy this need. The body seeks homeostasis – a balanced internal drive state.
1.) Two types of drives
a. Primary drives – biological needs
b. Secondary drives – learned drives, i.e., we learn that resources like money can get us food and water to satisfy our primary drives. 2.) Drive Reduction Theory cannot explain all of our motivations.
Sometimes we perform behaviors that are not connected to primary or secondary drives.
C. Arousal Theory – Some motivations that seems to violate biological theories of motivation can be explained by arousal theory, which states that we seek an optimal level of excitement or arousal. This optimal level various from person to person.
1.) Yerkes-Dodson Law – tendency for most people perform best with an optimal level of arousal. Too low or too high levels can hinder one’s performance.
3.) Opponent Process Theory of Motivation is similar to arousal theory – (i.e., with addiction, a desire to return to baseline is called the opponent process. When the addict has symptoms of withdrawal, the addict will seek the high/drug again.)
D. Incentive Theory – Sometimes behavior is not pushed by a need, it is pulled by a desire. Incentives are stimuli we are drawn to due to learning/association. We learn to associate some stimuli with rewards and others with punishment – and we are motivated to seek rewards.
E. Maslow Hierarchy of Needs – (Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Motivation). Not all needs are created equally – we will be motivated to satisfy some needs first. (Please see notes from Unit 10.)
II. Hunger Motivation
A. Biological Factors - (Study the terms hypothalamus, lateral hypothalamus (hunger center), ventromedial hypothalamus (satisfy center – causes the animal to stop eating), set-point theory, metabolic rate.
B. Psychological Factors (Study terms externals vs. internals, the Garcia effect, effects of culture and background
C. Eating Disorders (Study terms bulimia, anorexia nervosa, obesity)
A. Achievement Motivation – this theory explains our desire to master complex tasks and knowledge to reach personal goals. Some people have higher achievement motivation than others.
B. Extrinsic/Intrinsic Motivation – See Unit 6 notes
a. Extrinsic Motivation – Motivation that is fueled by factors outside ourselves (grades, salary). We seek these things to gain rewards or to avoid punishment.
b. Intrinsic Motivation – rewards we get internally, such as enjoyment or satisfaction.
C. Management Theory – Studies of management styles show two basic attitudes that affect how managers do their jobs:
a. Theory X – Managers believe that employees will work only if rewarded with benefits or threatened with punishment.
b. Theory Y – Managers believe that employees are internally motivated to do good work and policies should encourage this internal motive.
D. When Motives Conflict – Sometimes what you want to do in a situation is clear to you, but at other times, you find yourself conflicted abut what choice to make. Psychologists discuss 4 major types of motivation conflict.
a. Approach-Approach Conflict – must choose between two desirable outcomes
b. Avoidance –Avoidance Conflict – must choose between two unattractive outcomes
c. Approach-Avoidance Conflict - exists when one event or goal has both attractive and unattractive features
d. Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflicts – must choose between two or more things, each of which has desirable and undesirable outcomes.
IV. Theories About Emotion
A. James Lange Theory of Emotion – (William James created this theory) He theorized that we feel emotions because of biological changes. Therefore physiological changes cause our emotions.
B. Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion – (Walter Cannon and Philip Bard’s theory) – Disagreed with James. They theorized that biological changes AND cognitive awareness of the emotional state occurred simultaneously.
C. Two-Factor Theory (also called Stanley Schachter’s Theory of Emotion) – (More detailed and complete than the previous two theories.) Both our physical responses and our cognitive labels (our mental interpretations) combine to cause any particular response. Emotion depends on the interaction between two factors – biology and cognition.
V. Nonverbal Expressions of Emotion A. Universal of Facial Expressions
B. Facial Feedback Theory - The effect of facial expressions on experienced emotions, as when a facial expression of anger or happiness intensifies the feelings of anger or happiness.
C. Stress
D. Measuring Stress
E. Seyle’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) – describes the general response animals (including humans) have a stress event. 3 Stages.
organism readies itself to meet the challenge through activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
2. Resistance – The body remains physiologically ready (high heart rate, and so on.) Hormones are released to maintain the state of readiness. If the resistance lasts too long, the body can deplete its resources.
3. Exhaustion – The parasympathetic nervous system returns our physiological state to normal. We can be more vulnerable to disease in this stage especially if our resources were depleted by an extended resistance stage.
Additional Terms from Textbook:
• Feel-good, do-good phenomenon – people’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood.
• Well-being – Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life.
• Adaptation-Level Phenomenon – our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, lights, income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience.
• Relative Deprivation – The perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves. (Happiness is relative not only to our past
experience but also to our comparisons with others.) “I cried because I had no shoes,” states a Persian saying, “until I met a man who had no feet.”
• Stress – The process by which we appraise and cope with environmental threats and challenges. Stress arises less from events themselves and more from how we appraise them.
• Behavioral Medicine – an interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease.
• Heath and Psychology – a subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine.
• Unified Mind and Body – Severe Stress can negatively impact your health. • Telomeres (shorter bits of DNA at the end of chromosomes) become shorter …
the cell can no longer divide and will then die. This process ages people. • Type A – Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving,
impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people
• Type B – Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people • Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) – the study of how psychological, neural, and
endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting heath. • Psychophysiological illness – literally “mind-body” illness; any stress-related
physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches
• Lymphocytes – the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system.
• B lymphocytes - form bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections
• T lymphocytes – form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances.
• Catharsis – emotional release. The catharsis hypothesis maintains that “releasing” energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.
Most Important Concepts and Terms: 1. Instinct
2. Drive Reduction theory
3. Primary and Secondary Drives 4. Arousal theory
5. Yerkes-Dodson Law 6. Incentive Theory
7. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
8. Lateral and Ventromedial Hypothalamus
9. Four Types of Conflict – Approach, Avoidance-Avoidance, Approach-Avoidance, and Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflicts
10. Three Theories of Emotion – James Lange, Cannon Bard, Two-Factor Theory 11. Facial Feedback Theory
