Reading Activity Week #9 (Due Monday)

1a) What did you find interesting?
Henry Goddard’s application of the Binet-Simon intelligence test.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Anything involving eugenics interests me. I do fear of giving off the impression of being an advocate for eugenics, but as the idea is interesting and possibly useful it is horribly unethical. However, we do practice eugenics, usually involving livestock. We breed animals like cattle and pork for size to get the maximum amount of meat. We breed dogs to have certain physical and temperamental characteristics. It would be interesting to breed humans for intelligence, athletic ability, or other desirable traits. Henry Goddard was of course interested in intelligence. He used this newly invented intelligence test to label and assess the “feebleminded”. His main concentration was finding this third level of the feebleminded he deemed morons. Goddard believed they appeared normal but were of inferior intelligence and responsible for a majority of societies ailments. They were responsible for accidents, crimes, and Goddard’s biggest fear, breeding. He used the Kallikak family as an example to prove that breeding inferior intelligence is detrimental to social development and that intelligence is hereditary, not environmental. Of course there were many problems with this research, but the Kallikak research is not what I am interested in. After testing thousands screening for morons, Goddard began applying the Binet-Simon test to immigrants. The European immigrant demographic underwent a major polarity switch from northern countries like Great Britain, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries to southern and eastern countries like Italy and Russia. Goddard found that a vast majority of these immigrants were feebleminded and many were sent away because of his test on Ellis Island. Like his Kallikak research, there were many problems with this test on immigrants. Even though they had interpreters, language barriers were still present. Many immigrants were already overwhelmed by the whole Ellis Island experience and stress adversely affects intelligence.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Lewis Terman studying gifted students
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Still possessing a slight eugenic twist, Terman studying gifted Californian students was determining how these children faired over they’re lifetime. He believed America should be ran by intelligent, capable Americans. While I think anyone would agree to this, Terman wanted to be able to indentify these people. This idea is described as meritocracy. Terman then began one of the most famous and extensive longitudinal studies in psychology’s history. Using the new Stanford-Binet intelligence test Terman screened thousands of students and selected nearly 1,500 to follow throughout his and some of their lives. One problem in longitudinal studies is attrition or participant dropout. At the conclusion of this study in the late 1980s over 90% of the participants responded. Terman’s study was taken over by one of his subjects who went onto study psychology thus fit for the role. Terman’s study found that intellectually gifted children were more successful, healthy, and adjusted than other members of society. One of a few flaws in this study is that whites and Jews from wealthy backgrounds were overrepresented, but this was not considered a problem to Terman because he believed intelligence was strictly hereditary.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Lillian Moller Gilbreth
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Lillian Gilbreth not only contributed to the infancy of industrial/organizational psychology, but she broke social barriers by having this job, being married, and mothering a dozen children. During the early 1900s women were hardly ever in professional positions. They were often rendered to the life of a housewife and mother. However Gilbreth balanced both of these worlds against social stigmas. In the shadow of Calkins, Gilbreth completed nearly all of the work of a PhD but was unable to complete her residency along with some other gender related difficulties. Gilbreth worked as a consultant to improve the efficiency of businesses; her pioneering of ergonomics stemmed from her critiquing of her husband’s bricklaying business.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Army intelligence testing
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
A majority of the things I find boring are things I have already learned. The same thing applies to this subject. When I took Clinical Psychology we learned a lot about the evolution of intelligence testing, but learning more about how children were tested versus soldiers was way more interesting. Also, after reading the pages of an already long chapter just to find out that the army almost unanimously thought the testing to be useless was very frustrating to read.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
The studies presented in this chapter really start to look like modern studies. I think the most important thing is to see what some of the limitations these studies had, even though the psychologists running them were unaware or unconcerned with them. If Terman, a very smart man, did not think that over representing whites in his study was a poor decision, what are we overlooking in our studies today?
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Once again Leipzig and Wundt popped up, but there was more than that in this chapter. Eugenics came up as intelligence testing emerged and proliferated throughout America. Eugenics fueled the wide spread use of intelligence testing. And if the idea of eugenics was not around in the first place would intelligence testing been invented in the first place?
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Early I/O psychology
7b) Why?
I never really cared for I/O and applied psychology but it was fun to read about some of the clever studies created by Munsterburg and others.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I know that some contemporaries during the emergence of intelligence testing did not agree with the means it was being used. Did anyone try to apply this differently? I’m not sure how but I figure someone could use intelligence testing without eugenics in mind.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

Eugenics, Henry Goddard, Binet-Simon Intelligence Test, Moron, Kallikak, Lewis Terman, Meritocracy, Standford-Binet Intelligence Test, Attrition, Lillian Gilbreth, ergonomics,

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found the section about how psychology has helped business improve. I mainly found this interesting because I am a business major and a minor in psychology. I do believe psychology is useful in business because you are constantly in contact with different people daily and for some fields of business such as human resources it is a huge help in understanding how the mind works and why people may behave the way they do.
2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Hugo Munsterberg was interesting to me because he was the founder of forensic psychology. I have always been fascinated with forensics because it keeps you on your toes. I love watching television shows that deal with forensic psychology. Being able to relate my everyday life to this section of the chapter made it that much more interesting. Munsterberg wrote “Psychology and Industrial Efficiency.” I found this to be interesting because it talks about different psychological ways to select the right employee for hire.
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
The section that talked about other industrial psychologists interested me because of the different ways they came up with to improve the business world. It talked about different types of training that could be offered for employees in sales and retailing. Walter Van Dyke Bingham contributed to this quite a bit. Its main focus was to make the workplace more efficient.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I did not find the section about mental testing to be to interesting. It is an interesting topic, but I related more to the business part of psychology. Since I could relate more to business than to mental testing, it intrigued me enough to start researching my topical blog for the week.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think learning about how psychology has improved certain career fields or how it has contributed to career fields is important. It gives you an idea about how important psychology is to every day life. If Hugo Munterberg had not come up with forensic psychology, there may not be a huge career field if any at all for criminology or forensics.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Previous psychologists were mentioned in this chapter. Eugenics was mentioned in this chapter as well. It dealt a lot with intelligence testing and how it spread through America.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 
7b) Why?
I would like to learn more about how psychology benefits business. I would also like to learn more about how psychology contributes to other career fields. I would also like to learn more about forensic psychology. It is a very interesting topic.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I thought about the different television shows that I watch. I thought about how psychology plays a huge role for those shows because a majority of what I watch on television are Law and Order, Criminal Minds etc. I also thought about how psychology affects my major. I am a human resource management major and psychology plays a huge role in hiring employees and training them.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Hugo Munsterberg, forensic psychology, Walter Van Dyke Bingham, mental testing, eugenics

J.P.

1.I thought that the section on Alfred Binet was interesting. More specifically, I thought that his study on mental fatigue of the 5-hour school day affected children was cool to learn. It made me think of elementary school and having three recesses. I could not imagine what the school day would have been like if I didn’t get a break. I probably would not have been able to sit still that long as I was a very active and always moving around as a child.
2. Another section that I found interesting was the close-up section on Leta Hollingworth. I thought her story was cool that she wrote the first textbook for gifted children. I think her approach to put gifted children in an enriched environment while at the same time, give them a curriculum that was taught to everyone else was neat. Growing up, I remember the smarter kids of the class would leave and go to a special program for part of the day but then come back toward the end of the day. Also, I enjoyed that Hollingworth was determined to show that women were just as capable as men and went out to study sex differences in various things.
3. The third section I found interesting was about Walter Dill Scott. He was the first to apply psychology in business and had a career in industrial psychology. This was cool for me to read about as one of my main interests in psychology is in industrial and organizational psychology. Who would have thought that a book on the psychology of advertising would lead into a whole new path of psychology?
4. One section that I didn’t find very interesting was Cattell and his coefficient of correlation. It ended up that his correlations of mental testing didn’t even relate to academic performance and the section goes onto more information about statistics, which to me is not interesting at all.
5. I think that the application of psychology to business will be most important in my understanding of the history of psychology. I think it is relevant since applying psychology in the business was more recent that other branches of psychology. I also think that the field of Industrial/ Organizational psychology has come a long way and will continue to grow as a field since it is so relevant to everyday life of most people.
6. This chapter builds off of the previous one on functionalism and really expanding psychology into other fields and applying the new psychology in school as Dewey was doing, and from there, psychologists were differentiating people’s mental abilities with IQ testing and eventually applied psychology into the business setting.
7. I would like to learn more about the field of ergonomics. I thought the section on Lillian Gilbreth was interesting and her impact of being one of the pioneers of ergonomics- who would have thought that it was because of this woman that so many elements of the modern kitchen such as pop-up trash cans were invented. I never realized that there was a whole field out there that studies of how systems and products can be made efficient for human use.
8. While reading about how psychology had been expanding so much this chapter, it made me wonder if other and/or what other fields of science were being explored? I wondered if it was because of psychology or at least when did people realize that children and teachers needed breaks/ recesses? I thought it was completely eye opening how doctors would define people as idiot, imbecile, and debile based on their intelligence and the concept of moron was brought up after that as well. Also, I thought it was interesting to see how mental testing came to be brought up at Ellis Island and in the army. It made me wonder what it would be like for me to go to the immigration process now into America.
9. Alfred Binet, Leta Hollingworth, Walter Dill Scott, Industrial Psychology, The psychology of advertising, Cattell and his coefficient of correlation, Functionalism, Dewey, IQ testing, Ergonomics, and Lillian Gilbreth.

1a) What did you find interesting?

Goddard and the Immigrants
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found this section so interesting because America is a country of immigrants and I thought that it was interesting to learn the processes that immigrants had to go through to get into America. It is interesting to think about the benefits and issues involved with the testing process of the Binet tests.
2a) What did you find interesting?

The Kallikaks
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found the idea of looking into Deborah’s family line interesting. The idea that intelligence or “feeblemindedness” is hereditary has always been an interesting thought to me. Goddard looked into two sides of Deborah’s family line to see if there were a pattern. Even though his study was incredibly flawed I still thought that it was interesting to read about.
3a) What did you find interesting?

Terman’s studies on the gifted
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
In past chapters of the book there have been similarities in the topics. Most studies were focused on individuals who were viewed as being lesser because of their mental capacity. Here we get to learn about the other side of the spectrum and I just enjoyed the change of pace and topic.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
The section discussing testing of the army.

4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I’m not certain why I did not like this section, I just found it kind of boring and I did not have much interest in it. I think it is primarily because I don’t have any interest in the army.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that the most useful thing learned in this chapter is to do with the Binet-Simon scales. They were used throughout the chapter so I could not help but get the idea that they were important.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters? It builds on because some of these topics have been discussed in previous chapters, such as IQ.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
The Kallikaks

7b) Why?
I found this section to be most interesting and it was the easiest to read for me. Even though I did like all the sections to do with Henry Goddard.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
The one thing that kept jumping out at me was Intelligence, in previous chapters the idea of intelligence and IQ has been brought up multiple times so I found myself frequently thinking about that.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Goddard, Binet test, Terman, Kallikaks

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?

I found the work of James Cattell to be interesting. Here we have a man who studied the effects of drugs on behavior and consciousness. Using himself as a guinea pig he took “perhaps the largest doses ever taken without suicidal intent.” of caffeine, morphine, hashish and opium. One has to question how stable this man is. Cattell studied under many famous people including William Wundt and corresponded with Galton. Cattell went to Columbia University and headed up their psychology department. He believed that tests that he had developed could prove a correlation between reaction time and the intelligence of a given student. Enlisting the help of a math student, Cattell discovered there was little if any correlation. This is important because even though he found no correlation, it was eventually studied by others who found a slightly stronger correlation. It shows that Cattell was onto something and inspired others to test it.

2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?

I found the beliefs of Alfred Binet to be interesting. Binet was what I would call the founder of intelligence testing. He developed a test for children that would determine what type of school classroom they would be put in; normal or special education. He did not believe that intelligence was a fixed and unchangeable trait. He believed it to be multifaceted and composed of a variety of skills. His tests were meant just for children, to place them in the correct educational level and to give them the best chance to succeed. They were not labeled for life but could improve and eventually get to the so called “normal” classroom. This is important because Binet never intended the IQ test to be the end-all of showing how intelligent a person is. It is just one measure of many that can be used.

3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?

In comes Henry Goddard to put his spin on Binet’s work. Goddard used Binet’s concept of mental age and developed his own scale. Those who score a mental age of 1 to 2 were idiots, 3 to 7 are imbeciles and Goddard proposed a name change of those people who possess a mental age between 8 to 12: morons. His Kallikaks Study was the onset of sterilization of the feebleminded in America. Then he went to Ellis Island and decided with the help of the Binet tests who was fit to come to America and who was not. By the end of his life, Goddard believed that intelligence wasn’t something that was fixed but that a person could improve it. Too bad the damage of his earlier beliefs was already done.

4a) What didn’t you find interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?

I found Robert Yerkes Army testing program to be uninteresting. Uninteresting is not the right word; highly ineffective would be better. First, I don’t see how these tests can determine those unfit for service or those who possess special skills. Yerkes himself said he didn’t want to do it so I wonder how much effort he put into his work. Second, if ler reliable for this reason alone. Lastly, many in the Army did not support this program, thus did not implement the test correctly.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?

The beginning of the intelligence tests I believe will be helpful in studying psychology. I think for all their flaws, there is a purpose and use for intelligence tests. Just as a way to determine if a person has the basic educational background to perform and succeed at a job is important. In teaching we have to take the Praxis tests. This will test our knowledge for the subject we want to teach. This is a positive thing to me to make sure our future teachers have the tools needed to succeed.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?

This chapter related to the whole eugenics movement of prior chapters. With the development of the I.Q. test, it gives the eugenic movement ammunition to decide who can and who cannot produce offspring. In a country that has its fair share of black eyes, this is one of the blackest in my opinion. This led to Hitlerisque atrocities in America that could have been avoided if some of these eugenics supporters would have taken their own I.Q. tests.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?

I would like to know more about Alfred Binet and his mental level system. Even though Binet put the eugenic wheels in motion, he believed that intelligence was not fixed and that the feebleminded could learn and become better people. I wonder what impact Binet would have had on the eugenics movement had he lived longer.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I keep going back to eugenics and how the scientists in this chapter keep feeding the beast. It is disturbing to see what is going on and knowing what the outcome is going to be. It’s like watching a horror movie, knowing something bad is going to happen and not being able to do anything about it. Why anyone would think they have the right to decide who reproduces and who doesn’t is playing God and is unacceptable.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
• James Cattell
• Alfred Binet
• Henry Goddard
• Robert Yerkes
• Mental level
• Mental age
• The Kallikaks
• Intelligence tests
• Eugenics

1a) What did you find interesting?
- Individual Psychology: Label used by both Binet and Adler; for Binet, psychology should focus on ways of identifying and measuring individual difference (e.g. mental testing) rather than on general laws; for Adler, individual psychology was his version of psychoanalysis, which emphasized social factors in the development of the individual.

1b) Why was it interesting to you?
- I think this shows that psychology differs based on the individual. It is comforting to see that within the field you can have your own interpretations of how psychology should be used, pursued, and studied. Binet and Adler both had different ideas of how to use psychology; and both contributed a great deal to the field. I understand that many concepts within psychology are set in stone (as they should be) but its nice to know that my ideas, and views, can impact how I feel about the field.

2a) What did you find interesting?
- Mental Age: Mistranslation of Binet's mental level; indicated a child's level of mental ability, reported in terms of years.

2b) Why was it interesting to you?
- I found it interesting that this mistranslation was widely known and associated with Binet; and nobody thought to make sure it was right. I also find it interesting that you would use age to show mental ability. Why couldn't an exceedingly bright eight year old be at the same intellectual level as average ten year twelve year old? I think it is slightly superficial.

3a) What did you find interesting?
- Meritocracy: A model of society based on the ida that the most mentally competent should be the leaders; championed by most American mental testers, especially by Terman.

3b) Why was it interesting to you?
- I think that this is the way that society should be run; however, I do not think that an IQ test should be able to afford you a specific place in government. I can defiantly see how this would be considered elitist, and wrong; but If someone else is making decisions for me I want them to be able to understand it. Unfortunately I don't see this as practical because people of higher intelligence typically like to avoid politics if at all possible.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
- Moron: Term invented by Goddard as a label for adolescents or adults scoring at a mental age of eight through twelve.

4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
- This has already been covered, and while it was interesting to get some more background information.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
- Attrition: Methodological problem in longitudinal research, where participants drop out of the study; notably low in Terman's longitudinal study of giftedness.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
- This chapter builds on the previous in a sequence. Progressing in age, or time period.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
-Nativism: someone who argues for the existence of innate ideas or, more generally, believes that some knowledge, faculties, or abilities are innate.

7b) Why?
- I'm just interested in the idea of innate knowledge. I know that this is more of a philosophical field. I once had a friend tell me that language was innate.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
- I thought about Goddard working at Ellis Island, and standardized tests, and my grand point average. I believe these all relate to the readings because they are based in mental ability, testing, and learning.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
- Goddard, Nativism, Attrition, Moron, Meritocracy, Mental Age, Individual Psychology, Binet, Terman.

1a) what did you find interesting?
James McKeen Cattell and mental testing

1b) why was it interesting to you?
I found James McKeen Cattell interesting for several reasons. I found it interesting that Cattell became enthused in mental testing and the study of individuals through Galton’s work. Galton’s believed that mental abilities were inherited. I also found it interesting that Cattell’s fellowship was not renewed at John Hopkins; instead it was given to John Dewey. I found this interesting because I wrote about John Dewey last week for my topical blog. After being denied at John Hopkins, Cattell returned to Europe and completed his doctorate degree. He also continued his reaction-time research. Cattell decided to go to England were he become introduced to Galton’s anthropometric testing. This changed his life forever. Cattell quickly established a laboratory and continued to pursue his reaction-time studies. He completed his results from testing 10 Penn students. This later led him to call his research “Mental Tests and Measurements”. Mental testing is defined as any test designed to measure mental activity or ability. Cattell came up with 10 different mental tests. The test I found the most interesting was “pressure causing pain”. This involved a narrow tip of hard rubber being pressed into the forehead until pain was reported. These mental tests relied on physical measurements and results from the simple sensory.

2a) What did you find interesting?
Alfred Binet: The Birth of Modern Intelligence Testing.

