• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Reification—construct treated as a concrete, tangible object.

Intelligence—aggregate or global capacity to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment.

Stanford-Binet intelligence test—constructed by Lewis Terman—was an individual IQ test with IQ calculated using ratio formula: Mental age/chronological age × 100. Now, IQ based on deviation from mean, for children and for adults. Five ability areas assessed both verbally and nonverbally.

Wechsler intelligence tests—Three age-based individual IQ tests: WPPSI (Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence), WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children), WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale); two scores—verbal and performance; difference between two helpful for identifying learning disabilities; deviation IQ score—100 mean/mode/median, 15 pt SD; good for extremes of gifted and mentally retarded or cognitively disabled.

Degrees of Mental Retardation:

• Mild—IQ 50–70; can self-care, hold job, may live independently, form social relationships.

• Moderate—IQ 35–49; may self-care, hold menial job, function in group home.

• Severe—IQ 20–34; limited language and limited self-care, lack social skills, require care.

• Profound—IQ under 20; require complete custodial care.

Factor analysis—a statistical procedure that identifies common factors among groups of items by determining which variables have a high degree of correlation.

Charles Spearman used factor analysis to identify g: general factor underlying all intelligence, also s: less important specialized abilities.

Thurstone’s primary mental abilities—seven distinct intelligence factors.

John Horn and Raymond Cattell identified two intelligence factors:

• Fluid intelligence—those cognitive abilities requiring speed or rapid learning that tend to diminish with adult aging.

• Crystallized intelligence—learned knowledge and skills, such as vocabulary, which tend to increase with age.

Multiple intelligences—Howard Gardner’s theory that people process information differently and intelligence is composed of many different factors, including at least eight intelligences: logical-mathematical, verbal-linguistic, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.

Emotional intelligence—Peter Salovey and John Mayer’s construct defined as the ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions; similar to Gardner’s interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences.

Triarchic theory of intelligence—Robert Sternberg’s idea of three separate and testable intelligences: analytical (facts), practical (“street smarts”), and creative (seeing multiple solutions).

Heredity/environment and intelligence:

Both nature and nurture contribute to intelligence.

Cultural-familial retardation—retardation attributed to sociocultural deprivation.

In twin studies, correlation of IQs of identical twins was much higher than fraternal twins or other siblings (favoring nature).

Flynn effect—steady increase in performance on IQ tests over the last 80 years, possibly resulting from better nutrition, educational opportunities, and health care (favoring nurture)

Human diversity:

Within-group differences—range of scores for variables being measured for a group of individuals.

Between-group differences—usually the difference between means of two groups of individuals for a common variable.

Stereotype threat—Claude Steele’s concept that anxiety influences achievement of members of a group concerned that their performance on a test will confirm a negative stereotype. This may account for lower scores of blacks on intelligence tests or girls on math tests.

CHAPTER 16

Abnormal Behavior

IN THIS CHAPTER

Summary: What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about psychology? Before you took a psychology course, it was probably mental health, especially abnormal behavior. Actually, 90% of what psychologists study is about normal behavior. As President of the American Psychological Association, Martin Seligman promoted