widespread use of intelligence tests went largely
unchallenged. However, by the end of the 1960s,
everyone from psychologists to consumer advocates
seemed to be attacking the validity of these tests.
Basically, the argument was that such tests discrimi-
nate through the inclusion of unfair items.
As a result of a lengthy civil rights suit (Larry P.
v. Wilson Riles) begun in 1971, the California State
Board of Education in 1975 imposed a moratorium
on the use of intelligence tests to assess disabilities in
African Americans. The court held that IQ testing is
prejudicial to African American children and tends
to place them, without real justification, in allegedly
stigmatizing programs for cognitively impaired
individuals. Others disputed the court’s judgment,
however. Some African Americans contemplated a
court challenge of the ruling, claiming it assumed
that African Americans would do poorly on the
tests. Still others argued that IQ testing is not a
social evil but the principal means by which we
can right the wrongs imposed upon minorities by
a devastating environment.
Stephen Gould’s (1981) popular book The
Mismeasure of Manwas a scathing critique of the
intelligence testing movement and of the“reifica-
tion” of the notion of intelligence. Essentially,
Gould argued that theorists such as Spearman (see
below) mistakenly accorded general intelligence, or
g, the status of a true entity because of their misun-
derstanding of factor analytic techniques. Further,
Gould contended that those arguing for the herita-
bility of intelligence were in some cases mistaken
and in other cases guilty of fraud. Gould’s book was
a huge success that further intensified the attack on
intelligence testing.
This rather heated debate resurfaced in the 1990s
with the publication ofThe Bell Curve(Herrnstein &
Murray, 1994). In this book, Herrnstein and Murray
reviewed the concept of intelligence, recounted the
history of intelligence testing, responded to many of
the critiques offered by Gould (1981), and delved
into public policy issues such as poverty, crime, wel-
fare, and affirmative action. Even today, the merits of
the Herrnstein and Murray book continue to be
debated (Alderfer, 2003; Nisbett, 2009; Sternberg,
Grigorenko, & Kidd, 2005). Box 7-1 briefly presents
some of the more controversial aspects of this book.
Whatever the outcome of all the controversy, it does
illustrate that intellectual assessment is not an obscure
academic activity; it is right there in the midst of
contemporary social and public policy issues.
There is little question that intelligence tests
have been misused at times in ways that have penal-
ized underrepresented groups. There is also little
doubt that some tests have contained certain items
that have adversely affected the performance of some
minorities. We should, therefore, do everything we
can to develop better tests and to administer and
interpret them in a sensitive fashion. However,
banning tests seems an inappropriate cure that may
ultimately harm the very people who need help.The Concept of Intelligence
Two issues that have plagued psychologists from
the beginning are still not resolved (Sternberg
et al., 2005; Wasserman & Tulsky, 2005; White,
2000). First, exactly what is meant by the termintel-
ligence? Second, how do we develop valid instru-
ments for measuring it? In this section, we address
both questions. But first, we need to review the
psychometric concepts of reliability and validity.Brief Review of Reliability and Validity
As we discussed in the previous chapter, all inter-
views and tests must demonstrate both reliability
and validity to be useful. Tables 7-1 and 7-2 present
brief definitions of the most common forms of
reliability and validity used to evaluate psychologi-
cal tests.Reliability. With regard to psychological tests,
reliability refers to the consistency with which indi-
viduals respond to test stimuli. There are several
ways of evaluating reliability. First, there istest–retest
reliability—the extent to which an individual makes
similar responses to the same test stimuli on repeated
occasions.Ifeachtimewetestapersonweget194 CHAPTER 7