2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found this interesting because Binet took the same approach to educational dilemma as Ebbinghaus. Ebbinghaus developed the completion test which was a way to assess the effects of mental fatigue in children. Ebbinghaus questioned the connection between skin sensitivity and school performance. The measurements needed to come from cognitive activities. However Ebbinghaus didn’t have interest to develop his testing farther. Binet soon took this same approach and noticed some children lacked the ability to succeed in normal classes. This took place in Paris schools, who find it difficult to identify these children that lacked ability. Binet made observations in the mid-1880s but was forced to take back his hypothesis on this issue. I also found Binet interesting because he made observations of his two daughters. Binet become extremely interested in learning about individuals differences after observing his draughts. During this research and observations Individual psychology became defined. Later on children “limited capacity” was divided into three definitions (idiot, debiles, imbecile).

3a) What did you find interesting?
Robert M. Yerkes: The Army Testing Program

3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found this interesting because Yerkes became famous over something he didn’t necessarily want to do. Yerkes was more interested in comparative psychology and had a love for animals. However he left pressured to get involved more with the “human side”. Yerkes wasn’t very successful until attending a meeting at Harvard. This took place when the U.S. declared war on Germany. The group attending the meeting wanted to discuss how psychology might help “the war effort”. Yerkes felt the need to take charge over this issue, even though he wasn’t interested in it. He was able to demonstrate “superb organizational skills and persuasive skills”. This allows him to convince the Army that psychological testing could help war effort. Yerkes was able to prepare several mental tests. He wanted these tests to identify those with special skills which would allow them to be placed where they deserved.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
In Perspective: Applied Psychology

4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I did not find this interesting because it instantly made me think about my applied psychology class. I already knew what applied psychology was. This section was towards the end of the chapter and was pretty dull. It discusses how applied psychology occurs outside the laboratory and is focused towards “real-world” problems. It discussed how certain psychologist felt about applied psychology. Also discussed something about the effects of caffeine on performance? I think it could have been more interesting if it discusses different examples about applied psychology?

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
This chapter discusses the “New Psychology” in America and how to put it to good use. This chapter really allows you to understand individuals were pressured to show their results and theories through equipped laboratories. It also showed the significance towards technology. This chapter also helps you realize how long it took individuals to study their hypothesis. It was more difficult for them to conclude their results.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter builds on from the previous chapters because it discusses how psychology is start to develop and be put to “good use” Last chapter discusses how “new psychology” has been introduced to America. Now this chapter explains how technology and laboratories is benefiting towards psychology. Also individuals from previous chapters are always brought up in current chapters. This is an ongoing process. Individuals are either working together or becoming interested in the same topics.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Army testing program and Cattell’s mental test

7b) Why?
I am interested in learning more about the Army testing program. I just found this whole section interesting because Yerkes wasn’t even interested in it. However he was still able to create tests that allowed individuals to show their special skills. I would like to know more about the tests. I think it would be interesting to know some examples of the tests. Also I am interested in learning more about Cattell’s mental tests. Cattell relied more on the physical measurements. I would like to know more about the ten tests. There were ten students who participated, what were they thinking while taking these tests? Also I was more interested in the “pressure causing pain” because it focusing on pain towards the forehead.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?

Most of my thoughts and questions were directed towards all the laboratory experiments. How did these individuals decide on all the tests? How did they know how many tests to observe? Also I was interested in knowing why Cattell focused on causing pain towards the forehead? What was so special about the forehead?

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post

James McKeen Cattell, mental test, Francis Galton, John Dewey, mental test, Alfred Binet, Herman Ebbinghaus, individual psychology, Robert Yerkes, comparative psychology, and applied psychology

1a) What did you find interesting?

I found some of the events of James Cattell’s life interesting.

1b) Why was it interesting to you?

His works seemed to be based on a strong desire to make Galton proud. He held Galton in such high esteem and in this chapter in mentions more than just a few times how strongly he felt about Galton’s contributions, especially as it concerns mental testing. While Cattell was the one to coin the term ‘mental test’ according to the chapter, we know he was not the first one to study this type of psychology. He was a firm believer in testing something in every possible way in order to come up with the most accurate findings.

2a) What did you find interesting?

I found Cattell’s study of drugs on personal behavior to be interesting.

2b) Why was it interesting to you?

This part of the chapter made me laugh because let’s just be honest. How many teachers here at UNI would admit to taking mind altering substances in pursuit of “learning how the influence one’s behaviors”? On the other hand, I think it’s awesome that someone as scholarly as Cattell would take the risk that is potentially involved with these substances in order to see if there were any benefits. The text mentions that he took very strong doses and it seems that he may have really enjoyed this part of his scientific studies. Maybe if more psychologists, researchers, and scientists were into doing experiments and research on themselves like Cattell did, medical marijuana would be legal right now and we wouldn’t have the government still propagating an ideology that pot is bad for you. There is always something to be learned from history.

3a) What did you find interesting?

I found the history behind the Binet-Simon scales to be interesting in this chapter.

3b) Why was it interesting to you?

The way Binet first started studying individual differences was slightly appalling to me. The terms and concepts used to define those individuals with mental deficits definitely shows that coarse nature of our society at that time. However, he was trying to help individuals with mental differences and believed that a set of mental orthopedics that he had developed could assist these children increase their mental functioning. It is surprising to me that Binet’s scale though under a new name, later became one of the most well-known IQ tests even by today’s standards.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least
interesting?

I found the section describing IQ testing for the military during World War I to be least interesting.

4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?

While I respect the military and those who serve, it is really hard for me to find much interest in the subject of war or anything to do with military operations. One thing that stood out to me while reading this section was how Yerkes had to develop two forms of his test. The Army Alpha test for those who could read and write. The Army Beta test for those who could not. This just pointed out another reason why I am not interested in military operations. Why enroll people in your military that are illiterate? I firmly believe that a lack of education and the willingness to adapt to the changing of culture is a major reason for wars in the first place.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?

I think the study of how the Binet-Simon scales, that later was revised by Goddard and renamed the Stanford-Binet test, was the part from chapter 8 that will be the most useful information to take away for this class. The reason I feel this way is because it opened a new way for researchers to figure out peoples individual mental functioning without doing some invasive procedure. Also, it created a standardized way to measure mental functioning on a large scale.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?

It builds off the fundamental elements of psychology that previous chapters have introduced. Even people like Galton who have been previously talked about in the book came up again as their findings were challenged, improved upon, and tested by others. Also, the chapter built off of previous ideas in the sense that it is following the progression of psychology as it came into America and began to transform the way we as a country began to view this method of studying behavior.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?

I would like to study more on Gilbreth and her study of ergonomics.

7b) Why?

I feel that often times when studying different ideas and topics in psychology we often forget the underlining reasons why we study them in the first place. Gilbreth put real-life implications into the study of ergonomics that ultimately improved humanity in many different ways. To study more on her contributions would be neat as it points to the idea of researching to better society.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?

The main thoughts I had were on the Binet-Simon scale and the Army Alpha and Army Beta IQ tests. I wondered if the methods used in conducting these mental functioning tests would be allowed in our present-day standards of ethical issues in the psychology field. If not, I was just rolling the idea over in my head of how we would conduct such tests in a manner that would not discriminate based the level of mental functioning of the individuals being tested.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

Terms: mental test, James Cattell, Binet-Simon scales, individual differences, mental deficits, mental orthopedics, ergonomics, Army Alpha, Army Beta.

1) What did you find interesting? Why?
I found the different applications of psychology interesting. It was nice to see how psychology could be applied to so many more areas in life other than sitting on a couch asking someone, “Tell me about your day.” I think it’s helpful to understand before graduation. I find it relieving to know that there are psychology based careers in almost everything.

2) What did you find interesting? Why?
The second thing I found interesting was Yerkes development of mental tests in the army. I thought it was interesting to read and see the differences between the army alpha and army beta tests. I think the thing I found the most interesting about the two tests were how they were administered by psychologists. “Soldiers given Army Alpha were told at the outset that the purpose of the test was to see how well you can remember, think, and carry out what you are told to do.” Meanwhile, the soldiers who had to take the Army Beta test were given the paper, told to read the directions, and told not to ask any questions. I find it humorous that the reason for the two individual tests was for those who were literate (Alpha) and those who were not (Beta). Despite not knowing how to read/write, doctors still told them to “read the directions.” It seemed from the very beginning, psychologists were looking down upon those with a lesser status (i.e. helping those taking Army Alpha and being harsh to those taking Army Beta).

3) What did you find interesting? Why?
The final thing I found interesting to read about was Walter Lippmann’s views on mental testing. “[He] was outraged at the possibility that testing could forever doom a child who had happened not to perform well for one 50-minute segment of his or her life.” I don’t believe in IQ tests, simply because I feel it doesn’t measure someone’s true potential. I also feel if we relied strictly on mental tests alone, we would be limiting people’s abilities on so many things. I was glad to see a psychologist during this time, stand up for his beliefs. I find it very encouraging to read about how not every psychologists agreed on every “new” advance in the field.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Why?
I found the section about the application of psychology to business, very dry. I do not find business related topics very interesting. I did think it was fascinating to think of all the topics psychology is integrated into (including business), but I didn’t enjoy reading about the application of it within business. I find experimental psychology more interesting.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think it was important to learn about how Munsterberg did not report everything within his study of the motormen (driving operators of the trolleys) vs. the Harvard students. I think this was important to learn from for the future so we don’t make the same mistakes in our own studies. I think this allows us to create better studies to move science forward.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Previous chapters have discussed how experimental psychology has evolved over time. This chapter goes discusses an additional way to collect data: administering tests. This is a great in depth text that beautifully illustrates how psychology has shifted its focus from just laboratory testing.

7) What topic would you like to learn more about? Why?
I would like to learn more about the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests. I thought they were fascinating to read about. I think knowing more about these two tests would help me further understand the testing that we administer in the military today. I think it would also be helpful in knowing a little of how psychology has had an impact on the military in our history. This would be helpful in the possibility of pursuing a career in counseling within the military.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I thought about how lucky I am to be born at the time that I was. I also thought about how many of my relatives may have taken mental tests like those of Binet, Simon, and Goddard. I would also like to have seen how their results turned out. I think it would also be interesting to take one of the tests and see how I would have scored according to their standards. I think that it would be the best way to fully understand the tests people were subjected to.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Application of psychology, Yerkes, mental tests, Army Alpha, Army Beta, Lippmann, IQ tests, Munsterberg, Binet, Simon, Goddard, experimental psychology

Chapter 8

1) What did you find interesting? Why?
I found that Henry Goddard using the Binet test in America interesting. I didn’t so much as find the fact he was using an intelligence test interesting as much as I found that the use of the test to be interesting. When I was reading I feel as in Binet used it to try and help students who needed help, more of a positive eugenics idea. Whereas Goddard seemed to be using the test to determine feeblemindedness, this at first may have had positive roots or Goddard may have thought he was doing a positive act at the time but as we know now that soon turned into negative eugenics when they started turning people away at Ellis Island and sterilizing people. So the uses of the two psychologist of the single test were different in vast ways.

2) What did you find interesting? Why?
Robert Yerkes used mental test to help sort out recruits into the army during WWI to be cool. I only found this cool because he used his test and placed each recruit into one of two categories: Army Alpha (literate soldiers) or Army Beta (illiterate soldiers). This is something that in a way I dealt with first hand. I am in the Air Force and when I went to join I was required to take what is called the ASVAB or Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. The ASVAB is just a newer more detailed form of what Yerkes was doing in testing and placing military members.

3) What did you find interesting? Why?
Walter Van Dyke Bingham and his divisions work at Carnegie to be interesting. He worked to develop programs to help businesses better train employees in retail to perform their jobs. This was of interest to me because I worked at Best Buy for five years and I never thought about our different training meetings as related to applied psychology. I can recall a number of Saturday morning meetings where I would watch videos and then break into departments to partake in training that would be set forth to do from corporate. As well as these meetings we would have to do training videos on the computer at different times to stay qualified on some things, so before really knowing about it I was exposed to Bingham’s ideas in a way on training employees.

4) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Why?
Although I found this chapter overall pretty interesting I did not find the reading very good. I liked the topics but as a history book can so easily do it was presented in a very dry manner. The good thing is that I am very interested in the history of eugenics and this is a major time for that so the chapter overall keep me somewhat interested despite the dry read.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think that the understanding of mental test in general is helpful to the understanding of the history of psychology because we have seen major movements in eugenics with the use of mental test at the forefront in determining who was “fit and unfit”. In particular I think that realizing how Goddard used mental test to perform his works leading to in some ways the start of eugenics in America is impactful to us all as Americans.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter builds on pervious chapters in we see the ideas of intelligence testing reemerge and the names Leipzig and Wundt come back into play. I found that the issues of intelligence and the history surrounding them are very important to psychology and that now being able to understand how they originated is useful.

7) What topic would you like to learn more about? Why?
I would like to learn more about Robert Yerkes and his work with the military, I know he was allowed something never seen before in the social sciences in being allowed access to military personal in a more personal way. I would like to know about how he was able to receive the access that he was allowed and how his version of mental testing and sorting impacted what I personally had to take. As well I would like to learn about his impact on military psychology as a field.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I was thinking while reading this chapter about the eugenics movement and how we basically saw social Darwinism come into play in deeming some people more “fit” then others. What would Darwin himself say about this use of his ideas? He was more of a proponent of viewing social evolution as the fit become stronger not so much as the fit have the right to reproduce and the unfit should be prohibited in some actions.

9) Terminology: Henry Goddard, intelligence test, eugenics, Robert Yerkes, Walter Van Dyke Bingham, Leipzig, Wundt

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?

I found E. W. Scripture’s idea of what is now called sport psychology and his book that he published Thinking, Feeling, Doing quite interesting just because I never knew there was a field dedicated to understanding the reaction times of athletes and that there was actually research done with these reaction times. This popped the question into my mind about either changing my major at some point or even just going back and getting a second degree in the area of sports psychology. The book that he published, I’m sure, did a pretty good job at explaining some of these grey areas that I have about this idea.

2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?

The Binet - Simon scale was pretty interesting to read about. I have heard about mental levels before that Binet came up with about school children scoring in a percentile and what their age is compared to where they are actually scoring in school. It states on page 246 that Binet’s scale was only useful when trying to identify the weak students in school but yet he would have been disturbed at how the concept of the IQ test would show intelligence.
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?

Feebleminded was a word to describe the entire spectrum of mental retardation. I did not think they had such a word to describe someone with less knowledge. This word was also used to describe young children at the time which kind of struck me as interesting due to the face that children do not yet have the mental capacity of an adult with a lot of knowledge, so I understand why they would use such as term.
Along with the world feebleminded, moron was also a world that came up in this chapter. I believe we have talked about the word moron in a previous chapter. Henry Goddard came up with this word that was to describe those people with the mental ages between 8 and 12. This also came across as interesting because it has such a negative connotation, why would we want to use it towards children. To believe so much has changed behind the meaning of these words from back then to now is quite interesting.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?

When I was reading about the mental testing that Cattell did with Galton in Europe I thought it would be more than what I read about. I thought the section would go a little bit deeper into thought about the idea of testing ones mental capacity rather than state a lot about James Cattell’s life. The section mentioned a little bit about the testing but it seemed to focus more on Cattell’s life and it seemed too much like a story book to me.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?

I believe that the study done on the Kallikak family would help me understand more about the history of psychology and where the field has gone since that study. Even though the study was done so long ago, we can gain a lot of information from it and from this we can understand some of the history and how far psychology has come along. That is why I think the study of the Kallikak family is important for me to understand the history of psychology.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?

This chapter, just like every other chapter relates and builds on the previous chapters by bringing up the previous psychologists who have made a huge impact on the field of psychology. It seems like the idea of intelligence has been brought up quite a bit throughout the first eight chapters of the book. I believe that psychologists have an eye for the whole smarts thing and what they can do to better themselves in this area. That is just a large thought.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?

I would love to learn more about applying the idea of psychology to businesses and how Munsterberg used psychology to do employee selection. It seems like a great idea, putting workers together by their mental abilities and what they have in common, but in the end it might not work out so well due to the fact that the people could collide and their personalities could become a huge conflict; but this seems like a great topic to do further research on just because it seems like we know little about this idea.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?

While reading chapter 8 I had a thought of changing my major or even going back in the later years and earning a second degree in sport psychology after reading the beginning paragraphs of the chapter. It seems like I could be more interested in that then I would Criminology.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

James Cattell, Frances Galton, Mental Testing, Sport Psychology, Binet - Simon scale, Mental Test, Kallikak Family, Moron, Feeble minded, Henry Goddard, Munsterberg, Employee Selection

1a) What did you find interesting?
James McKeen Cattell

1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought that this section was interesting because in one of the previous chapters, it had discussed Galton and I also found him interesting. What I liked is that Cattell had look up so much to Galton. An intriguing thing was that Cattell was delegated as a Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, which at the time most of the psychologists were put with professors of Philosophy. While at the University, he had set up a lab to continue his testing for reaction-time. He wanted to bring Galton’s ideas to America in testing. During an article Cattell created the term, ‘mental tests.’ This was just the stepping stone for IQ testing and what it would become.
2a) What did you find interesting?
Alfred Binet and his mental tests.

2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought that this section was interesting because he took other mental tests and used them on his own children. I was also intrigued by what compulsory education was and its impact on schooling. Basically, it is a period of time that all students must have an education. There were some that did not do well with the testing so those children were put into special education classes. This is where Binet came into play and how to help those children. Binet had used one of Galton’s sensory tests on his own daughters to see what was different in children and in adults. The results were someone surprising to him that his daughters and adults didn’t have much a differentiation between them. The only time that it seemed that the adults scored higher was on that of when they had to do more mental processing and that went above what a child could do. An important term that Binet and his assistant, Victor Henri, came up with was that of Individual Psychology. That is the difference from one person to the next. After testing, the first intelligence test was made and then the score would be known as mental level.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Robert Yerkes and his Army Alpha/ Beta testing.

