Arnold Gesell's progressive vision: Child hygiene, socialism and eugenics.

In October 1913, The American Magazine published an article by Arnold Gesell that portrayed Alma, Wisconsin (his hometown) as overflowing with the mentally and morally unfit. In “The Village of a Thousand Souls,” Gesell called for the observation and segregation of the unfit as a eugenic measure. This article explores the reasons behind this infamous article by someone who became a famous developmental psychologist and pediatrician. Gesell's papers at the Library of Congress reveal his socialist views of poverty, injustice, and human development. The archives of his father's photography studio at the Wisconsin Historical Society reveal his manipulation of the photographic record to fit his negative view of Alma. Typical of the era, Gesell's Progressive vision combined social control and negative eugenics with egalitarianism and the benevolent engineering of the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The place of eugenics in Arnold Gesell's maturation theory of child development.

Examines eugenic ideas in the context of A. Gesell's maturational model of development. Highlighting developments within the eugenics movement, the article describes the manner in which eugenic ideas were expressed in the study of psychology of individual differences. Developments in behavioral psychology that offered an alternative to biological determinism are considered. Finally, the role of anthropology as a direct challenge to the eugenics movement and its ideas is discussed. The author concludes that Gesell's early work reveals sympathies with eugenic ideas. However, as challenges to the eugenics movement mounted during the 1920s and 1930s, Gesell eventually de-emphasized eugenic ideas in his later work. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scientific cousins: The relationship between Charles Darwin and Francis Galton.

This article traces the personal as well as the intellectual and scientific relationship between Charles Darwin and his younger half-cousin Francis Galton. Although they had been on friendly terms as young men, and Darwin had in some ways been a role model for Galton, the two did not share major scientific interests until after the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859. That work precipitated a religious and philosophical crisis in Galton, which he gradually resolved after conceiving and developing the basic ideas of "hereditary genius" and eugenics. More mathematically inclined than Darwin, he subsequently contributed to the Darwinian evolutionary discussion, and to the future science of psychology, by proposing the basic concept of the nature-nurture dichotomy, the conceptual and statistical foundations for behavior genetics, and the idea for intelligence testing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mrs. Ricord and psychology for women, circa 1840.

The 1st comprehensive textbook of psychology by a woman was written surprisingly early and expressly for female students. Published in 1840, the book's full title is Elements of the Philosophy of Mind, Applied to the Developement of Thought and Feeling. It is based on the lecture notes Elizabeth Ricord used for teaching mental philosophy at the Geneva Female Seminary, where she was the school principal in the 1830s, and represents quite well the most advanced thinking of that time. This article explores the context for the work, provides information about the author, and comments on her conception of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The "never-to-be-forgotten investigation": Luella W. Cole, Sidney L. Pressey, and mental surveying in Indiana, 1917–1921.

The case of Cole and Pressey's mental survey of southern counties in Indiana provides a microhistorical view of intelligence testing and its popularization. Providing fresh insight into the nature and commerce of mental surveying outside of the Army's notorious program during World War I, this case is an example of larger phenomena at that time. Intent on popularizing their products, Cole and Pressey attended to the minutiae of the consumption and production of their psychological apparatus in their attempts to create and satisfy market conditions. Here, markets would dictate the success of their scales, and in turn mediate their psychology. I argue that the popularization of intelligence testing had as much to do with the mundane market practices of psychologists as with the intellectual practices of Army elites. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intelligence: Foundations and issues in assessment.

There is no more central topic in psychology than intelligence and intelligence testing. With a history as long as psychology itself, intelligence is the most studied and likely the best understood construct in psychology, albeit still with many “unknowns.” The psychometric sophistication employed in creating intelligence tests is at the highest level. The authors provide an overview of the history, theory, and assessment of intelligence. Five questions are proposed and discussed that focus on key areas of confusion or misunderstanding associated with the measurement and assessment of intelligence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fair Employment Practices Commission experiences with psychological testing.

To discover the extent to which psychological testing has been involved in fair employment practices proceedings in cases other than the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) case of Myart versus Motorola, a letter was addressed to each of 19 statutory state FEPCs, except Illinois. Replies were received from 14: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin. The letter asked three questions: Does the state law include any language concerning psychological tests? Has the commission promulgated any rules and regulations in regard to testing? Have there been any cases before the commission in which allegations were made that tests used in employment processing were discriminatory or that tests were otherwise involved in discrimination? The results are presented and discussed here. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Back into silk purses.

Agrees with some of the points about replacing intelligence testing with "psychosituational assessments" made by D. Bersoff (see record 1974-10145-001) in the article on psychological testing, but deplores the tone and overall conclusions concerning psychoanalytic theory and the need to scrap projective techniques. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Designing, Testing, and Interpreting Interactions and Moderator Effects in Family Research.

This article is a primer on issues in designing, testing, and interpreting interaction or moderator effects in research on family psychology. The first section focuses on procedures for testing and interpreting simple effects and interactions, as well as common errors in testing moderators (e.g., testing differences among subgroup correlations, omitting components of products, and using median splits). The second section, devoted to difficulties in detecting interactions, covers such topics as statistical power, measurement error, distribution of variables, and mathematical constraints of ordinal interactions. The third section, devoted to design issues, focuses on recommendations such as including reliable measures, enhancing statistical power, and oversampling extreme scores. The topics covered should aid understanding of existing moderator research as well as improve future research on interaction effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family environments, language, and intelligence.

