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The Uses of Intelligence Tests Lewis M. Terman (1916)
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The Uses of Intelligence Tests
Lewis Terman
He invented the
Stanford- Binet IQ Test
He believed standardized IQ testing would be an essential tool in leveling the playing field for students and adults alike. This simple hour long test would be a way to systematically without bias categorize individuals so it can be found “to what extent a child’s mental performances are determined by environment and to what extent by hereditary”.
For instance, giving students with ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia and Autism standard IQ tests would not provide a true picture of their intelligece.
Terman boasts that, "The breif intelligence test is not only more enlightening than the [school] examination; it is also more hygenic. The school examination is often a source of worry and anxiety; the mental [IQ] test is an interesting and pleasant experience".
The paper states that a study shows half or more prostitutes are mentally weak. “That every feeble-minded woman is a potential prostitute would hardly be disputed by any one”.
At least 25% of criminals have mental weakness & physical traits are not stimata of criminality but of feeblemindedness.
Do individuals become criminals because they have an inherent mental weakness or do individuals become commit crimes after they have not had opportunities to develop their mental capacities?
Truman puts forth much evidence to support the idea that perhaps mental weakness is genetic; several hereditary studies were mentioned.
The Kallikak family- 480 decendants, 143 feebl-minded
The Hill Folk- 709 known decendents, 48% feeble-minded, costing Mass. At least $500,000
Nam Family- 784; 187 alcoholics, 232 woman/199 men licentious, 40 prisoners… costing $1,500,000
Morality depends on two things; the ability to forsee and weight consequences and the willingness and capacity to exercise self-restrain… feeble-mindedness lacks this
Several categories are defined; retarded, feeble-minded, moron, delinquents, degenerates & superior/ accelerates
- Between 1/3 – ½ of students fail to progress at accurate grade level/ rate
Could be remedied by individualizing instruction
... But tests are not always an acurate way to measure a student's intelligence
Terman felt standardize testing could even help large companies save money so they didn’t waste time training someone who was not mentally capable of performing a position’s demands.
It also could possibly help predict, to some degree, which vocational positions children would be best suited to later fill.
More than 10% of the $400,000,000 spent annually in the US is for re-teaching
Intelligence tests of retarded school children:
10- 15% are retarded by 2 or more years
5- 8% are retarded by at least 3 years