3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found this section especially interesting because Yerkes was using the Army as a large group for his testing. At the time, there was not a system of what position would be best for each recruiter. Yerkes hope was that there would be a test so that they Army could suit all of the talent coming in. During the time, the testing that they had was very rough. First, there were so many recruiters and they were still using the Binet testing, which meant that the tests were being done one by one. Second, the Binet testing was not for those who had not had very much schooling. Yerkes then developed a test. Nearly 30% of the men that were coming into the Army were illiterate, so to suit all of these men, Yerkes created two tests. The first being the Army Alpha, which was for the men that could read and write. The other was for those that could not read and write which became known as the Army Beta Test. This testing made a ground for the ever growing world of psychology. I thought that the quote that was put in the book was perfect in this section. It said, “ While testing may not have been made significant contribution to the war, the had made a significant contribution to testing and as a by-product to psychology in general.”
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
There was so much mental, intelligence, and other testing that it became hard to keep everything intact. I had to keep jumping back and forth to make sure that I was on the right section or go back to read because I didn’t want to confuse the ideas with other ones.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
The world of psychology seems to always be related to something of the past. For example, Cattell was relating back to the findings of Galton. He looked up to Galton and his ideas.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter builds on a lot of the previous chapters. It touched base on a lot of ideas that we had already read about. This is a nice review in that we get to read new material but still are getting a review of what we had previously talked about.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
The section on Lillian Gilbreth was very interesting. She wanted to help others and was a leader in the world of Ergonomics. I would like to know more on it and what she would have thought with how much the world has evolved to help those that are not fully capable psychically of doing so.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I thought what would happen if these tests had never been created. Would someone else have come up with them or would we just not know?
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
• James McKeen Cattell
• Mental Tests
• Francis Galton
• Alfred Binet
• Individual Psychology
• Victor Henri
• Mental Level
• Robert Yerkes
• Army Alpha
• Army Beta
• Lillian Gilbreth
• Ergonomics

1a) The Controversy Over Intelligence

1b) I enjoyed the entire segment on the controversy over intelligence. Those who implore that genetics has the biggest say in overall IQ is wrong use a not so fictitious reality. What I mean is the argument of when hereditary IQ decides social class, meritocracy, all hope for humanity will be lost. All because some igit' decided tests could deem where you belong in society.

2a) Leta Hollingworth

2b) The small segment on Leta Hollingworth interested me because of the strides she took in women rights. Do not mind my anachronism for a moment, but I can just picture Leta Googling women intelligence research and become the first person to ever get a "sorry we could not find anything on 'women intelligence research' did you mean 'women are inferior?'" from Google. All it took was one women to look into it, and centuries of work by men where shattered when "truth" was discovered by scientific studies on women IQ. That is why I liked her!

3a) Goddard and the Immigrants

3b) I found what Goddard did on Ellis Island to be interesting because he is a man of his time. Why wouldn't a psychologist studying intelligence come up with an idea that would prevent the "weak" immigrants coming to America. A country that is, once again, struggling to accept a new generation of immigrants. I also found it interesting because of the clear distinctions made of Northern Europeans and Southern Europeans.

4a) Psychology in Business

4b) Business just doesn't excit me...ever. The title itself set me up for failure. Granted business is what makes America run...I'm just not interested...sorry President Calvin Coolidge.

5) I think the core debate between nature versus nurture is a very important piece to pull from this. Although only mentioned toward the end, it has been seeping through the entire chapter. As a man that wants to get his Masters in Sociology, I happen to like the fact sociology is mentioned as a supporter of environmental influences. Why do I think nature versus nurture is important to understanding this history? Because I feel it is a turning point in psychology's direction. From hereditary to behaviorism/environmental. It is the spark that eventually ignites the behaviorist era!

6) This chapter builds off of the chapter relating to minority's and women's rights/ opportunities in psychology. Leta Hollingworth is a prime example of women beginning to be noticed in the political sphere.

7a) I would like to learn more about the IQ
development.

7b) It would be rather interesting to see how the IQ tests have developed over the years and what they look like today. I see them on many internet ads all the time, what IQ tests are out there? What is their history of development?

8) I really want to find the test Goddard gave to the immigrants at Ellis Island. I want to find it and take it myself. I also want to compare it to the tests Immigrants have to take today in order to gain citizenship? Will they have similarities in their level of difficulty?

9)meritocracy, Goddard, Leta, Igit (a form of the word idiot)

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Chapter 8 had a lot of interesting topics for me, so it was difficult to pick just three to talk about. The first one that I found most interesting to talk about has to do with Alfred Binet and everything that has to do with him including the Binet-Simon scales and the Stanford-Binet IQ test. One of the things I thought was interesting about Alfred Binet was that he was from France. Most of the psychologists we have learned about have been from Germany or America so I thought it was interesting that there is now one from a different country. Binet helped discover, along with other French psychologists, how to test children to determine which ones needed special education and which ones could continue on with normal classes. He started his journey by observing his two daughters and seeing how their individual differences compared in things like learning. Binet used some of the ideas that Galton had laid out before him. Binet tested his daughters using Galton’s ideas and found that his daughters scored around the same as adults did, meaning that Galton’s ideas were wrong. I thought this was interesting because we talked about how testing people’s ideas and proving them wrong is a big process in psychology, which is exactly what Binet did here. I also thought it was interesting that Alfred Binet was responsible for the Binet-Simon scales and for the Standford-Binet IQ test. The Binet-Simon scales were pretty much the first IQ tests. Binet and his research assistant, Theodore Simon, created this test to dictate the level of learning a child had. With this, they developed the idea of mental level, which is the level of learning a child had compared to their peers. If a 5 year old child has a mental level of 5 years, they were considered normal. But if the 5 year old child had a mental level of 3 years, they were thought to need special learning environments. The Binet-Simon skills were later translated into English and edited to create the Stanford-Binet IQ test. I thought this was interesting because I have always heard so much about this test but I never knew the history behind it.

2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
The second topic that I found interesting in this chapter was about Leta Hollingworth and her work. Leta Hollingworth was the famous Harry Hollingworth’s wife and together they made many contributions to the field of psychology. Leta did a lot of work with looking into the intelligence of women, a topic that many people had wrongfully assumed about for years. While reading about the women in psychology in chapter 6, I had wondered when and how the thoughts about them had changed. The section on Leta Hollingworth helped explain and answer my questions. Leta debunked two main issues dealing with women in psychology. These were the variability hypothesis and the periodic function. To do this, she conducted research and collect data on the subjects, something that had not been done by the people trying to support them. She found that women were as equally variable as men when it came to differences in the genders and also that women did not perform any worse while on their period. I thought it was interesting, and pretty cool, that Leta’s dissertation topic was on the periodic function. I also thought it was interesting that while Leta Hollingworth did a lot of work with women’s rights, her main focus was on gifted children. Leta was possibly the first person to start a class where people learned and study gifted children. I think that both of these areas of work are interesting topics that Leta Hollingworth dealt with, and brought new information to the public about both as well.

3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
The final topic that I found most interesting in chapter 8 was about Lewis Terman and his work with gifted children and the IQ test. I kind of talked about Terman and his IQ tests in question one, but there is more that he accomplished in his life that I found interesting. In his earlier years, Terman was very interested in psychology and later came into the world of testing and intelligence. This is how his life accomplishments started. The two things that Terman is known for are developing one of the world’s best-known IQ tests and conducting the longest-running psychology research project of all time. I found both of these accomplishments to be very interesting. Terman took the Binet-Simon scales and revised them to create the IQ test that we all know of today. He also coined the term intelligence quotient by dividing the mental age of a person by their chronological age. While Binet focused on children that were behind in learning, Terman found that there were also children that were ahead of learning. He called these children “gifted.” Terman did this by starting the longest-running longitudinal study of children to identify talented kids and see where they ended up in life. I thought this was interesting because at my high school we had a “gifted and talented” program and I never understood the history of the program until now. Terman’s study with these gifted children also showed that higher intelligence does not mean lower physical strength or social abilities. I thought this was interesting as well because in middle school and high school, smarter kids are seen as nerds and we are now still getting used to the fact that this is not true.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
The topic in chapter 8 that I found least interesting was about Robert M. Yerkes and his work with the army. I thought this information was not very interesting because I was more interested in the children and the IQ testing parts of this chapter. I did not enjoy reading about Robert M. Yerkes and his work because I did not find the information or abilities of soldiers in the army very appealing. I have never really found stuff like this interesting because whenever I learned about war in high school or humanities classes, I was more interested in personal stories or civilian problems more so than the soldiers. This is probably one of the reasons I was not interested in this chapter of the book. I did not care to read much about the abilities of soldiers in the war.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think the information in chapter 8 that I find to be the most useful in understanding the history of psychology is Terman and his work with the IQ test. The IQ test is a very important and well-known part of psychology today and without Terman, we might not have this way or ability of testing people. Terman made the field of psychology able to represent mental capacity with a number, allowing people a concrete term to compare with others. This development was very important in the history of psychology, in my opinion.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Chapter 8 related to previous chapter in a couple different ways. The first one, like last chapter, is that it built a lot on the people we have previously talked about. Many people in this chapter, like Binet or Terman, were students of other great psychologists or got their ideas from these people in the past. Galton was mentioned a lot in this chapter because Cattell (also mentioned in previous chapters) and Binet based many of their ideas off of their work. I am still surprised as to how all of these famous psychologists are connected.
Other topics that were talked about in previous chapters were pragmatism and philosophy. Pragmatism was talked about in chapter 8 because it related to the way people were learning, as with previous chapters. Philosophy also dealt with how people were learning and how the sciences were switching over on what was becoming more popular. In chapter 8, Cattell was mentioned as being appointed a professor of psychology rather than the more common professor of philosophy. This shows the slow change that is starting to happen between the science of philosophy and the science of psychology and how they are becoming their own separate ideas.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
One topic that I would be interested to learn more about is the Kallikaks. The Kallikaks were a family that Henry H. Goddard studied in the 1900’s. The chapter described a lot about this family and the research that Goddard conducted with them, but I am interested in learning more about their life. I would like to learn more about the details behind the family and the information that the book may have left out about them.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
There were a couple different things that I thought about while reading this chapter. The first had to deal with when I was reading about the early lives of all these pscyhologists, I wondered how the author of this book decided what was important information to add and what could be left out. When people in our class do a topical blog about a person discussed in the chapter, they find out more information about them and I wonder what made the information put into this chapter so much more important than the rest.
The second thing I thought about was when I recently took an IQ test. I wondered how that test was, or how the more common IQ tests in general today are different from the ones originally designed by Alfred Binet and Lewis Terman. I think it would be interesting to compare the tests and maybe even take them both to see the differences individually.

Terms: Alfred Binet, Binet-Simon scales, Stanford-Binet IQ test, mental level, Leta Hollingworth, variability hypothesis, periodic function, gifted, Lewis Terman, IQ tests, chronological age, mental age, Robert M. Yerkes, intelligence quotient, Galton, Cattell, pragmatism, philosophy, Kallikaks

1a) What did you find interesting? I found James Cattell interesting.
1b) Why was it interesting to you? I found him interesting because Galton’s ideas were interesting to learn about and he was the strongest American supporter of Galton in the nineteenth century. Galton believed that mental ability was inherited and that it was inherited and it’s important to encourage procreation among the able and discourage the less capable. Cattell was interested in mental testing and individual differences. Cattell came up with the term mental test; which is, any test designed to measure mental activity and ability. At one point he spend time adjusting his tests and expanded the number of tests used and used some of Galton’s physical measurements for these tests.
2a) What did you find interesting? Individual psychology was interesting.
2b) Why was it interesting to you? I have never heard of the term individual psychology so that interested me to read more about this topic. Individual psychology is interested in the properties of psychic processes that vary from person to person. When looking at these processes researchers are interested in how much and in what ways do they vary. The problem with this idea was that they didn’t know how to measure these variables. So the next step was for Binet to find tests that could be used.
3a) What did you find interesting? And3b) Why was it interesting to you? The Stanford Binet IQ test was interesting to learn about because this didn’t start in America so Goddard had to translate the Binet-Simon scales into English. The test needed to be revised so Termann standardized his test. At the end of this he completed the test with a total of ninety test items but the Binet’s test on had fifty-four test items. This test is the best known test of intelligence. In this section Stern came up with averages of mental levels that individuals should be achieving. He thought that mental ability should be figured out by looking at the relationship between mental age and chronological age and then dividing that by the latter. Then the term intelligence quotient (IQ) was brought about. To finish this equation to figure out an IQ you multiply the mental quotient by one hundred and lose the decimal point. At this point we can figure out the mental ages of individuals and then find out what their IQ’s should be.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Goddard and the immigrants section was the least interesting thing I read from this chapter.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you? This was the least interesting to me because I didn’t think that it had any information that I actually needed to know that would be beneficial for history and systems.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding History and Systems? I think that the whole topic of IQ and learning ones mental ability and activity will help with understanding cognitive psychology because by figuring out how these things work we are looking at how these ideas came about and what their purpose is.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters? In other chapters we have talked about a lot of these psychologists already. One’s we have briefly touched on are Cattell and he was interested in Galton’s work so that’s basically how he was talked about in this chapter. Also, we have touched on Alfred Binet and Lewis Terman in other chapters as well.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? I would like to learn more about Terman.
7b) Why? Terman came up with a lot of interesting topics especially when he studied the gifted and I would like to look more into how and why he discovered the “gifted” and made the “gifted” a separate category from the others based on their intelligence.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter? When reading this chapter I was thinking the Stanford-Binet IQ test this is this basic one that is most likely to be used and I remember learning about it multiple different times.
9) Stanford-Binet IQ test, Terman, “gifted”, Binet, Cattell, IQ, Galton, individual psychology.

1a) What did you find interesting?
James Cattells mental tests
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Cattell’s research on individual differences played a role in introducing the experimental technique in experimentation. Cattell began to measure simple mental processes, through his tests, which involved human reaction time rates and individual differences. As a professor Cattell administered tests to student volunteers, in which he measured sensation, used weights to determine just-noticeable differences, reaction time, human memory span, and rate of movement. When Cattell moved to Columbia University, the battery of tests continued with his new students. Cattell believed that his mental tests were measuring intelligence. Later on the test was disproved by one of his graduated students.
To me the most interesting thing about this was what Cattell considered to me a measurement of intelligence. More specifically, why he considered certain traits to be signs of intelligence?
2a) What did you find interesting?
Alfred Binet and chess
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Binet had done a series of experiments to see how well chess players played when blindfolded. He found that only some of the master chess players could play from memory and a few could play multiple games simultaneously without looking at the boards. To remember the positions of the pieces on the boards, some players envisioned exact replicas of specific chess sets, while others envisioned an abstract schema of the game. Binet concluded that extraordinary feats of memory such as blind chess playing could take a variety of mnemonic forms.
He performed many experiments repeatedly, the one mentioned above included. Binet also experiments with memory, intelligence, fatigue, and so on. From these came different types of test including the completion test, and intelligence tests. His chess experiments I Believe were a part of that, I just found the test to be interesting.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Henry H. Goddard
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Goddard took Binets scale and tweaked it a little. With it he made a pretty big impact when he came to America. He was the leading advocate for the use of intelligence testing in societal institutions including hospitals, schools, the legal system and the military. He played a major role in the emerging field of clinical psychology, in 1911 helped to write the first U.S. law requiring that blind, deaf and mentally retarded children be provided special education within public school systems and in 1914 became the first American psychologist to testify in court that subnormal intelligence should limit the criminal responsibility of defendants.
Goddard made a pretty significant contribution to society, more specifically the justice system. It has evolved much more since the early 1900’s.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Applying psychology to business.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
Psychology is applicable in many different ways. When it comes applying psychology to business I personally feel that I know a lot about it, so the information and history from the section in chapter 8 was nothing really new.
It is also why I have chosen it as my topical blog for this week. I want to know more, I want to see if I missed anything, and I want to learn so I can apply the techniques myself.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
Well the majority of the chapter discussed intelligence, characteristics of intelligence, and so on. It also discussed methods and specific tests on measuring intelligence. We still use intelligence tests today, they are a lot more standardized, and account for many variables, but where do we go from here. Will we still be using them 20 years down the line. Or will something completely new come along. How does that help with understanding psychology, not sure, but it is interesting to think about.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
The previous chapter discussed functional psychology and what works, what gets results. This chapter discusses applying learned techniques.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Applying psychology to business
7b) Why?
I want to know more, I want to see if I missed anything, and I want to learn so I can apply the techniques myself.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
The thought of combining different people’s works, and evolving them crossed my mind many times. In another class certain intelligence tests were discussed and how specific ones have become really common. Those common ones went through many revisions, becoming more applicable, and more effective.
To me it was interesting to see where and how some of today’s test came about.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Mental test, completion test, intelligence,

1a) & 1b)
I was interested in what the book stated concerning the traditional view of gifted children such as how they are intellectually superior but physically weak, socially inferior and burn out by a young age, never fulfilling their childhood promise. In the follow up however, Terman showed everyone this was not valid with his group being not just smarter than others but more successful, productive, well adjusted and physically healthy. I was shocked to see the categories which children who were intellectually handicapped were classified into such as idiots and imbeciles. I was surprised that there were no attrition in Terman’s study and the rates of those participating even after 35 years.

2a) & 2b)
I thought it was interesting how Cattell didn’t even propose a specific purpose for the tests being developed but just thought individuals might find them interesting and the results could maybe be useful in regard to things like training or indication of disease. They turned out to be so much more! It was also interesting reading about Musterberg and how as World War I was approaching, and because of his defense of Germans the public opinion about him changed and he was hated, even being accused of being a spy. Yerkes convinced the army of the benefit of psychological testing. It was neat to see how army alpha and army beta all came about. The stuff they had to do on the tests however was kind of ridiculous, such as the pictures of the texts on pages 262.

3a) & 3b)
I never knew about the process immigrants had to go through at Ellis Island so it was cool reading about that. They didn’t want anyone entering the country who were mentally defective and even after adjusting cultural factors they found forty percent to still be feebleminded. I was shocked that so many people were on board with this and it became a part of the screening process which contributed to a lot of deportation during that time. It was sad though how so many hopeful immigrants were forced to go back to Europe just because they performed poorly on the tests being done. I also thought the section regarding the Kallikaks was very interesting. I couldn’t believe that out of the 189 descendants, 143 of them were found to be feebleminded while only 46 were normal. On the good side only three were found to be somewhat degenerate. This was surprising even though his study was seriously flawed.

4a) & 4b)
At the end of the chapter it got into leading industrial psychologists. It ended with three or so individuals. I didn’t find these very interesting. It kind of just talked a bit about their lives but didn’t really get into any interesting theories or contributions. Overall though this chapter was very useful and a majority of it kept me very interested.

5)
Scripture showed readers how simple laboratory methods could improve everyday life. For example studying psychological elements involved within sports which made him one of the early pioneers for what we now call sport psychology. This chapter was extremely beneficial in learning how mental testing got its start. The section discussing the birth of modern intelligence testing was very useful. Goddard brought back the Binet-Simon scale from Europe, translated it into English and began administering. Binet’s mental level concept was now considered mental age. All of Binets work led to the first intelligence test. He created average performance at different age levels. From there the concept of IQ evolved. We read how Cattell was the one who coined the term mental test. This chapter also got into Karl Pearson and coefficient of correlation, Pearson r. We hear about this a lot, especially in research methods and statistics so it was nice getting some background on it.