Examined the relationship between family environment and children's language and intellectual abilities. 40 1st graders, 20 middle-class and 20 of low socioeconomic status (SES), were administered the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities and the WISC-R. To measure press for language in the home, an interview was conducted with mothers. Results show the middle SES group scoring significantly higher than the lower SES group on the language and intelligence measures, as well as having stronger presses for language and intellectual development in the home. However, it was found that press variables contributed little to the predictive efficiency of the model. An alternative approach by T. Williams (1974) is suggested for future research. (French summary) (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Purpose for Culture-Fair.

Comments on the article by Alexander G. Wesman (see record 1968-18802-001), in which he proposed an organization of intelligence as a composite of all past learning experiences and discussed intelligence tests and what they truly measure. The current author responds to a point Wesman made, which implied that the Culture-Fair test had been designed for no sound purpose. It is suggested that one way to distinguish between the child who truly cannot benefit from regular class instruction and one who could would be to get some measure of what he has acquired (learned) from his particular subculture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structural and moral commitment among same-sex couples: Relationship duration, religiosity, and parental status.

This study examined ecological predictors of structural and moral commitment among cohabiting same-sex couples. Structural commitment was operationalized as the execution of legal documents, and moral commitment was operationalized as having a commitment ceremony. The authors tested 2 logistic regression models using a subsample of Rainbow Illinois survey respondents. First, the execution of legal documents was examined using the entire subsample (n=190). Because antigay victimization may sensitize individuals to the importance of legal protection, actual and feared victimization were hypothesized to predict legalization. These hypotheses were not supported. However, relationship duration, a control variable, did predict legalization. The authors then used data only from those individuals who had executed a legal document (n=150) to determine those who also reported a commitment ceremony (Model 2). Parental status, religiosity, involvement with a supportive congregation, and an interaction between gender and parental status were hypothesized to predict ritualization. Only religiosity and parental status emerged as significant. Results from this study demonstrate the importance of distinguishing between legalization and ritualization. Further, they extend knowledge about how same-sex couple commitment is shaped by noncouple factors, such as time, individual religiosity, and parental status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The concept of intelligence and its role in lifelong learning and success.

This article proposes a definition of intelligence as comprising the mental abilities necessary for adaptation to, as well as selection and shaping of, any environmental context. According to this definition, although the behavior that is labeled as intelligent may differ from 1 environmental context to another, the mental processes underlying this behavior do not. An individual's ability to apply these processes may differ from 1 context to another, however. The abilities are applied to achieve external correspondence to the world and internal coherence among various knowledge and belief structures. The relevance of the definition for understanding current theories, testing in the field of intelligence, as well as for understanding the role of intelligence in lifelong learning is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nature, decay, and spiraling of the effects of fear-inducing arguments and HIV counseling and testing: A meta-analysis of the short- and long-term outcomes of HIV-prevention interventions.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 26(6) of Health Psychology (see record 2007-16656-022). Several corrections that were omitted are found in this erratum.] Objective: To examine the long-term efficacy of both fear-inducing arguments and HIV counseling and testing at encouraging and maintaining knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention, as well as condom use. Design: Analyses were conducted with a sample of 150 treatment groups and 34 controls and included measures of change at an immediate follow-up and a delayed follow-up. Main outcome measures: The main outcome measures were perceived risk of HIV infection, knowledge about HIV, and condom use. Results: Results indicated that receiving fear-inducing arguments increased perceptions of risk at the immediate follow-up but decreased knowledge and condom use, whereas resolving fear via HIV counseling and testing decreased perceptions of risk and increased knowledge and condom use at both the immediate and delayed follow-ups. The effects on perceived risk and knowledge decreased over time, but the effects on condom use became more pronounced. Conclusion: Inducing fear is not an effective way to promote HIV-relevant learning or condom use either immediately following the intervention or later on. However, HIV counseling and testing can provide an outlet for HIV-related anxiety and, subsequently, gains in both knowledge and behavior change immediately and longitudinally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vocabulary Testing.

The point made by Anastasi (see record 1967-08794-001) is most timely. A distressingly high percentage of psychologists still are at the mass stage, developmentally speaking, in their perception of intelligence tests and intelligence testing. Simple differentiations are woefully infrequent in evidence. Many educators have employed Wechsler Performance scores, in their "predictive" thinking, as though they "said" the same thing as the Verbal scores. Articles tend often to be accepted for publication, and the research on which they were based too often to be directed, reflecting an assumption that a vocabulary test is a vocabulary test is a vocabulary test--where scores on, say, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test are taken, at least implicitly, to reflect the same phenomenon as do scores on the Binet vocabulary test, or on a multiple-choice type of vocabulary test. No apparent awareness is in evidence of a sensitivity to a difference between the identification of pictures and verbal labels, the verbal production of definitions, and/or the recognition of verbal equivalents or similarities. Also, psychologists who have been trained primarily with or on adults, with respect to whom IQs can have certain limited value, tend to think of children in similar terms when in reality even a good IQ has very limited value to the elementary class teacher. This studious impoverishment of test information is further perpetuated by group test publishers who refrain from providing level scores that could be of help to elementary level teachers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comment on "Race, IQ, and the middle class" by Trotman: Rampant false conclusions.

In a recent article, F. K. Trotman (see record 1978-06591-001) obtained parental responses to a childrearing interview in Black and White samples and correlated the responses with the achievement and intelligence indexes of the children. The correlations were quite high, making it clear that adjustment for racial differences in parental responses would all but remove racial differences in achievement and intelligence of the children. Trotman makes several erroneous conclusions on the basis of this result, and the present author points out these conclusions. In particular, it is shown how Trotman's study says nothing important about the nature–nurture issue as it applies to racial differences in intelligence. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)