Gould (1982) - "A Nation of Morons"

method?

review study of the work of Yerkes and Boring

aims of Yerkes?

Working at Harvard Uni (1915) and as the President of the APA in 1916 and was frustrated that psychology was seen as a soft science

aimed to promote it and show its useful consequences

Believed if he could persuade the army to test recruits using IQ tests he would prove the purpose to psychometrics - tested 1.7m

Army Alpha test?

literate

8 parts including number sequences, anagrams, MCQs etc

if failed they were then given the Beta test

Gould’s comments on the Alpha test?

racist and ethnocentric

“many men who took the Alpha test scored either zero or next to nothing…because they were illiterate”

Army Beta test?

Drawings of familiar images such as faces, knives, animals, bowling alley etc that had parts missing that needed adding

Gould’s comments on the Beta test?

highly ethnocentric to 1915 Americans

aimed at upper middle class, white people

cultural bias

the Army individual test?

1 to 1 examination rather than in large exam hall

mazes, puzzles, spatial awareness etc - tested for skills not knowledge

Gould’s comments on the Individual test

Reports from Camp Dixie showed that only 1/5 of recruits that should have been given the individual test actually were

Tests weren’t reliably enforced/conducted

use of psychometric tests?

the scores were used to determine the rank which recruits entered at

those with less schooling would score low and therefore have a lower rank - there were often lower socioeconomic groups, black people etc

Yerkes’ test post-war?

he used then to promote psychology claiming it had influenced the outcome of the war by putting the “right men in the higher ranks”

lots of businesses, schools etc enquired about using the IQ tests leading to another 160,000 people tested (mostly by Boring)

Boring’s average mental age (AMA)?

White American = 13 years (moronic)

Immigrants:

Russians = 11.34 yrs

Italians = 11.01 yrs

‘Poles’ = 10.74 yrs

“Negro” = 10.41 yrs (said the darker the skin colour the lower the mental age)

Boring’s conclusions based on AMA?

“some races were inferior in knowledge”

Backed-up the eugenics movement

said that the decline in American intelligence was due to breeding with non-americans

long-term effects of Boring and Yerkes’ conclusions?

the eugenics movement lobbied the government and the Restriction Act was introduced in 1921 (tightened in 1924)

“Americans must be kept American” - Coolidge (President)

1924-39 an estimated 6 million refugees were unable to flee to America due to the act