6)
This chapter mentioned John Dewey who we saw in chapter seven and discussed his warning of the dangers inherent in emphasizing laboratory research. In chapter five we learned a bit about Galton’s goals of creating measures which would identify individuals who were best able to further his eugenic vision. This chapter greatly expanded on this. We briefly heard of Cattell in chapter four but this chapter got more in depth concerning his life and contributions. He as well received an education which was mentioned during chapter six. This chapter also brought up Hermann Ebbinghaus who we saw in chapter four who developed a completion test. When dealing with IQ testing, it brought up the nature vs. nurture concern which we continue to see throughout the chapters. Just like in chapter six, this chapter mentioned the struggles and obstacles women faced during this time. It also mentioned two widely held beliefs which were gone over in chapter six, variability hypothesis and periodic function.

7a) and 7b)

President Calvin Coolidge stated that the business of America was business and so psychologists became interesting in applying their study and using their knowledge within the business world. For example they wanted to see how advertisers could benefit by what psychologists knew about things such as attention and memory. This led to what became industrial psychology. I think it is interesting learning how consumers can be influenced by suggestion and appeals to emotion. It is cool learning about the tricks that companies use so looking further into this aspect of psychology would be fun.

8)
It seems as if all of the individuals we have been learning about make their way to Europe for a good amount of time to grow even more intellectually. I’ve also stated before that they all seem interconnected with each other. For example, Cattell worked with Galton and earned his doctorate from Wundt. As well like many of the individuals we read about, Terman suffered health problems as well when he got tuberculosis. It talked about Cattell studying the effects of various drugs on behavior. He consumed large amounts of things such as hashish and opium, stating that they were, “perhaps the largest doses ever taken without suicidal intent.” They all seemed to do studies on themselves and often put themselves in danger. IQ testings and findings were being done when stuff was happening with the general political climate and what was characterized by an increasing nativism. Could these have had great impacts on each other and did this put fear into peoples minds concerning immigration?

9) Terminology: Mental Test, Completion Test, Mental Level, Individual Psychology, Mental Age, Moron, Attrition, Army Alpha, Army Beta, Nativism.

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Reading about the completion test was interesting because it was a new approach to testing. It was developed by Hermann Ebbinghaus. It was a way to assess the effects of mental fatigue in schoolchildren. They thought the way the school system was set up, where kids had to sit and learn for 5 hours straight, was causing them fatigue and nervous irritability. Ebbinghaus came up with a way to test this theory to see if it was true or false.
2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Another thing I found interesting was reading about the Binet-Simon scales. It was interesting because I got to learn about another scale of research. 2 groups were indentified; normal and impaired, and each group was given a series of tests, and they were looking for the differentiation in each group. Binet looked at the mental level of different children. With having a mental level he could see id kids were behind, ahead, or normal for their age range.
3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Another thing I found interesting was Goddards extended research of Binets research, and taking his mental level and categorizing people. It is interesting because the names they used for age ranges back then are used to day for totally different reasons and it is cool to know the history behind it. They titled people as idiots, imbeciles, and moron.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
One thing I didn’t find interesting was reading about the Standford-Binet IQ test because I have read about it before and I don’t like to read about things that I have already learned about unless it is for something super important.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think just learning the new ways of mental testing and the different discoveries they have came up with is important because it will fill in the blank throughout the whole history of psychology and a discovery of one thing can lead to other discoveries.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Other chapters express how Psychologists were obsessed with finding new ways to apply psychology, and this chapter has a lot of examples of applied psychology, so they all intertwine with each other.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
I would like to learn more about all of Cattells Mental tests. This chapter briefly states of a lot of his tests but only goes into depth with only a couple of them, so it would be interesting to learn more about the other ones since they relate to this chapter.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I started to think about the different mental tests they might do now days and how they compare to the ones they came up with back then, and I wondered if they ever use any of the same tests anymore. I also tried to think about where I was that I have read this before because I remember learning about some of the different mental tests before. Other than that I didn’t really have any in depth thoughts about this chapter, so I guess I don’t know that much about it outside of what I read.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Completion test, Hermann Ebbinghaus, mental level, Binet, Goddard, mental age, moron, Cattell

1a) The Kallikaks

1b) I found this interesting because of how Goddard was thought of as such an influential psychologist at the time. I thought it was cool how he went in depth with a whole family and traced their roots back all the way to the Civil War. He went in and saw that there have been a “good side” and a “bad side” of the family. On the good side there were well educated good citizens everywhere, on the bad side there were delinquents and bad citizens all around. He talked about heredity being the sole reason why there is such a difference on the sides and how the people acted. My question about this was, how is one side of the family good and one side of the family bad? Goddard came to the conclusion that, back in the civil war a solider with the last name Kallikak, he had an affair with a feebleminded girl, she had a son and gave him the surname of Kallikak. The same solider also married a good girl and had kids who turned out to be good people. What was also interesting is what he found about both sides of the families, on the bad side there were 480 descendants, and he found that of the 189 living he could test 143 were feebleminded, and 46 were said to be normal. For the good side 496 descendants only 3 were said to be feebleminded. It is hard to say if bad citizens are hereditarily bad, but with what Goddard found is something that is on the side of being hereditary, but all in all the experiments were very poorly done, they didn’t take into effect the environmental factors, he just left out a whole part of a humans life, which makes his findings not very valid, not to mention, his study was very subjective.

2a) Army Alpha and Army Beta tests

2b) I found this interesting because this was in the time of IQ testing being a big thing, so naturally, there needs to be an IQ test for probably the most dangerous job in the world. The Army Alpha and Beta tests were done to see how intelligent the candidates are while enlisting into the army. Based on their scores they were placed in various positions. The difference, which I think was good that they did it this way, was that the beta test was for illiterate people and vice versa for the alpha. I thought it was good because back in that time of WWI not everyone was educated enough to read. So I think it was good to give everyone a chance to be in a higher position, it was a very good structure for the test.

3a) Employee Selection

3b) Hugo Munsterberg was one of the most famous Industrial or economic psychologists, he brought psychology to the work place. The biggest part that psychology contributed to the work place was in employee selection. I found this interesting, not only because I want to be an I/O psychologist at some point, but because I think it is very useful and underrated part of psychology. I think it interested me in the way that this was one of the first times that psychology was brought into a completely different realm. I also thought it was cool how Munsterberg wrote a book on how to select, train, and asses the new employee. I was just really interested in how this came about, and how it is still so widely used today, it wasn’t just if the person could do the job, but if the person will be a fit for it and the organization.

4a) I wasn’t interested in Binet

4b) I think that he brought some very cool and important aspects to the field of psychology, but I have never really been interested in the forming of IQ tests or really the start of them, mental level is a big aspect but I just think that IQ is subjective.

5) I think the thing that I read that will be the most important was that of employee selection, it shows that psychology is now expanding into different fields and it will only continue to grow, because of this iconic movement.

6) I think it builds on the last chapter in the way that, the last chapter showed how psychology is changing, this built on that and also showing that it will be forever changing, there will not be just a static point, it will always be fluid and changing.

7a) I would like to learn more about Hugo Munsterberg

7b) I want to learn more about it because he started the I/O movement and that is what I want to get into, so I would like to learn more about his work.

8) I had a question of when did people get their ideas of what to study. Why did that interest them? Was there an event that changed a person’s thinking? Just basically why and how.

9) Hugo Munsterberg, Industrial Psychology, Binet, Mental level, Employee selection, Army alpha, Army beta, Goddard, Kallikaks

1a&b) Stanford-Binet IQ test. This topic piqued my interest because I remembered hearing it during my freshman year in a personality psychology class. I was drawn to it as well because the premise of being able to determine something as multidimensional as a person’s mental capability in a single test format seems unlikely at best, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that Binet would have most likely agreed with me. The Stanford-Binet IQ test as we know it now is a substantially different, revised, edition of the French Binet-Simon scales which were first used to determine weak students within an educational context. The text mentions on several occasions throughout the chapter that Binet would not have been pleased if he had known that his scales would be used to determine IQ, which he thought could not be widely applied.
2a&b) Leta Hollingworth. I have to say that the subtitle ‘Advocating for gifted children and debunking myths about women’ on the close-up section on Leta Hollingworth is what drew my initial attention. My roommate is very interested in gifted children and often shows me articles on their research, so I found it interesting that Leta Hollingworth was the first to design a class on how best to teach gifted children. The second part of her close-up detailed her defense of women against the ideas that they were unfit for intellectually demanding positions due to “periodic function” or the idea that their ‘lack of variation’ made them substandard by evolutionary reasoning. I found it encouraging and inspiring to see that she conducted studies and confronted these beliefs with data and challenged the exceptionally male-dominated field of psychology at the time, despite the consequences.
3a&b) Lillian Moller Gilbreth. After reading this section I have to say that Lillian Gilbreth is the woman. She was an excellent business woman, a prolific psychologist, the first ever recipient of an industrial psychology degree, and a mother of 12 who raised 11 of those children on her own after her husband’s death. I was originally interested in her accomplishments when I learned that she was a pioneer in industrial psychology, an area that I am interested in possibly pursuing a career in. Her 16 honorary doctorates and 2 earned are testament to her extraordinary contributions to the field of industrial/organizational psychology, and her story an inspiration to all women involved in psychology.
4a&b) I really found this entire chapter to be very interesting and can honestly say that there is not one thing I was not interested in. I find intelligence and IQ tests fascinating so that section of the chapter I enjoyed, we are studying Yerkes and the Army tests in applied psychology right now so I was also able to apply what I had already learned in reading that section. The end of the chapter about applied/industrial psychology was of special interest to me as well because I am considering applying to graduate with an Industrial/Organizational certificate.
5 The most important take-away from this chapter to better understand the history of psychology for me was learning about the application of psychology to business. Industrial psychology takes the discipline out of the Freudian stereotype of counselor-client interaction, and places it within the field of business and industry ergonomics. This integration at the time was a huge step in legitimatizing psychology as a science and has shaped businesses for the better in recognizing that to improve product and output you must be sensitive to the working human element of the process.
6 In previous chapters psychology was largely restricted to advanced philosophers or high academia with the purpose of divining the human mind’s thoughts, feelings, or actions. This chapter, however, sees psychology beginning to be applied to more practical, everyday uses such as business and employment. More broadly, this chapter takes what we know about psychology as a field at the time and goes on to show the beginnings of psychology as a professional tool in the way of educational and occupational aptitude, and demonstrating the link between experimental psychology and the studies done for applied psychology.
7a&b)A subject that I found wanting to know more about while reading was the controversy surrounding IQ. The text did a good job of explaining the differing viewpoints and some of the cultural influences that were acting on those who held these views at the time, but I am more interested in the aspects of the controversy that carry through to today. The book touched more briefly on these and mentioned topics such as the influence of nature and nurture on intelligence, and the nature of intelligence itself. I would like to learn more about this because I believe that IQ is overused and misunderstood by the public at large and I would like to educate myself about the topic.
8 Most of the thoughts I had while reading this chapter revolved around the legitimacy of IQ testing, the evolution of applied psychology, and being really impressed by Lillian Gilbreth. All joking aside, the most intrusive thought that keeps coming up in my mind is where did organizational psychology go from here, and why has it remained somewhat obscure? How practices of applied psychology changed and grew over time is something that I wouldn’t mind learning more about and may consider it for the topic of my Wednesday post. During my time at UNI and even in my college-level intro to psychology class in high school industrial/organizational psychology was something that was only mentioned to me in passing once before this year. Now that I have suddenly come into more knowledge on the topic it has interested me and I look forward to learning more about it.
9 *terms* Stanford-Binet IQ test, Alfred Binet, Binet-Simon scales, Leta Hollingworth, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, Yerkes, industrial/organizational psychology

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?

Mantel Age and Mental level: I found it interesting that Alfred Binet tried to scale a mental level for children and try to calculate their mental age. Some children would score the same age as they are and some would go up and down the mental ages their current age is. I think this was a good idea in the attempt to put children where they can achieve academically, but listing the ones that are lower as morons and other names that are similar seems like it wouldn’t help their self esteem. It would be counter intuitive to subject a person as a moron or an imbecile if you are trying to get them help to learn.

2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?

Lewis M. Terman: I found Lewis M. Terman interesting because he didn’t use the Stanford-Binet IQ Test as what it was originally tended for instead of just focusing on the children that needed help, he focused on the children that were gifted and smarter than the average. I wonder with Terman’s influence they got the idea to make a GRE test to entire grad school? Back then I bet there was not as many people going into grad school so you could just keep going to college and earn a masters or doctorate. I also wonder how you would update such a test as the IQ test because every decade or even year more and more the population is learning more things in general. A 10 year old has the capacity to learn more things than a 10 year old 100 years ago. Same with everyone in society, you never stop learning that is one thing that makes us mainly human and mortal.

3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?

Hugo Munsterberg: I thought Hugo Munsterberg was interesting because if it weren’t for industrial psychologist like him, we might still be making people work the way they use to work when the industrial revolution started. When we noticed the concept of fatigue and instead of just firing people for just being human, aka factory workers, psychologist like Munsterberg tried to find the best efficient work load for most people. Some of Munsterberg’s tests helped people get the job they were capable of doing and it also helped prevent some cases where the person in reality was not fit in doing the job they attempted to apply and in some jobs it can save lives.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?

Nativism: I didn’t find Nativism that interesting because it’s always seems to existed people are just more inclined to be comfortable with things they are use too, whereas new things are usually a hit or miss of liking them. I am a little surprised that when making the Intelligence tests they were afraid of immigration ruining the national IQ. I didn’t think historical psychologist were so arrogant.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?

I would like to believe that Goddard beliefs about eliminating the mental defective by preventing the lower IQ level from breeding because now days I would hope that people are not as closed minded and would realize that no matter what you do there will be always people on the lower level of IQ when compared to the society. What happens when you prevent them from breeding, the lower IQ may change but they would still be classified as a “moron” or having the a mental defective when they are compared to an average score or a high score, aka average kid and a gifted kid. All it would do is just make society a little bit more intelligent for a brief period. The whole concept as labeling oneself as intelligent seems pretty egocentric.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?

Last chapter focused on how one learns and is able to retain information. Also it had parts of social Darwinism where there is survival of the fittest in the society. I find it ironic that this chapter is about the IQ test which is the setting point of the bar that would put you in society with intelligence. Whether your average or lower or higher. In a sense this resulted in some social Darwinism because Goddard believed in order to stop the mental defective was to eliminate the gene and prevent people with that IQ level from breeding.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?
Ergonomics: I found this topic interesting because I would like to learn more on how one finds the point when people fall into fatigue and are not making as much progress if they toke a day off and start the next day. I would also like to learn new ways of getting work done faster and less stressful.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?

I think the idea of a standard or basic IQ level for an age of a person or for anyone is impossible, you can never create a test that actually measures someone’s intelligence. We all have different interpretations on our perceptions of life that may never be able to be measured. Sure science is easier for such intelligence, but you can’t really pull up a test for measuring ones intelligence for art or half of the things in life. I think judging on the ones that did bad, just solemnly on a test that one person interpreted as intelligent to answer is scare to think of especially when the one created it, suggest sterilizing the special needed ones. Seems like another misconception of eugenics, or a conception that was blown out of proportion.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Mental age
Mental level
Ergonomics:
Nativism:
Robert Yerkes
Hugo Munsterberg

1a) James Cattell and Mental Testing
1b) Cattell was more inspired by the work of Galton than that of Wundt, who he studied under. Cattell took notes when learning at a younger age from Francis Marsh, who believed in extensive data to support research and make general conclusions. It was because of this extensive research he was awed by Galton a little later. Cattell studied multiple things in great detail some being; reaction time, drug effects on behavior, and how reaction time affected attention, practice, and fatigue in individuals. Cattell’s plans changed when his scholarship was not renewed, and instead was given to another student known as John Dewey. Instead, Cattell ventured to Cambridge where he studied medicine and was taught about Galton’s work. It was then his path had changed drastically. Even though Cattell was never privileged to study under Galton, he did exchange numerous letters and encounters with him. The two agreed on one major thing; “The more one could measure, the more one would know.” Cattell moved back home to Pennsylvania where he was named a professor in psychology and developed a lab in America. Here he wanted to bring Galton’s work to American laboratories. He tested students on multiple things and named his work “Mental Tests and Measurement.” It was then that mental tests became established. Through all the data and research developed, when one of Cattell’s students worked it out based on the coefficient and correlation, there was no actual relationship apparent.

2a) Alfred Binet
2b) Developed first by Ebbinghaus, Alfred Binet studied more in depth about completion tests and how children were getting tired throughout the day not being able to keep up with the learning. Many children’s grades suffered because of their inability to succeed in the normal classes available. Later, these children identified as having trouble would be put in a special education class. However, before this was developed, a study was done by a few researchers, one being Binet. At this time, Binet was not a well-reviewed researcher. He had previously had trouble when he did research on hypnosis and made ridiculous claims. This in turn made his reputation suffer. Binet believed, unlike Galton, that the differences in children’s ability to learn could only be measured by looking more closely at the more complex higher mental processes. Binet developed individual psychology where people would further study the differences among individuals. It was through this that Binet led to developing mental tests, which could measure these differences among individuals. Three categories were made for children who struggled based on the degree they struggled; idiots, imbeciles, and debiles. Through years of research and tests, Binet produced a scale in order to understand the results more clearly. Mental level was measured in children. An example would be having a four year old take the test and scoring at the four year old level. These groups of people scoring correct or lower were put in subgroups called normal or impaired. This performance was based on an average credited by Binet. Binet’s definition of mental ability was a functional one. Intelligence was based on multiple aspects and skills. And it is because of this he would not agree with how we see or define intelligence and IQ today.

3a) Hugo Munsterberg
3b) Munsterberg first established an experimental psychology laboratory. It was at Harvard where Munsterberg was able to give a lot to experimental psychology in America. Because an extensive laboratory was built, Munsterberg found himself looking more towards applied psychology. One in particular type was forensic psychology. His best selling book On the Witness Stand was based on how psychology relates to the law and here he spoke of how eyewitness testimony may no be as reliable as perceived. Even today research has supported Munsterberg’s conclusions. Munsterberg believed in the nurture of criminals instead of people being born as criminals. Though Munsterberg had many contributions to the forensic psychology world, his greatest work was in the industrial psychology world. Three topics were focused on in his book called Psychology and Industrial Efficiency; how to select employees, training, and on advertising and marketing. Selecting workers was a difficult process, and still is, but Munsterberg believed by testing two different kinds of people, we could yield valid results. He had two approaches to testing individuals; an analytic approach and simulation. He focused on reaction time and past records. He yielded the best results through the simulation testing.

