Testing and Individual Differences
KEY TERMS
Standardized test
Norms
Standardization sample
Psychometrician
Reliability—split-half, test-retest, equivalent form
Validity—face, criterion-related (concurrent and predictive), construct
Aptitude test
Achievement test
Intelligence
Fluid intelligence
Crystallized intelligence
Multiple intelligences
Triarchic theory of intelligence
Emotional intelligence
Stanford-Binet IQ test
Wechsler tests (WAIS, WISC, WPPSI)
Normal distribution
Heritability
Flynn effectKEY PEOPLE
Francis Galton
Charles Spearman
Howard Gardner
Daniel Goleman
Robert Sternberg
Alfred Binet
Louis Terman
David WechslerOVERVIEW
We all take many standardized tests and receive scores that tell us how we perform. Given the world in
which we have grown up, it is almost unimaginable that there ever could have been a time during which
people’s mental abilities were not measured and tested. Francis Galton was a pioneer in the study of
human intelligence and testing, who initiated the use of surveys for collecting data and developed and
applied statistics toward its analysis. In this chapter, we will review what makes for a good test, how to
interpret your scores on such tests, and what different kinds of tests exist. Then we will focus on one of
the most tested characteristics of all, intelligence.