4a) The Kallikaks
4b) Unfortunately, I didn’t find myself wanting to further understand the Kallikak’s family. It was based on a family whose mother, had been an outcast because of her inability to succeed in school. She was successful in things like sewing, cooking, ect., but yet when it came to school work she had no drive or ability to complete it. Based on hereditary traits, it is said that different family members may yield different traits, which may give them the ability or inability to succeed on different tasks.

5) Understanding how mental tests came about is useful. Today our education system makes sure the ones who are struggling get sufficient help they need. At times I wonder if Binet and his colleagues never realized children were lagging in particular areas of school more than others, that the question of intelligence may have not come about as early as it did. Our education has always been something we rely on, but if children struggle and aren’t progressing at the same rates, we shouldn’t treat them as the same person.

6) Many strategies and tests are becoming replaced by new and improved tests and research. Galton’s methods were further studied and made more adequate. Also, the people who brought these new topics to America are spreading the works and knowledge to be further studied. It is causing questions to be asked and concrete answers to be found.

7a) Lewis Terman
7b) I would like to learn more about the Stanford-Binet test, which was created by Terman. We briefly touched on it in Clinical psychology, but I think it could be more beneficial to look at the topic in more depth. Also, looking at Terman’s other accomplishments would be interesting.

8) Intelligence has always been a controversial topic. Through the years I believe we have established more concrete evidence, but it is such an abstract topic it is difficult to pinpoint.

Employee selection, applied psychology, individual psychology, mental level, reaction time, Galton, mental test, completion tests

1) One interesting thing from this chapter was the section on Alfred Binet. I had previously known very little about him except that he developed some measures for intelligence testing in France using children. That is true but now I know much more. Binet had a setback in his career with his claims on hypnosis. Other researchers proved these claims to be false and Binet was forced to retract his hypothesis in writing. Later he began to work at the Sorbonne in Paris which he eventually became the director of. However it is his own children that inspired his interest in individual differences and the importance of case studies. After using some of Galton’s sensory tests on his daughters, he noticed that there was not much of a difference between them and the standards of adults; adults were only superior on a few tasks. Binet came to the discovery that Galton’s tests were not adequate to measure the differences in intelligence based upon age. Binet developed a research program to study individual differences and called the process individual psychology. For the sake of Paris’s need to distinguish which students could be in a regular classroom as opposed to a special needs classroom, Binet offered his tests of mental processes. At this time, those children with “limited capacities” were put into three categories which were poorly defined and had much overlap. “Idiots” were unable to care for themselves and severely handicapped, “imbeciles” were more capable but could not be independent, and “débiles,” as Binet called them, were capable of learning but not in a standard classroom setting. Binet published the first version of his tests known as the Binet-Simon Scales in 1905 with his assistant Theodore Simon, and revised them twice after that. Even though he published his scales he still had some doubts about them. Binet’s belief about IQ was that it was multifaceted, could be improved with training, and that his scales were only appropriate in the context of identifying “weak” students.
2) Another interesting concept was Robert M. Yerkes’ creation of mental tests for the army. Because of the inability to read by many recruits, he created two versions of his test. The Army Alpha test was given to those recruits that could read and understand written directions, and the Army Beta test was given to the recruits that could not understand written directions. The recruits that failed Alpha test were given Beta test and those who failed Beta, were given one on one tests with psychologists. However the instructions given to the two testing groups were very different. Army Alpha was told that the purpose of the test was to “see how well you can remember, think, and carry out what you are told to do.” Whereas Army Beta test group were told to take the exam, follow the instructions, and ask no questions. However, the war had ended before these tests were used to their full capacity.
3) I also enjoyed the section on Hugo Munsterberg. Munsterberg is the founder of forensic psychology. His studies showed the limitations of eye witness testimony as well as faults in hypnosis. He wrote the book “Psychology and Industrial Efficiency” which basically lays out the best way to conduct your business according to economic psychology; this includes how to select the best employees, how to rain employees, effects of working conditions, advertising, and marketing.
4) I did not think that the section on James McKeen Cattell from this chapter was very interesting. He did a lot of work with coefficient correlation, which is just very boring to me. He was also a believer in the heritability of intelligence which is an idea that just doesn’t sit well with me. I believe that while because of inherited intelligence, some things may come easier to a person, but it is because of work and studies that their knowledge is expanded and remembered.
5) I think that the most important idea from this chapter was all of the different types of mental testing. It is and interesting concept, testing one’s IQ and there are many proven ways like discussed in the text as well as the faux tests that anyone can make on the internet. Those seen as having a high IQ are treated much better than those with a lower IQ, receiving many opportunities. Knowing one’s IQ is a very hot topic in the area of psychology and in the average population as well.
6) This chapter builds on the previous chapters by talking about the way that psychology can be put to use in the average world. Knowing how long it takes cats to escape a puzzle box is important to know when discussing the intelligence of animals relative to the intelligence of humans, but it won’t really help the measurement of human intelligence. This chapter helped move on from the theoretical ideas to the implication of those theories in the average population.
7) I would like to learn more about Goddard and his work with the immigrants at Ellis Island. This is an idea that was mentioned briefly in several classes and I would like to expand upon my previous knowledge.
8) While reading, I wondered why everyone seemed to be so fixated on intelligence. Yes, that is what this chapter is about, but other chapters have had similar themes. Where there no other focuses at that time period?
Terms: Alfred Binet, hypnosis, Galton, Theodore Simon, Robert Yates, Army Alpha, Army Beta, Hugo Munsterberg, James McKeen Cattell, intelligence

1a) The Binet-Simon Scales

1b) The Binet-Simon Scales is a test that was originally used for children in the early 1900’s. The test was meant to find that the mental level of children between the ages of 3 and 13. The mental level of the child determined at what age they were at in their intelligence. Binet determined that if the child was more than two years behind his/her peers, they were to be placed in special classes to help “bring them up to speed” so to speak. I find this incredibly interesting because Binet’s findings in this area, although later twisted by other psychologists like Goddard, greatly improved our understanding of intelligence. The topic itself, intelligence, is a fascinating and complex topic that could be debated for hours. It is one that I definitely like to read about.

2a) Army Alpha and Army Beta

2b) The U.S. Army made great strides in the understanding of job placement and the field of I/O psychology. The Army Alpha test was given to recruits that were able to read well enough that they could understand and follow the directions given. Those with reduced literacy were given the Army Beta Test (259-260). This test was to determine placement for the soldiers. This topic is interesting to me because I am receiving a certificate in I/O psychology. I am fascinated with job placement, recruitment, and training, which is why I am going into human resource.

3a) Hugo Munsterberg: Employee Selection

3b) Given my previous answer where I talked about my fascination with I/O psychology, this one should not be a surprise. Hugo Munsterberg was a German psychologist that had great impact in the field of applied psychology. He stressed the understanding of each individual asset that a person would bring to the table. He wanted companies to put people in positions where they would excel and succeed. I find this interesting because the part about human resource that I love the most is training and development. I originally went into teaching as a freshman and quickly realized that it was not my strong suit. After becoming a corporate certified trainer for the restaurant that I work for, I realized that I may not want to teach in schools, but I am fascinated with how people learn. Understanding what people bring to the table is key to knowing how to train them.

4a) Goddard and the Immigrants

4b) Henry Goddard was very adamant that everyone should be tested to determine their intelligence level before entering into the United States. This was not very well thought out by Goddard as the book points out. The immigrants are coming to this new environment after spending an immense amount of time on a boat. They are tired, possibly sick, and dazed, and to top it all off, they are forced to take this odd test to determine their “intelligence.” It is not that I didn’t find this topic interesting. I just find the whole negative eugenics movement extremely saddening, and after studying it for so long in Human Differences, I have had my fill for a while.

5) Being an I/O psychologist, I think the topic that will be most useful for me would be the work of Munsterberg and the Army. Understanding the impact that Munsterberg had on employee selection, and understanding the impact that the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests had on placement as well as selection will give me a better understanding of the topics that I am studying now.

6) This chapter definitely builds on chapter six. In the beginning of that chapter we read about women and minorities and how they were discriminated against in the education realm. This chapter expands on that a bit with the testing done by Goddard with the immigrants. With his testing, he made broad statements about natives in different countries based on the testing done by the immigrants from that country. Similarly, women and minorities were assumed to be unintelligent because of their gender and/or race.

7a) Munsterberg and Employee Selection

7b) Munsterberg’s studies on employee selection seem fascinating to me because understanding what he said about this topic will help me in my own career.

8) The idea that kept popping into my head was my own training and development experience, especially when reading about the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests. Although I have never interviewed any one before, I have been responsible for their understanding of the material and “grading” their performance after each training shift. The reading about the tests that the Army developed made me start thinking of ways to improve my company’s own way of doing things.

9) Binet-Simon Scales, intelligence, Army Alpha, Army Beta, Hugo Munsterberg, Employee Selection, Henry Goddard, education

1a) What did you find interesting?
I enjoyed reading more about Goddard and the immigrants.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I liked this section because Goddard was a man I found interesting in a previous chapter. When the vast majority of immigrants coming to America were coming from northern and western Europe in smaller number, immigration was considered less of a problem. It became a problem when immigrants from southern and eastern Europe started making their way over in large numbers. Goddard used this opportunity to administer Binet-Simon tests. He visited Ellis Island with two of his female assistants. One of the assistants used visual aspects of the immigrants to decide if they were “defective”. The other used the Binet tests to evaluated the immigrants. Although later the Binet-Simon tests were known to be unreliable, they were frequently used at Ellis Island at the beginning of the turn of the century.

2a) What did you find interesting?
Nativism
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought this was interesting because it reminds me of how some people react to immigration today. Nativism is when people see immigrants as a danger to the country. Although I can see that illegal immigration can be a problem, some people are completely against any immigrants coming into the country.

3a) What did you find interesting?
Lillian Moller Gilbreth and Ergonomics
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
Lillian Gilbreth was a very busy lady. She had 12 children, taught at Purdue and MIT, and ran her deceased husband’s consulting business all at the same time. Before her husband passed away, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth ran efficiency studies to make their lives a little easier. Ergonomics is the study of how products and tasks can be made more efficient. Lillian continued this by creating things, such as the pop-open trash can lid, that would help save a little time. She also created the handy shelves on refrigerator doors.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Hermann Ebbinghaus and Completion Tests
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I am an education major so I was excited when I started reading this. Teachers would wonder why their kids were so tired after being in school for a straight five hours. Ebbinghaus used written tests to gage the students’ abilities and see if they change throughout the day. All he was able to do was differentiate the stronger students from the weaker. He did not find any results that had to do with student fatigue nor did he try to after his testing failed. I was a little disappointed.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
This chapter explains the beginning of applied psychology. At this time, psychologists really wanted to incorporate psychology into everyday life. This chapter also discusses the mental testing movement which I find really interesting. I think that the many discoveries talked about in this chapter will help me better understand the methods of modern mental testing.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
There are a couple names, such as Henry Goddard and James Cattell, that were discussed in previous chapters, but in this chapter, there was additional information on their works.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
7b) Why?
I learned about the Gilbreth couple in my public administration class because of their efficiency studies. I found them interesting then, so I was happy I was able to read about them for this class. I want to learn more about their very busy lives.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
When I was reading the section on Goddard, I thought back to the beginning of the chapter when I had done research on him. I remembered quite a bit of the information, but there were parts in the book that added some clarification to my thoughts.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Goddard, Binet-Simon tests, nativism, Lillian Gilbreth, ergonomics, Hermann Ebbinghaus, completion tests

1a) What did you find interesting?
Concept behind Catell's scales

1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I understand that the Catell's scales were precursors to today's IQ tests, but when it comes to determining mental intelligence capabilities, I had trouble comprehending why one would be testing physical attributes and not higher-order mental processes such as critical thinking or math computation or even memory and recall trials.

2a) What did you find interesting?
Gafford's involvement with immigration.

2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I have conflicting feelings about Goddard's mentality and his eugenics work, as while I do agree on some of his points, I feel strongly against him denying individuals of their basic freedoms. His study with the Kallikak's had seemed to produce very strong results supporting his theory of the relationship between genetics and intelligence - atleast his earlier theories before retracting it in his old age. Goddard's work with immigrants gave me a very hostile viewpoint of him, as not only was the test not revamped to a point of accuracy as today's Stanford-Binet, but expecting immigrants to be knowledgeable of American concepts is a discrimination in a nutshell due to the tests excluding nearly 80% of immigrants.

3a) What did you find interesting?
Stanford-Binet tests

3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I have always wanted to take an IQ test, and seeing the process on how the Stanford-Binet test came to be is nice to hear as it forms some type of connection with me, rather than just being knowledge that I have to remember or be forced to consume.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Redefinition of Retard

4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I am still sensitive to the word 'retard" being used, not because of my own personal connections but simply to have respect of those born into a defective life. Seeing retard be redefined again and again in such casual use, although I am aware of its actual use to define a certain point of mental capability, is something I feel strongly against.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
Seeing all the applications of psychology, in a mental field that it is already in and then seeing applied to sports and business fields, widens my knowledge of possible careers as a psychology major.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
So far the chapters have been building on psychology as a particular concept, fleshing it out to the point it can be taught in a separate field than philosophy, and now seeing its application across other fields, and offering more jobs outside of purely laboratory or professor jobs in the fields of business or sports.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
How certain questions on an IQ test correlate to locate certain mental abilities.

7b) Why?
As someone who's never taken kindly to standardized testing, I want to see the reasoning behind certain questions and why they are there and what do they really determine or reveal from a student's/participant's mental capabilities.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I became more conscious about how I perceive certain words like retard, and other words that may seem offensive to others. My thoughts also wondered to the concept behind standardized testing and to what degree of accuracy they properly depict of students.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

Catell, Binet-Simon, Gafford, Stanford-Binet, IQ, Kallikaks

1)What did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
Alfred Binet’s studies on intelligence testing. I didn’t realize that special education wasn’t really a thing until Alfred Binet came along. The lingo is really interesting, too. Terms such as Idiots, Imbeciles and Debiles were standard labels. I’ve never even heard of the word debiles before until reading this. I also didn’t realize that Binet’s personal views on intelligence were at war with his actual tests. Even though his tests measured one unit of intelligence, the mental level, Binet believed intelligence was multifaceted. He also disagreed with the common idea during his time that intelligence was fixed, and felt intelligence could be practiced and improved.
2)What did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
Terman’s studies on those who were gifted. It makes sense that some people in a society would be more gifted than others, so I’m surprised this wasn’t studied sooner. What was particularly interesting about this was the women involved in his studies. Although most of the men in his studies ended up being successful, the women in his studies ended up frustrated and unsatisfied with the lack of opportunities they had. This is interesting because now we live in a culture where females tend to be more driven than males, based on the fact that more women attend college than men and that women tend to do better in school. If you were to place the women of today in a setting like this, they would feel no differently than these women.
3)What did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
The Army Alpha and Army Beta tests. I’d heard about these tests from other classes but never actually learned about them. It is also interesting that even though they stopped using them in the military because they weren’t very effective, they were still considered a major part of intelligence testing in psychology during this time.
4)What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Why wasn't it interesting to you?
The section on James Cattell. Overall, this part is very dry and doesn’t contain much information on psychology. It contains a lot of his biography, a bit on mental testing, and how they attained statistical evidence on mental testing.
5)What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
The section on IQ testing and mental level. This is an important aspect of history in psychology because these ideas and tests are still very widely used today. It is important to know where they came from to understand what changes have been made to increase their accuracy. It is also important to know what they were made and used for originally so we can see if they are being given to students know with purpose they weren’t made for. For instance, Binet’s test was only supposed to measure one aspect of intelligence, but in the future his tests would be used to deem intelligence in its entirety. Those who understand the history behind Binet’s test know that it should only test mental level, but those without this knowledge use the results to deem intelligence and general and these affects can be damaging to those who have taken these tests and are told the results pertain to their entire intelligence.
6)How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
James Cattell is gone over briefly in a previous chapter as Wundt’s helper, but this chapter goes over him more thoroughly. A lot of themes from the progressive era are also used in the introduction to paint a picture of what was going on in history before these discoveries were made.
7)What topic would you like to learn more about? Why?
I would like to learn more about how students were treated after they were deemed gifted, idiotic, imbeciles, etc. I wonder if they were placed in certain classes after that. Were they given the opportunity to do better and move up, or were they doomed forever in the level they were placed? Has this changed over time? Were they bright students treated better than those in special education or vice versa?
8)What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I thought a lot about the intelligence testing and how this somewhat started testing for special education. Obviously, this has developed of the years. But it’s a shame that many kids were probably given this test and deemed an idiot without a specific diagnosis of their disability (ex. Dyslexia). Also, a lot about how Binet’s tests were used to judge intelligence incorrectly, and how this probably happens often with tests that are developed. For instance, the ITBS test is being used to judge performance of students and teachers, but the results are being used incorrectly by NCLB because the test was not created for this purpose.
Army Alpha and Beta test. Mental level. IQ. Imbecile. Debile.

While reading chapter 8 on the mental testing movement the first interesting subject I came across was the mental test created by James Cattell. He was the first to use the term mental test and he created this test for no specific purpose but rather to interest others about their own scores and possibly help in training. He expanded these tests when he headed up the psychology program at Columbia and wanted to test every incoming freshman to see their progress throughout their courses. The project was a major failure and failed to predict or even correlate with anything. The tests were unrelated to each other and didn’t correlate with a student’s academic success. I thought that the tests administered for Cattell’s “mental test” were poorly attributed to a student’s academic performance. Most of the tests administered had to do with sensations and reaction time which had absolutely no related effect on academics or intelligence.

Lewis Terman was another very interesting piece I read about in chapter 8. He was the one to institutionalize IQ. Terman created the first standardized IQ test based on the translated Binet-Simon scales from Goddard. These new IQ tests were called the Stanford-Binet IQ Test which is still in use today. He used a significant sample size to standardize the test the only issues being were that most of the participants were white middle class children and adolescents so this didn’t take into account the entire diverse population within the U.S. Terman created the IQ by taking the same method used by William Stern mental quotient which was a person’s mental age related to their actual age. Terman changed this mental quotient to the intelligence quotient and multiplied the ratio so that there wouldn’t be any decimal points. He believed that IQ testing was essential especially because it would be a good way to identify people who were smart and should be the leaders of the country. He though IQ was the most important thing about an individual. I liked this section because the IQ tests are used so frequently and yet and still very controversial because they don’t encompass every aspect of human intelligence.

The third most interesting thing I read about in Chapter 8 was about Robert Yerkes and the Army Testing Program. During World War I Yerkes convinced the Army that psychological testing would be very beneficial for the Army. He was hoping that these test would help identify each soldier’s special skills so that they could be properly placed where they could serve best. They test over 1.7 million soldiers but the war ended before the tests could be effectively used. Many criticized the testing because it didn’t benefit the army in any way and was more of a waste of time. This did provide a boost for the field of psychology by showing that the U.S. government was interested in the things that psychology was focusing on.

The least interesting thing about chapter 8 was the section about Walter Van Dyke Bingham. This section was very brief and was very crucial mainly because the contributions were less impactful compared to others in the chapter like Cattell, Binet, Terman, Yerkes, and Munsterberg who accomplished so much more and made large impacts on psychology.

I think the most useful subject in this chapter to understand the history of psychology would be the IQ testing because of how major of an impact it had in the U.S. and that it is the standard intelligence test used today. This paved the way for mental intelligence and took the top spot claiming to be the best measurement of a person’s intelligence. The IQ is used constantly throughout psychology especially today when diagnosing someone with a mental illness the IQ test can have a tremendous impact on what diagnosis they could receive.

This chapter built upon the previous chapter which was mainly about structuralism and functionalism. Functionalism won over eventually toward the beginning of the 20th century and which aimed at figuring out what is the purpose of consciousness for example. Mental testing and functionalism go hand in hand to figure out why intelligence is important, what it is used for, and how to assess each person’s intellectual abilities.

I would like to learn a lot more about Terman and his IQ testing and why he chose those specific 2300 participants to be the first set to standardize the IQ test. The IQ test is such a prominent factor in everyone’s life because it determines how and where one is educated and what job they will be able to obtain.

While reading this chapter I kept thinking to myself what I would score on the Stanford-Binet IQ test and whether that truly expressed my intelligence. I always believed that IQ tests were bogus because they didn’t incorporate every aspect of a person’s mental intelligence but it was still fun to think about the score I would get on the IQ test.

Key Terms: Lewis Termna, Stanford-Binet IQ Test, Hugo Munsterberg, IQ, mental quotient, mental test, Robert Yerkes, Army Testing Program, Alfred Binet, Walter Bingham, James Cattell, William Stern.

1) I thought that Henry Goddard’s research on the Kallikak family was interesting. I thought it was interesting because of the technique that Goddard used to show that feeblemindedness is hereditary. The study started with a feebleminded woman, Deborah Kallikak. She was tested over the years but never reached a mental age greater than eight, though she could sew and cook. Goddard believed that feeblemindedness was passed down through genetics. To prove this, he found and studied Deborah’s family members. Goddard and his researchers traced back her family for many generations and found that many of them were feebleminded. They also found quite few family members that were very smart. This was not expected, but when the researchers looked in to it more, they found that one man had children with two different women. One was smart and one was feebleminded. This explained why some of the family was smart and some were feebleminded. Though this study was flawed, I thought it was interesting.
2) I thought that the invention of the IQ test was interesting. There were many ways to test intelligence when the IQ test was invented. Lewis Terman (the man who invented the intelligence quotient) sort of combined and improved the previous tests to make a new one that was bigger and better. He used the work of Henry Goddard, Theodore Simone, and Alfred Binet to make this new test. He standardized it, and the final test was longer and more accurate than previous methods of intelligence testing.
3) I think that the overall message of the chapter was to show us how intelligence and intelligence testing used to be viewed and how much it has improved since then. Another big point in this chapter was how psychology can be used in business. I thought that the information about intelligence was interesting. It made me want to take some of the tests that were discussed to see how I would do on them. I didn’t really think that the section on applying psychology to business was interesting, but I don’t usually find business related things very interesting.
4) I think that learning about how intelligence tests used to work is very useful. It is good for us to see how intelligence used to be thought about so we can see just how much progress has been made in this area. Now we have more ways of measuring intelligence than most people know.
5) This chapter built on many of the previous chapters that we have discussed already. We talked about the beginning of intelligence testing in a previous chapter, and chapter 8 really built off of that by adding in more details and showing what happened after the initial interest in intelligence.
6) I would like to learn more about the intelligence testing in the army. This chapter only gave details on the army alpha and the army beta tests, and I would like to look into this topic a little more to see if there were more tests administered or what happened to the soldiers that failed these tests.
7) While reading the chapter I was thinking that it is awesome how people can take previous ideas from other people and build on them to make them better. It’s neat to see how everything started and how it has been built upon and improved since then.
8) Henry Goddard, Kallikak family, feeblemindedness, heredity, intelligence quotient test, Lewis Terman, intelligence testing, Theodore Simone, Alfred Binet, business, army alpha test, army beta test

Chapter 8: Applying the New Psychology
1) The topic I thought was very interesting was found right at the beginning of the chapter and that was how psychologist were trying to gain support for psychology and how they were going about do that. It talked about they stated how to related to other things, such as sports, and could play a huge role in improving one’s daily life. They waned to explain the newness of things such as experimental psychology and how it could benefit the general public. This put even more pressure on them to have their research create useful results that could be applied for better living.
2) The person I found most interesting was Cattell because he had original ideas and seemed very passionate about his work. I think he may have been a little eccentric, he would have to be in order to consume so many substances just to test their effects, but I thought he was super interesting to learn about. He studied reaction time and how it was impacted by attention, practice and fatigue, as well as the effects of various drugs like caffeine, morphine, hashish and opium. It was the first time I ever heard about such test being done on a human subject. I thought it was very bold and innovative for him to research that area and felt like the results would be very useful, especially for the people of that time who really had no information on the matter.
3a) I think the overall message was this chapter was psychology finding its footing, adapting, and becoming recognized as a science. I did find this chapter interesting because a lot of it was new information that had not really been covered in my other classes. I though it was interesting due to the fact that, compared to the other sciences, psychology is still very young and quickly developing. This chapter was fun to read because it showed a lot of trail and error learning and how the psychologist expanded on each other’s work and build off of the previous findings.
4) In order to better understand the history of psychology I think that learning about how the psychologist were able to get the filed recognized and grow it into what its is today would be the most beneficial. It is the most beneficial because it showed how those people were able to get a completely new topic accepted into society and what ways they were able to use it and relate it to people who had never hear or thought about the subject before. I think that the text really showed how important psychology is and how it can still be overlooked due to it still being a fairly new field.
5) I feel like this chapter builds on my knowledge about the history of psychology for the same reason that I listed above. Getting the field accepted by the public and making it aware to them was a topic that I never really studied before. It was something that I always overlooked and assumed happened on its own. After reading this text I realized that, for these psychologist, they had just as an important social role to play along side with a psychological and intellectual role as they developed the field of psychology. Being able to convince the public of its usefulness and having the pressure to create application for the field is something that, in my opinion, gives a whole new depth to the early psychologist and their work.
6a) I would love to learn more about Cattell’s studies and his results associated with them. I want to research this topic because I had never really heard about his work before and found it to be very interesting. It would help me understand his research better if I was able to know what other topics he studied and how he came to develop theories and wonder about things such as the effects of drugs or reaction time in the first place.
7) Presently, mental testing has been uncredited in a sense and people always say that it is not an accurate depiction of a person’s intellectual ability. My question would be why do they still use mental testing on such a wide scale? And if anyone has an opinion on the possibility of creating a more reliable and accurate way to measure one’s intellectual ability?
8) Terminology Used: intellectual ability, mental testing, trial and error learning, Cattell, experimental psychology, reaction time,

1) I found Terman’s idea of meritocracy to be interesting. Everyone has their idea about how to run a country. Each person’s is a bit different. However, only a select few get the chance to express their ideal government. Terman thought America would be best run as a meritocracy. This idea came from his study of the gifted. Terman believed that if we could accurately identify, train, and place people in jobs based on skill, we would have the ideal country. I find this interesting because this is sort of the route we have today. When filling out a job application, we must state our experiences, trainings, and qualifications. Based on that information, we get the job or do not get the job. I feel like Terman was onto something with this idea. Though we aren’t all tested with his IQ test, we are “tested” in other ways to determine our qualifications and in return placed in the work force.
2) I found Lewis M. Terman to be interesting because of his work with the IQ. He took the Binet-Simon intelligence test and do a lot of work to it. He uses the English version to standardize it and apply the term IQ to it. This was a huge contribution to the field of psychology. His Standford-Binet IQ test has been applied by him and many others after him.
3) The overall message of this chapter was to the pressure that psychologist had to apply their field of study. Psychologists advocated so deeply for their study, now it was time to apply it. This chapter mapped out some important steps in applied psychology. I think this is interesting because applied psychology is so important (in my opinion). Sure we can know and understand mental illness, research techniques, research findings, etc., but if it stops there psychology is very shallow. Being able to apply psychology is a huge step that we see in this chapter. It took psychology from just a low paying, low respect field to a respected and legitimate field. Being able to apply psychology makes the research and the field more respectful.
4) I think understand the first introduction bit is most important. The Desire For Application really explained where psychology was and where it was going. From that section in the chapter, we are able to understand the need to make psychology more legitimate. It brought psychology up with its times. America was in a place of vast expansion in many areas. Technology, academia, and infrastructure were advancing at a high speed, psychology needed to be brought up to the pace.
5) Last semester I took applied psychology, so the information from that class is fresh in my mind. This chapter gave me a good insight on the beginnings of applied psychology. I find it interesting to see the origins of all things. It allows me to better understand and connect with the material. This chapter also built on many of the earlier chapters. I was able to see how the contributions from past chapters were applied in later chapters. It was interesting to see ideas and contributions thrive past their originator.
6) I would like to learn more about Terman’s accomplishments because Terman was a very accomplished man. He didn’t just stop at the basics, he took everything a step further. I love that he genuinely cared about his work. This really showed in the writings of this chapter.
7) When reading about Robert M. Yerkes and his contributions to the army testing programs, I was confused. It shows that he was a great success for his time and he worked hard on the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests, but it doesn’t say what he contributed. It says that despite the millions of soldiers who took the test, the war ended before he was able to apply the findings. I wanted to know what exactly he contributed then.
8) meritocracy, Lewis M. Terman, Binet-Simon intelligence test, Standford-Binet, IQ, applied psychology, Robert M. Yerkes, Army Alpha, and Army Beta

1a) What topic did you find interesting?
-I thought that the topic of the mental testing movement was interesting, and the people that contributed to it.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
-It was interesting since I just like to learn more about mental testing in general. I also thought it was interesting that Alfred Binet studied his two daughters and used some of Galton’s sensory tests on them. I think that it was fascinating that he found that his young girls and adults scored similarly when it came to sensory testing rather than mental processing. Mental processing is where the adults were more superior in their results compared to his daughters. I liked that he also contrasted his approach to psychology, an individual psychology, with a general one. They are more concerned with the laws that apply to everyone. I also thought it was interesting that retarded wasn’t a word back in Binet’s day, but actually the term was idiots, which today would be considered offensive. Henry Goddard proposed the term moron for individuals between 8 and 12, which fits in with his mental level concept called mental age. This ties in with presentism and historicism.

2a) What person did you find interesting?
-I found Hugo Munsterberg one of the more interesting people in this chapter.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
-He captured my attention since I have a certificate in I/O psych, and I have interned all summer with an industrial engineer who studies a lot of time motion studies in the factory. I also just accepted a job for a Fortune 500 company doing human resource management at a large factory, so clearly employee selection and these studies are important to me. I liked that his greatest impact was in this field of psych and started with his book Psychology and Industrial Efficiency. I liked how he broke down his book in three broad topics that I may want to read someday. They were, “The Best Possible Man,” “The Best Possible Work,” and “The Best Possible Effect.” I think it is interesting to learn more on person environment fit, training, effects of working conditions, and advertising and marketing. These aspects of his book would be very helpful for my career, and that is why he was of interest to me.

3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
-The overall message is applying new psychology in intelligence testing and business. American psychologists had to prove that this new psychology was practical. Binet contributed to intelligence testing with his Binet-Simon Scales and mental level. Goddard tested mental age and morons, and mainly immigrants at Ellis Island. Terman contributed to it by his institutionalizing the IQ, intelligence quotient, and studied the “gifted.” Yerkes contributed with his Army Testing Program, Army Alpha and Beta. Munsterberg, Bingham, Gilberth, and Hollingworth all contributed to business practicality of psychology.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
-This chapter was one of my favorites since I am emphasizing in I/O psych and a lot of this chapter had a lot of people that contributed to what I have learned and can actually apply to my career. I mainly liked Munsterberg’s book that will help me in HR. I also enjoyed Bingham’s guide “Aids in the Selection of Salesmen,” since it is a guide of a set of questions for interviewers, and recommendations for test to be given to applicants.

4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
-I think that each person is important in understanding the history of psych since they each contributed to proving that the new psychology in America is practical, whether it being intelligence testing or business. It can be applied by all their studies and findings. This is very important since my profession in HR uses a lot of what I have learned in this chapter today. Schools also use intelligence testing starting for very young ages to help predict where they should be compared to others and what kind of classes they should take.

5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
-I have actually read about almost every single person in this chapter mainly due to my intro in psych class and I/O psych classes. The book does go into more detail than the intro to psych class. The people that contributed to applying psych in business did not go into as much detail though from this text compared to my other classes.

6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
-I would like to learn more about Walter Van Dyke Bingham.
6b) Why?
-Since I am a recruiter for a factory, it would help to know more about his guide to how to properly interview and test applicants.

7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
-What are some examples from Bingham’s guide “Aids in the Selection of Salesmen”? Why did people not think that the new psychology was practical in America? I wonder what made Goddard so interested in coming up with studying immigrants.

8) Alred Binet, individual psychology, retarded, idiots, Galton, sensory testing, mental processing, presentism, historicism, moron, mental age, Munsterberg, Binet-Simon Scales, Goddard, Terman, IQ, Yerkes, Army Alpha, Army Beta, Bingham, Gilberth, Hollingworth

1a) What topic did you find interesting?
I found the topic of industrial psychology to be interesting
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought it was interesting because of how they applied psychology to the business world. This was one of the first attempts to make psychology useful to the general public. I found it interesting some of the different experiments that people like Munsterberg and Bingham did. I also found it interesting that some psychologists like Hollingworth only did it for the extra money and they didn’t enjoy the application of the psychology. I found that weird that he would want to do something but not make it useful.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
I found Hugo Munsterberg to be interesting.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
He was interesting to me because of his work with industrial psychology. I thought his experiment with the motormen and trying to figure out who would be a good rail car driver and who wouldn’t be was very interesting. I thought it was interesting that he thought of two different ways to try and study how workers would be at a job. He thought you could test them as a whole or break the job down into smaller parts and test those. He tried to use them both for the motormen experiment but found that he would have to test them as a whole.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I thought the overall message of the chapter was interesting.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
I did think it was interesting. I thought it was cool to see how applied psychology advanced. The chapter started off talking about mental testing. It mentioned people like Ebbinghaus started the movement and how Binet and Goddard finished his work and elaborated on the concepts more. Then we saw how the intelligence tests caught on and people were interested in IQ. That helped to pave the way for industrial psychology. The public was seeing the use of psychology principles. This caused a greater demand for more principles that the public could use.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
This chapter showed how psychology advanced to be more public oriented. Now most psychologists are interested in how we can improve the general public as a whole. That is a change from when the stated and were only interested in the lab setting. When they first started they didn’t know if the results would replicate outside of the lab. In today’s psychology they depend on the results replicating outside of the lab
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
It relates and builds on the previous chapters. It is helping to put together the full picture of how psychology started and how it is today. It helps to give me a better understanding of why psychology is the way it is.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about industrial psychology.
6b) Why?
I am interested in how to improve workers. I am also interested in how they came up with a way to better select who you choose to work for you. I would like to know how this field has advanced.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post. Industrial psychology, Hugo Munsterberg, Bingham, Hollingworth, Ebbinghaus, Binet, Goddard, IQ.

1a) I found the Miles and his work with the Stanford Football program to be interesting.
1b) I found this interesting because he was able to use science and psychology to benefit a totally unrelated field like football and sports. While they published some work on their results, there hasn’t been a whole lot of information released on their findings. However, I thought this was very interesting that Miles could come up with an apparatus to measure reaction and correlate that to the coaches impressions of players speed.
2a) I found Alfred Binet to be an interesting person in this chapter.
2b) His work with individual differences and development of intelligence testing are a couple things that I found very interesting about him. He was able to come up with a method for determining the correct mental capacities for average children of a certain age, and many of his idea regarding academic performance and intelligence testing are still accurate and used today.
3a) I think the overall message of the chapter was to describe applications of what was considered at the time “new psychology”, but what would become what we know today as modern psychology. Many of the ideas, theories, and practices developed during this time are still relevant and accurate today.
3b) I found this chapter to be interesting because the ideas developed during this time changed what they knew to be psychology and brought it into modern times. It’s interesting to me to finally be able to know and understand where the psychological ideas and theories come from, and how long they have been around.
4) I think the information that I read in this chapter that will be most useful for me in understanding the history of psychology, will be the development of IQ testing and what it was first used for. Since IQ testing is still so prevalent today, It’s good to understand how it first started out and how it developed into what we know today.
5) This chapter builds upon a great deal of information that I have learned from other psychology classes and even from this class. In earlier chapters we discussed Binet, Henry Goddard and his use of IQ testing on Immigrants, and Hugo Munsterberg and diversifying applied psychology. I knew some basic information about all these topics, but this chapter was able to go more in depth about them so that I was able to understand their influence on the history of psychology.
6a) I would like to learn more about Robert Yerkes and his tests with soldiers.
6b) I just found his research during a very hard military time in US history to be interesting and one that had many practical implications. I don’t think there was enough about him or his research in this chapter to fully understand the significance of his work.
7) Why did so many psychologist study IQ testing? Was it because they found it interesting or because that’s just what everyone else was doing at the time? Why did Yerkes feel that psychological testing would be so beneficial for the Army?
8) Terminology: Walter Miles, IQ testing, Alfred Binet, reaction time, individual differences, “New Psychology”, Henry Goddard, Hugo Munsterberg, applied psychology, history of psychology, Robert Yerkes.

1a) I found the concepts of mental level and mental age interesting.
1b) I thought that it was interesting because it was the first way that they labeled mental disorders. Alfred Binet developed three types of labels to diagnose children; idiots, imbeciles, and débiles. Idiots were not able to care for themselves and were severely handicapped. Imbeciles are not as handicapped, but are unable to care for themselves. Débiles were more able to support themselves, and are able to go to school, however they are unable to learn with the other kids. I thought that it was interesting because we don’t use these words any more to describe these types of people.
2a) I found Henry H. Goddard interesting.
2b) I thought he was interesting because he brought Binet’s tests to America and used them to study others. He studied a family named the Kallikaks and their lineage. He believed that intelligence was inherited and based solely on genetics. He believed that the Kallikaks were the way they were because of past criminals and questionable morals. Goddard’s methods were questioned because there were two families of Kallikaks, very close together, and Goddard’s bias affected his research.
3a) This chapter was put in the book to inform us how psychology became more applied than it had been. It told about how psychologists didn’t want to have to make psychology applicable to the everyday citizen. They wanted to be scholars and conduct the research that they wanted to.
3b) I thought that this was interesting because when we think of research today, we often think of reasons that we are doing research. We often apply psychology to our everyday lives, even if we don’t know it.
4) I think the application of psychology to our lives is a major concept that helps us understand the history of psychology. If we didn’t ever apply psychology to people, or normal activities, the study of psychology would have become a smaller and smaller study and eventually it would have become irrelevant because people want results.
5) This chapter built on my understanding of mental tests. In other classes and throughout our lives we learn about IQ tests and mental tests. In this chapter we learned more about the origin of mental tests and it helped our understandings of the ones we have today.
6a) I would like to learn more about the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests.
6b) I would like to know how Yerkes came up with these tests. I would also like to know if the army did use these tests to place soldiers and if so, where did they place them? I would also like to know what the people who were individually tested were tested over.
7) I was wondering how the psychologists of this time ignored the environment of the people they were testing? I was wondering why they thought the genetics were the only reason for intelligence?
8) Mental level, mental age, Alfred Binet, idiots, imbeciles, débiles, Henry H. Goddard, Kallikaks, Alpha Army test, Alpha Beta test.

1a) The topics I found most interesting in this chapter were IQ tests and Terman's research on the gifted.
1b) I found this to be interested because it applied some of the psychology that had been done before and started to get at a way to test intelligence. It seems like people knew there were smarter people or those who were less smart previously but there was never really a way to test it. Even now a lot of people disagree on what intelligence means but we are able to test it through the IQ tests we now have.

2a) I found Terman to be the most interesting in this chapter.
2b) I thought Terman was interesting because he took Binet's idea of the IQ test but then went on and added to it even more. Binet originally wanted the test to identify children who needed help or special assistance with their education. Terman, on the other hand, thought about how if there were children who needed extra help there may also be children on the other end of the spectrum who did not need help at all and actually exceeded past other children. I thought it was interesting how he came up with this idea and developed it off of Binet and his original IQ test. I also found it interesting how Terman even came up with this idea and wanted to study and learn from these gifted children.

3a) I think the overall message of this chapter was to take the things we have learned in previous chapters and start applying it. One of the ways this was done was through the mental testing and IQ tests. All of the tests discussed in this chapter showed ways of applying the psychology that all the people leading up to this time had discovered or built off of. Similarly, this chapter also applied psychology into other fields as well like business. The chapter discussed things about employing psychology in business and just seeing how psychology became applied in general.
3b) I did think this chapter was interesting. I think it is cool how we got to see in previous chapters who all the main psychologists were and what there ideas were. This was mostly factual information I felt like. But then in this chapter we got to see how this information was applied and in ways we still use today. I thought it was interesting to see how the IQ test came about and think about how it is still used now and how psychology can also be applied to other areas as well.

4) I think what will be most useful in this chapter for the history of psychology is seeing all of these applications of it. I think that a lot of the time we can learn and memorize facts but we do not really know what came from those findings or research. We might know that someone thought there were gifted people or that there have always been children who were not able to do as well in school, but if we do not know about the applied psychology behind it, such as it leading to the IQ test, we do not really know all the information about it or how it may still be used today.

5) This builds on things I have learned in other classes because I had previously learned about the IQ test before. I learned in my AP psychology class about the IQ test and why it came to me and the different variations of it. It also builds on this because I did know some about Terman studying gifted children but I did not know as much as the book talked about in this chapter. I also knew about eh army tests and the controversy about intelligence but I felt like this chapter went a little bit more in depth than what I learned in other classes. It also talked about psychology in business which I knew a little bit about from other classes but mostly just knew small facts so this really helped build on that as well.

6a) The topic I think I would like to know more about is Terman's studies and what results he found.
6b) I'm not sure how much information there is on his exact studies and everything but I just thought it would be interesting to know more about them. I find this interesting because when I was in elementary school I was in some of the classes for "gifted" kids like in advanced math classes and that kind of thing, so I think it is interesting how that came to be. I also have seen research about how even just labeling a child as gifted makes them to better than children who are labeled average or labeled as not as smart. I think that shows how much perception can add into this as well.

7) The question I had about this chapter was wondering about other fields as well and how much psychology has impacted those fields. It did talk about business and that kind of thing but I just wondered what other fields were impacted by psychology too.

8) Terman, IQ test, Binet, gifted, applied psychology, intelligence test

1.) After reading this week’s chapter, chapter eight dealing with applying psychology, I found Alford Binet and his intelligence test very interesting. He, like Ebbinghaus who studied sensation, were both trying to solve a problem with education. They wanted to figure out what caused children to struggle when it came to schooling. I thought it was intriguing to learn that Binet studied his young daughters as they developed. He focused on individual differences when it came to intelligence. He compared his findings of his daughters to those who were adults. He found that there wasn’t much difference at all, and this surprised me because a child and an adult should have many differences in intelligence.

Another component, or person I found interesting in this chapter was Henry H. Goddard. He looked to Binet’s work on intelligence testing and set up his own laboratory. I found it very interesting that he took the Binet-Simon scale and modified it to test mental age of people. A person’s score would directly relate to whether or not they were a “moron”, or were very intelligent. He used his test at Ellis Island for masses of immigrants. If they did not receive a good score on this test, they would not be allowed in the country. I found this interesting, but a little harsh as well.

The last topic I found interesting was Goddard’s book he had published called “The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Hereditary of Feeble Mindedness.” This was interesting to me because Goddard believes that hereditary is the sole cause of your mentality. I agree with him, but I do believe that it is only a factor, and that there are many more components that contribute to one’s intelligence.

2.) I didn’t find anything in particular that I didn’t enjoy reading about in this chapter. But, what I could pick out, was the topic of applying psychology to business. I understand that it is very important, it just didn’t grab my attention because I do not know much or care much about business.

3.) I think what will be most useful to me in understanding the history of psychology in this chapter is that the application process is very important. People may have very good ideas, do a lot of research and experiments, but it will make no difference if they do not apply their theories. If they hadn’t, we would have nothing today.

4.) We have read about people’s theories in past chapters. Now finally we can learn about applying them. It is important to know about the application of psychology, because if it wasn’t applied, we would be left with a lot of unanswered questions.

5.) I really liked learning about Henry Goddard and his work with intelligence testing. I didn’t particularly agree with his theories, but if I study him more I might get a better understanding of what he was trying to do.

6.) I didn’t like the fact that Goddard labeled people “morons”. I don’t think it is a very nice word. I also think that people shouldn’t have been denied citizenship just because they scored badly on an undeveloped intelligence test.

7.) Alford Binet, Intelligence Test, Henry Goddard, Mental Age, Ebbinghaus

1a) What topic did you find interesting?
A topic that I found very interesting was the Army Alpha and Army Beta Mental Testing.

1b) Why was it interesting to you?
This interested me because although it was somewhat unsuccessful with the army, it broke new ground with psychology and showed how useful it could be. Another thing that I found interesting about it is that in the Army Alpha test they were told the purpose of the test and in the Army Beta test they were basically told to sit down and shut up. I wonder if this had any effect on the two tests.
2a) What person did you find interesting?
I found Hugo Munsterberg to be a very interesting psychologist.

2b) Why were they interesting to you?
Hugo Munsterberg was interesting to me because of his wide array of interest in many psychology fields. The book mentions that he contributed to experimental psychology, applied psychology, abnormal psychology, he touched on psychoanalytic theory and even was big into psychology's closely related science, philosophy. I found it especially interesting how he want from being so loved to absolutely hated with the onset of World War 1 and his German background and love of German culture.
3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I think the message of this chapter was to express the advancement of the field of psychology. The next step in history was to take this newly researched concept and ask the important questions. “What can we do with this?” “Why does it matter?” This chapter expresses how psychology studies humans more or less and how psychology can be applied to just about everything. It was applied to the army, to schools and to businesses in this chapter. Anything humans do and or are involved in can be analyzed with psychology. This, in my opinion, is why it is such a big and beloved field.

3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
Having already taken an Applied Psychology course, this chapter reiterated much of what I had already learned, just in more specific examples in details. This made the chapter interesting to me because I was able to expand my knowledge and the ideas I have on Applied Psychology.
4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
I think the most useful point in this chapter that will help me better understand the history of Psychology was on the first page. It mentioned how technology was growing and to people this meant progress. With humans ever-changing and ever-adapting, I believe psychology will follow suit. As humans and our knowledge and understanding of the world change and grow, so must our methods of studying ourselves.
5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
I have already taken an Applied Psychology course and this chapter built on that class with the title of this chapter being, “Applying the New Psychology.” As I mentioned above, this field of psychology gets rid of the notion that psychology is such a small field and all that it is, is a leather couch and beady-eyed shrink. Just about anything you do, much like math, you can bring psychology into because it helps us understand things more.
6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about Mental Tests.

6b) Why?
Mental tests have to be constantly updated and made relevant with our ever-evolving and changing world. As the chapter mentioned, the purpose of the Army mental tests were to see where a soldier could be placed in the military and be most effective yet, the method used didn't help much if at all. I'm curious as to if they've dropped this completely or still have a sort of Army placement test. I just find it interesting to see how Mental Tests and IQ tests measure our cognitive abilities and how people interpret these measurements.
7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
The first thing I was curious about was the difference of administration of the Army Alpha Test and the Army Beta Test. To me it sounded as though they treated the beta group as idiots so I'm sure this skewed their scores in some sense. Another thing I was curious about was how Hugo Munsterberg's credentials were affected after World War 1. It touched on that he became hated and an outcast but I'm curious as to if these negative feelings made them criticize his work in psychology a little bit harsher.
8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Mental Test, Army Alpha, Army Beta, Hugo Munsterberg, applied psychology, experimental psychology, psychoanalytic, IQ Test, abnormal psychology

1) What topic did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?

I found the beginning of applied psychology interesting. Applied psychology developed out of the excess number of psychologists compared to laboratories/schools. Some psychologists were hesitant to enter applied psychology because they felt it was a plan B, not as important or challenging as running a lab. I found this interesting because today, many people view this in reverse. "Those who cannot do, teach." Many people today view teaching as a plan B, not challenging, etc.

2) What person did you find interesting? Why were they interesting to you?

Henry Goddard was interesting to me because he continued with the practice of eugenics, believing that the "feebleminded" should not reproduce. He expanded intelligence tests in the United States to determine who the "feebleminded" were. In relationship to immigrants, intelligence tests were unfair, based on language, so many immigrants were declared "feebleminded" or "morons" and were unable to enter the country. I found this interesting because some people stereotype immigrants today as unintelligent, solely based on where they immigrated from. It makes me wonder if these stereotypes developed from Goddard's testing of immigrants.

3) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter? Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?

Chapter 8 focused on the development of mental testing. I found it interesting because it took eugenics to another level, another field. This allows me to connect it to how eugenics led to mental testing led to our education system today.

4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?

I think understanding the how applied psychology developed and why is important to understanding the history of psychology because it's an entire category of psychology used today. As we have mentioned in class, understanding a person's past/history can help understand one understand that person presently. This can also be applied to non-human things, such as applied psychology.

5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?

This chapter built onto a previous chapter's discussion of eugenics. Eugenics inspired mental testing, which was a focus of chapter 8.

6) What topic would you like to learn more about? Why?

I would like to learn more about mental tests and its development and if it has any influence on today's education system. I am interested in this because I plan on being a teacher some day. I want to know how my field of study came to be what it is today.

7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?

As mentioned before, I wonder if current stereotypes of immigrants were originally established by Goddard's testing of immigrants on Ellis Island.

I also wonder how mental tests have influenced the development of the education system.

8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

Mental tests
Applied psychology
Moron
Henry Goddard
Eugenics

1a) What topic did you find interesting?
I found the topic of industrial psychology the most interesting of all the topics in this chapter.

1b) Why was it interesting to you?
Industrial psychology stuck out to me because I find the idea of applying psychological principles to the workplace in order to better the workers and the company as a whole rather intriguing. I find it fascinating that the study of psychology can help us not only understand how humans work but use that information to better the world. According to Hugo Münsterberg,there were three different attributes of a business which psychology could help improve: the man, the work, and the effect. This is just so interesting to me. That we can take psychology and use it to hire better employees, improve working conditions such that worker productivity increases, and modify advertising to best attract business. The last of these is most fascinating to me. It deals with terms we have recently learned including the recency and primacy effects which I had never considered applying to the advertising world. However, I also see the importance of hiring the best people and then training them to improve productivity as crucial aspects of business as was the main focus of Walter Van Dyke Bingham. Finally, I found the time-and-motion studies conducted by Lillian Moller Gilbreth interesting as well. It is amazing the time that can be saved by simply changing the movements of a worker to a more concise pattern.

2a) What person did you find interesting?
The person I found most interesting was Lewis Terman.

2b) Why were they interesting to you?
Terman was intriguing to me because of his work standardizing the intelligence test and studies of the gifted end of the intelligence spectrum. It was his revision of the original test into the Stanford-Binet IQ Test which finally became widely used and defined what we know today as the intelligence quotient. What was more interesting was Terman’s study of gifted students as up until now most of the studies I have learned about have regarded the opposite end of the spectrum. Additionally, it is of course of interest to me that Terman’s study is the psychology’s longest running longitudinal study. It has always fascinated me what can be discovered when following a population over the course of their lifetime and that is exactly what Terman sought to do with the children his team identified as gifted. The results of his study also caught my attention as they argued against the stereotype which asserted that gifted children, although smarter, are also socially inferior and burnout more easily. By forming a close relationship with those students in his study, Terman had very low attrition and was able to follow the majority of the subjects throughout their lives. That is how he found that most of these gifted students were indeed successful adults who were well-adjusted to society, thus providing evidence against the typical stereotype.

3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
I think that this chapter aimed to show the reader that psychology has practical applications. It does not need to be confined to a laboratory but can taken into the real world to help improve society.

3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
In my opinion, the message was very interesting. Humans naturally have a pragmatic side to them and I am not exception. Although I also find it rewarding to simple discover facts about various topics through research, it is also extremely exciting to see how this research can apply to the world. So, it was nice to learn about some of psychology’s application in this chapter. It helped me better understand the importance of the field and how one can make research relevant by simply showing how it affects the everyday life of an individual.

4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?
This chapter showed me that although experimental psychology is very important, applied psychology also has a very crucial spot especially when appealing to the masses. Research in a lab forms a great foundation, but then comes the question we often ask in class, “so what?” Although many researchers are satisfied with simply discovering information that leads to a broader wealth of knowledge about the human condition, many people are not concerned with something unless they know how it affects them personally. This is why we need applied psychology, to show that experimental psychology has practical applications. And I don’t think we would want to simply stop short of applying psychological concepts to society because as this chapter also relates, there are many benefits to this application.

5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?
This chapter goes hand in hand with what we have learned in previous chapters. We have learned a great deal about the research findings of various psychologists, but this chapter took that information and showed how it could be put into action in a sense. We now see the practical importance of the discoveries that we have previously encountered.

6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about Robert M. Yerkes and the research he completed.

6b) Why?
Robert Yerkes was one of the more interesting individuals discussed in the text and I was particularly intrigued by his work on the army testing program. I would like to know more about the use of Army Alpha and Army Beta which were used in determining what position army recruits should be placed in. I also want to find out more about the importance of the tests in the wars as the book indicated that the results were not used all that much and I would like to discover how accurate the tests were and why. Finally, I would like to know if anything similar is used today in the United States or in other countries.

7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
While reading the chapter I began thinking about the concept of meritocracy as it was discussed in the section on Terman. It is interesting to think of a society which bases employment on IQ. What would that society look like? Would people be happier or not so much? Who would benefit most from this system? Would society be more efficient? Is this idea at all possible?

8) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Industrial psychology, Hugo Münsterberg, recency/primacy effects, Walter Van Dyke Bingham, time-and-motion studies, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, Lewis Terman, Stanford-Binet IQ Test, intelligence quotient, longitudinal study, attrition, applied psychology, pragmatism, Robert M. Yerkes, Army Alpha/Beta, meritocracy

1a) One topic that I found interesting was the Army Alpha and Army Beta testing during World War 1 to see where to place new soldiers.
1b) I found this topic interesting because of the application it had to aid the military. I feel that even though at the end of the war it was looked down on by higher ranked military officials, it was very helpful and made the best use out of our soldiers. By testing them and seeing where their levels of intelligence are, the military was better able to place soldiers in positions that would benefit the military the most. I also find it interesting that at the beginning the tests were favorable and almost two million soldiers took the test but as the war ended many high officials looked down on the test and so many rejected it that the army pulled the plug. The testing was not able to show the full results of its testing and placing but that is something that I wish would have been done. I also find it interesting that the field of psychology credits the military for laying the ground work for large scale testing and even contributions to the field as a whole.

2a) One individual that I found interesting was Hugo Münsterberg and his work with employee selection.
2b) Münsterberg wrote a book and the bulk of that book contained three topics; the best possible man, the best possible work, and the best possible effect. For the best possible man, he described how to select the best possible employees for the job. One study he did for this was to help San Francisco to select the best electric car drivers. He did this by creating a device that would show a section of a card for a certain amount of time and the subjects were asked to identify objects that were on the line of the card, like something in the middle of the street. He gave his recommendation that if it took subjects longer than ten minutes could be excluded. His second section was to show how to be the most efficient company. The book does not describe what studies he did to fill the chapter. The third section was on how to advertise and market which the book also did not go into.

3a) I believe the overall message of the chapter was the desire for psychology to go beyond the lab and be applied to real life. Then showing exactly how it did that by diving into mental/intelligence testing and applying psychology to business.
3b) I did find this chapter interesting because I really enjoy applied psychology and how it can help real life problems. One section of applied psychology that I am very interested in is eyewitness identification and jury selection. So reading how applied psychology was started and how is very interesting because it gives me that foundation to how my biggest interest got its start.

4) I think the intelligence testing done by Binet is the most useful thing to understand in the chapter. The intelligence testing by Binet set the ground work for other psychologists to expand on intelligence testing and applying it such as Robert Yerks and his army testing. This is also something that we use today and is one of the standards of measuring intelligence. So I think by understanding how Binet created the intelligence test and why it allows us to understand more to how and why we use the tests we use today and their applications.

5) A lot of what has been discussed in this chapter has built upon what I learned in clinical psychology. In that class we went over Binet and multiple types of intelligence testing such as Yerks. How this chapter added to my knowledge of applied psychology is the application to business. With the works of Münsterberg, Bingham, and Gilbreth which really used psychology to help aid businesses on how to be more efficient, train employees, and gain the best employees. I think by understanding these concepts and reading more about them will not only help me understand applying psychology but also how to make my future career more efficient and grow the company as a whole.

6a) I would like to learn more about Münsterberg and his other two sections of his book Psychology and Industrial Efficiency.
6b) The book covered a lot about how he studied how to find the best employees but not much about how to make the work place more efficient or on how to be the best at advertising and marketing. I feel that these things are equally important to applying psychology to business and I would have really like to learn more about it.

7) How has the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests affect the approach to army personnel work and how do we see that impact today?

8) Terms: Robert Yerkes, Army Alpha and Beta testing, Münsterberg, Bingham, Gilbreth, Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, applied psychology, intelligence testing, Binet, eyewitness identification, jury selection, clinical psychology

1a) What topic did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?

I found Lewis Terman’s studies on the intelligence quotient interesting because we still use that today. I also found Terman’s studies on the gifted to be really interesting. I think it is cool that it is the longest-running study for its time. Also the fact that it was testing how well the gifted students did throughout their lives was interesting. Terman was motivated by the thought that America should be a meritocracy which meant that he thought the people with high IQ (the gifted) should run the country and that added a darker side to the reason he ran the study. I also think it was cool that attrition did not affect his study and his lowest participation rate was 92% so the study did not lose validity due to people dropping out.

2a) What person did you find interesting?
2b) Why were they interesting to you?

I found Hugo Munsterberg very interesting. I think the fact that he made tests to see who would be better fit for certain jobs was cool. Specifically the tests he ran after he had observed telephone operators and created the speed tests. The fact that he was the first person to apply psychology to the business world is interesting because I personally forget about all of the psychology that is present in the business world.

3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?

I think the overall message of the chapter was how mental tests developed and how they were applied to different aspects of psychology. For example, mental tests were used for the military. Hugo Munsterberg adapted the mental test idea, and made new tests to see what people would fit in to certain jobs like a motorman or phone operator.

3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?

I found this message very interesting because I usually do not think about how mental tests are used in other areas of life other than education. Also seeing how drastically mental testing has changed and all the different ways it has branched off is cool to see. Seeing how we got to where we are with all of the different tests we have for career placement and IQ tests is interesting.

4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?

I think the fact that not all of mental testing was used for education and seeing how the idea of mental test branched off and evolved into applied psychology is the most useful information to me because I didn’t realize how mental tests could be used for anything except for education.

5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?

This chapter helps to build onto my previous knowledge about intelligence testing. I never knew what the tests consisted of. I also didn’t know how the tests evolved and what else they were used for and now I know that they eventually evolved into IQ tests and career placement tests.

6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
6b) Why?

I would like to learn more about eliminating fatigue in the work place and more about Lillian Moller Gilbreth and her studies. I am interested about fatigue during the work day and how shorter work days/ longer weekends can make production rates go up. The chapter also didn’t mention much about Gilbreth’s findings about fatigue and the uses of time and motion study.

7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?

How is Industrial psychology being studied today and do the older findings about fatigue in the work week still apply today? What kind of psychological testing do we do on employees today when we hire them and are those tests a good predictor of how an employee will do in that position?

8) Terms: Lewis Terman, Intelligence quotient, studies on the gifted, meritocracy, attrition, Hugo Munsterberg, applied psychology, Lillian Moller Gilbreth.

1a) What topic did you find interesting?
I was interested in the Army Testing Program.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I had not realized that this was used during World War I to aid the war effort. I think it is interesting when psychological testing is transferred from the lab into applied tasks. The fact that there were two tests made was a nice touch. The first test, Army Alpha Test was for literate individuals while the second test was for individuals who struggled with reading.

2a) What person did you find interesting?
I thought Leta Hollingworth was one of the most interesting individuals in this chapter.
2b) Why were they interesting to you?
Leta faced adversity head on at a time where women were viewed as inferior. According to the textbook, Leta “directly attack[ed] the belief that men were intellectually superior to women.” I find people who rebel against the norms of his or her time fascinating. I always enjoy learning how a prominent individual got to where they are. Her research on gifted children was revolutionary. Leta encouraged full-enrichment rather than moving a child up a grade or two. I find this interesting because it seems that moving a child up a grade is a procedure in the present. She disproved two common beliefs that were sexist in nature: one was the variability hypothesis and the other was the periodic function.

3a) What do you think of the overall message of the chapter?
The overall message of this chapter was how psychological thought processes were measured and how they could be applied. This chapter describes how psychological research can be applied to humans rather than to animals.
3b) Was it interesting to you? Why or why not?
I did find this chapter more interesting than the one that covered how philosophy and psychology used to be one and the same and then became distinct. Because I am not interested in researching psychological topics I feel that using the research that others have published would be best (It is easier to apply results than imagine solutions).

4) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding the history of psychology?

5) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to what you have already learned about the History of Psychology or to material you have learned in other classes?

6a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about how to apply psychological topics to aspects of business.
6b) Why?
I have not taken organization or industrial psychology yet and am interested in the distinction between the two fields in psychology. I have learned techniques that are applicable in the education system but not applied to the business section.

7) What ideas or questions related to what you were reading did you have while reading the chapter?
When did women become more ‘equal’ to men--- was it a sudden change or did it occur gradually?
Is psychological testing more advanced in Europe than in the United States?

Terms: Army Testing Program, Army Alpha Test, Army Beta Test, Leta Hollingworth, Gifted Children, Enrichment, Sexism, Variability Hypothesis, Periodic Function

1.The topic I found most interesting was Goddard's research into the Kallikak family and feeblemindedness. I found this topic so interesting because I always love examples of infamous flawed studies and how they got their momentum. The idea itself that feeblemindedness is a heretic, as supposedly in the case of the Kallikak family, trait is quite the tantalizing one. While the evidence seemed to pile up in support of Goddard's theory that feeblemindedness was indeed an inherited trait that he had traced through a family lineage throughout many years, it has come to light that many of the results were falsified and other details were looked over by Goddard and his assistant as they only searched for ways to suit facts to their theories, instead of looking at the true facts and forming theories off of that.
2. The person I found the most interesting was Goddard as well. This man has left quite the mark on the history of psychology, and not in the best way. Not only did his research on feeblemindedness cloud the judgement of psychology for a long time, he had a detrimental affect a large population of people through his work on immigration. Goddard used his mental test known as the Binet scale to test incoming immigrants to see if they were mental efficient enough to be allowed citizenship in America.
3.I believe the overall message of this chapter was to show us how theories in psychology were being applied int he real world, and how often they went very wrong and unchecked. I enjoyed this chapter merely because of the morbid curiosity factor. Reading about psychologist like Goddard is similar to watching a car crash, you know it's wrong but you simply cannot look away.
4.What I read in this chapter that will be most useful to understanding the history of psychology is all the mistakes that did happen. Psychology that we are familiar with today is a hight regulated and clinical field, and it is important to understand the mistakes that had to happen in order for the field to develop to where it is today.
5. This chapter builds onto what I have already learned about the history of psychology from other classes because in another class I had heard about the tests that some immigrants had to go to in order to enter the country, but it was very interesting to see how that test was developed and then implemented by other psychologists to gauge their intelligence and therefore worthiness to be allowed citizenship in our country.
6. I would like to learn more about Munsterberg's employee selection more and more modern ideas on the topic since I am planning on going into HR work and it would be very pertinent to my field.
7. I want to know what sort of mental tests go on in our society today. While these sort of tests would have been acceptable back then, I cannot imagine them going over so well in our modern society, so I am curious as to how they disguise them to protect of delicate senses of right and wrong.

8. Goddard, feeblemindedness, Kallikak, mental test, Binet scale, employee selection, Munsterberg

1a)
1b)
I found it interesting that the military asked psychologists to make tests for the intake of soldiers. Not only was testing used to place school children in classes that were level with their intelligence, but they were also using testing to decide if a recruit was intelligent enough for the military. Since it was prompted by World War I, there was need for urgency and an entire group of esteemed psychologists were assigned to the project, one of which being Yerkes. With the size of the test group being so large (ending with 1.7 million tests given), they could not hope to make due with tests that were better used for individual psychology as Binet had done when he first created them. Group tests were then used based on areas that were more military specific. What was even more interesting was that some of the recruits were literate and some were illiterate, so two different tests were then created. The first test was known as Army Alpha which was for those who were literate, and the second was Army Beta which was used for those who were illiterate. Unfortunately for Yerkes and his colleagues, the military was not as interested in continuing the tests as they were and most reviews were negative. I found this to be interesting because I noticed that the need for testing recruits for intake was something that lead the military to call on psychologists but there had not been mention of whether the military had found a need for psychology when it involved those who were leaving or had left the military, even once the war was over.

2a)
2b)
I found Terman to be the most interesting. With his complete remodeling of the Binet test into a test that was then so widely used and still greatly talked about today, and using that to examine and follow the specially gifted students, I found that he made a great impact on psychology's and society's history. By so thoroughly introducing the intelligence quotient and the mathematics used to find it, that is something that is still common in today's society a century later. I also found it interesting that, in his longitudinal study, he had incredibly low rates of attrition.

3a)
3b)
I found it interesting that most of the psychologists who were involved in applied psychology, like Hollingworth, were a part of it more out of necessity than desire. Since there were more people trained for the laboratory than there were laboratory jobs, some had to resort to the applied to have a career. I find applied psychology to be interesting, like when Coca-Cola Company asked Hollingworth to do a study on the effects of caffeine because the government was getting worried. I think the overall message was to focus on the move from laboratory psychology to applied psychology do to the pressures placed by the public and therefore by those who provided funding. The boom of applied psychology then lead to areas like ergonomics which had been started by Gilbreth. If anyone would know what would make everyday living more efficient, it would be the mother of a dozen children. The trend did not just cover America, but also in Europe with the rise of what they called “psychotechnics”.

4)
I think that the most useful part was understanding what caused the shift from laboratory based psychological research to psychological research that could be directly applied to the betterment or the function of society. Later, this could then be made into more specific areas such as advertisement, business, and the hiring process and employment overall.

5)
I had vaguely heard of the concept of the those who were considered to be the most intelligent should also be those who were in charge of the country, society, and higher professional occupations. What I did not know was that there was a specific term to describe this called “meritocracy”. I have also previously known about IQ, mental level, and mental age, but not the use of these tests on school child to determine if they needed to be in special classes and the use of the tests on immigrants.

6a)
6b)
I would be interested in learning more about how psychology was applied to business and the workplace as well as what is still used or considered to still be accurate for modern employment. I think it would be interesting to know more about what findings they had about working conditions for employees and what effects they have and which of the findings could still be applied. I think that is something that could be used more nowadays in an even more industrialized society/economy.

7)
I wondered if there was any request from the military for psychologists to test the returning soldiers to see if they were “fit to return to mainstream society” and if not, when they began that. I was also thinking about how it was interesting that the idea of circumstances affecting intelligence had not been connected as strongly so soon. Also, I commend the Gilbreths on their ability to have such groundbreaking and esteemed work and still have 12 children. Especially for the mother who ended up with 2 earned doctorates, 6 honorary doctorates, and pioneered an entire study of research. I have never been more thankful for pop-open trash cans and shelving on my refrigerator door.

8)
Individual psychology, Army Alpha, Army Beta, intelligence quotient, attrition, ergonomics, psychotechnics, meritocracy, mental age, mental level

My research this week consisted of looking into the life and contributions of Robert M. Yerkes. He was important to this chapter as he helped popularize the mental tests by using them to test army recruits. However, I wanted to learn more about these tests and any other contributions that Yerkes might have made. Surprisingly I found many interesting areas of research performed by Yerkes which were not discussed at all in the text of this chapter. Additionally, I was able to discover more information on the army intelligence testing and its implications. I found many intriguing facts which I would like to discuss here including the Yerkes-Dodson law, Yerkes work with animals with a focus on primates, and finally discuss in more detail the results and implications of the army testing program.
One fascinating piece of Yerkes’ work I came across while researching this man was a law known today as the Yerkes-Dodson law. Yerkes collaborated with John D. Dodson in an experiment on mice. They wanted to see how mental arousal correlated with performance on various tasks. To do this the researchers shocked the mice and then recorded how quickly they performed a task. The results were quite fascinating. As mental arousal increased, so did performance but only to a point. After this level of arousal is reached, it appeared to Yerkes and Dodson that performance was actually inhibited. The law is thus represented graphically by an inverted U-shaped curve. The curve was found to be shaped according to specific tasks with different tasks having different curves. Therefore, in performing a task a low level of arousal is not great and results in a lack of attention and will to work, but too much arousal distracts from the task and lowers performance. So, one must find the optimal level of arousal to have the best performance. I was fascinated by this idea and surprised that I had never heard of this law before. It makes sense to me in my everyday life even if the results aren’t exactly the same. If I am tired and have low energy, I have no motivation to complete everyday actions. However, if I am wired and thinking about a million things at once, I cannot focus and do not perform well either. I find in my life that I need to find a middle ground which seems to be what Yerkes and Dodson found as well.

Throughout his life Yerkes worked with many different animals. Mice were just one of his subjects. Yerkes was very heavily influenced by Darwinism and natural selection, so he found it worthwhile to explore the field of comparative psychology. It does make sense after all, if evolution took place, then we can gain more information about ourselves from studying not just the human brain but the brains of those organisms similar to humans. This is exactly what Yerkes did. He performed research on the entire spectrum of life from jellyfish to frogs to birds to pigs. What he is most known for, however, is his work with primates. We often hear about the similarities that can be found in primates and humans, so it was only logical to consider studying these creatures to learn more about ourselves. In his research, I found that Yerkes had three main goals including the study of sensory receptibility, habit formation, and problem-solving and intelligence. Yerkes began studying primates out of his home with chimps Chim and Panzee, but eventually established what is today known as the Yerkes National Primate Research Center located at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. His contributions in this field are numerous and today the research center continues to turn out research bettering the lives of primates and humans alike. Two of Yerkes most well-known research methods involved the study of sensory discrimination and problem-solving. He along with his colleagues developed a machine which produced various visual stimuli which the chimpanzees and other primates would then need to discriminate and then perform a specified action. Secondly, Yerkes produced the multiple-choice test which essentially quizzed the primates to see if they could indicate the correct answer. Even after Yerkes death, his legacy continues to live on as the work at the center continues. Researchers at this laboratory Yerkes established have done research in numerous different areas including the transplantation of organ, HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, and Parkinson’s Disease. Thus, one could argue that Yerkes is still adding to society by having laid the foundation for such discoveries.

The final point which I investigated further was the topic discussed in the text regarding the use of intelligence testing during WWI. Yerkes became the chairman for the Committee on the Psychological Examination of Recruits which also featured such names as Henry Goddard and Lewis Terman. They developed two different mental tests for army recruits: Army A and Army B. The first of these tests was a written test meant for those who could read and write. However, they recognized that it was possible to have illiterate recruits, thus they would use Army B for these individuals. These tests were intended to identify the best young men and recommend which should be considered for officer training. Although the results of these tests were not necessarily heavily used by the army, I was interested in the what the tests did say and the broader implications in America. First, I found that the use of the intelligence test in the military, popularized this form of classifying individual differences throughout the United States. It was also found that the majority of test takers barely scored above the classification of “moron.” This indicated to me that there must have been a flaw in these earlier tests, however people of the time attributed this result to a rapidly declining national intelligence. This was partly associated with the eugenics movement as these same individuals believed that this decline was due to the breeding of the feebleminded. Another stunning result of these tests was the conclusion that European immigrants and those with darker skin consistently scored lower on the tests than white Americans. This only fueled the growing prevalence of nativism throughout the country as they pushed to keep the unknown foreigners out of the States. The tests even confirmed some racist attitudes as it was said that African Americans scored at the very bottom of all test takers. To me this is simply a reflection of the fears resonating across America at the time. They were afraid of that which they were not familiar with and did not know how to interact with these foreign individuals. Also, they were coming to see some of the harsh realities of society and needed a scapegoat. Thus, they blamed the immigrants and anyone different from themselves. Ultimately, it was fear that won out as the United States passed quotas with harsher control over the number of people coming to the “land of the free.”

All in all, I found Robert Yerkes and his work rather intriguing. I was interested to learn about a phenomenon known as the Yerkes-Dodson Law which appears to apply to a degree to the experiences I have encountered. I also found it interesting that Yerkes was so well-known in comparative psychology and his amazing contributions to the study of primates which has led to many breakthroughs in primate and human health. Finally, I enjoyed learning more about the army intelligence tests and discovering more of the “so what?” in terms of its impact on society.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Robert_Yerkes#Yerkes-Dodson_Law
This website supplemented by information on Yerkes’ primate research and army intelligence tests and also provided information on the Yerkes-Dodson Law.

http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/yerkes-robert-m.pdf
From this source I was able to gain greater insight into the various studies that Yerkes completed on animals with particular focus on primates.

http://www.yerkes.emory.edu/about/research_advances.html
This web page gave me great information about the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the research which they have contributed to the knowledge of primates and humans.

http://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-6/yerkes-army-intelligence-tests
From this website, I learned much information about the army intelligence tests as well as their implications on American society.

Terminology: Robert Yerkes, mental tests, Yerkes-Dodson Law, Darwinism, natural selection, comparative psychology, Army A/B, individual differences, eugenics, nativism