Special fields of psychology

child’s ability to do as well as average children who were older, younger,

or equivalent in chronological age. The deviation IQ used today expresses

the individual’s position in comparison to a representative group of people

of the same age. The average IQ is set at 100; about half of those who take

the test achieve scores between 90 and 110. IQ scores may vary according to

testing conditions, and, thus, it is advisable to understand results of the

tests as falling within a certain range, such as average or superior.

Interest Inventories. Self-report questionnaires on which the subject

indicates personal preferences among activities are called interest

inventories. Because interests may predict satisfaction with some area of

employment or education, these inventories are used primarily in guidance

counseling. They are not intended to predict success, but only to offer a

framework for narrowing career possibilities. For example, one frequently

used interest inventory, the Kudor Preference Record, includes ten clusters

of occupational interests: outdoors, mechanical, computational, scientific,

persuasive, artistic, literary, musical, social service, and clerical. For

each item, the subject indicates which of three activities is best or least

liked. The total score indicates the occupational clusters that include

preferred activities.

Objective Personality Tests. These tests measure social and emotional

adjustment and are used to identify the need for psychological counseling.

Items that briefly describe feelings, attitudes, and behaviors are grouped

into subscales, each representing a separate personality or style, such as

social extroversion or depression. Taken together, the subscales provide a

profile of the personality as a whole. One of the most popular

psychological tests is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

(MMPI), constructed to aid in diagnosing psychiatric patients. Research has

shown that the MMPI may also be used to describe differences among normal

personality types.

Projective Techniques. Some personality tests are based on the phenomenon

of projection, a mental process described by Sigmund Freud as the tendency

to attribute to others personal feelings or characteristics that are too

painful to acknowledge. Because projective techniques are relatively

unstructured and offer minimal cues to aid in defining responses, they tend

to elicit concerns that are highly personal and significant. The best-known

projective tests are the Rorschach test, popularly known as the inkblot

test, and the Thematic Apperception Test; others include word-association

techniques, sentence-completion tests, and various drawing procedures. The

psychologist’s past experience provides the framework for evaluating

individual responses. Although the subjective nature of interpretation

makes these tests particularly vulnerable to criticism, in clinical

settings they are part of the standard battery of psychological tests.

Interpretation of Results

The most important aspect of psychological testing involves the

interpretation of test results.

Scoring. The raw score is the simple numerical count of responses, such as

the number of correct answers on an intelligence test. The usefulness of

the raw score is limited, however, because it does not convey how well

someone does in comparison with others taking the same test. Percentile

scores, standard scores, and norms are all devices for making this

comparison.

Percentile scoring expresses the rank order of the scores in percentages.

The percentile level of a person’s score indicates the proportion of the

group that scored above and below that individual. When a score falls at

the 50th percentile, for example, half of the group scored higher and half

scored lower; a score at the 80th percentile indicates that 20 percent

scored higher and 80 percent scored lower than the person being evaluated.

Standard scores are derived from a comparison of the individual raw score

with the mean and standard deviation of the group scores. The mean, or

arithmetic average, is determined by adding the scores and dividing by the

total number of scores obtained. The standard deviation measures the

variation of the scores around the mean. Standard scores are obtained by

subtracting the mean from the raw score and then dividing by the standard

deviation.

Tables of norms are included in test manuals to indicate the expected range

of raw scores. Normative data are derived from studies in which the test

has been administered to a large, representative group of people. The test

manual should include a description of the sample of people used to

establish norms, including age, sex, geographical location, and occupation.

Norms based on a group of people whose major characteristics are markedly

dissimilar from those of the person being tested do not provide a fair

standard of comparison.

Validity. Interpretation of test scores ultimately involves predictions

about a subject’s behavior in a specified situation. If a test is an

accurate predictor, it is said to have good validity. Before validity can

be demonstrated, a test must first yield consistent, reliable measurements.

In addition to reliability, psychologists recognize three main types of

validity.

A test has content validity if the sample of items in the test is

representative of all the relevant items that might have been used. Words

included in a spelling test, for example, should cover a wide range of

difficulty.

Criterion-related validity refers to a test’s accuracy in specifying a

future or concurrent outcome. For example, an art-aptitude test has

predictive validity if high scores are achieved by those who later do well

in art school. The concurrent validity of a new intelligence test may be

demonstrated if its scores correlate closely with those of an already well-

established test.

Construct validity is generally determined by investigating what

psychological traits or qualities a test measures; that is, by

demonstrating that certain patterns of human behavior account to some

degree for performance on the test. A test measuring the trait “need for

achievement,” for instance, might be shown to predict that high scorers

work more independently, persist longer on problem-solving tasks, and do

better in competitive situations than low scores.

Controversies. The major psychological testing controversies stem from two

interrelated issues: technical shortcomings in test design and ethical

problems in interpretation and application of results. Some technical

weaknesses exist in all tests. Because of this, it is crucial that results

be viewed as only one kind of information about any individual. Most

criticisms of testing arise from the overvaluation of and inappropriate

reliance on test results in making major life decisions. These criticisms

have been particularly relevant in the case of intelligence testing.

Psychologists generally agree that using tests to bar youngsters from

educational opportunities, without careful consideration of past and

present resources or motivation, is unethical. Because tests tend to draw

on those skills associated with white, middle-class functioning, they may

discriminate against disadvantaged and minority groups. As long as unequal

learning opportunities exist, they will continue to be reflected in test

results. In the U.S., therefore, some states have established laws that

carefully define the use of tests in public schools and agencies. The

American Psychological Association, meanwhile, continues to work actively

to monitor and refine ethical standards and public policy recommendations

regarding the use of psychological testing.

8. Development psychology

Developmental Psychology study of behavioral changes and continuity

from infancy to old age. Much emphasis in psychology has been given to

the child and to the deviant personality. Developmental psychology is

particularly significant, then, in that it provides for formal study of

children and adults at every stage of development through the life

span.

Developmental psychology reflects the view that human development and

behavior throughout the life span is a function of the interaction

between biologically determined factors, such as height or temperament,

and environmental influences, such as family, schooling, religion, and

culture. Studies of these interactions focus on their consequences for

people at different age levels. For example, developmental

psychologists are interested in how children who were physically abused

by their parents behave when they themselves become parents. Studies,

although inconclusive, suggest that abused children often become

abusive parents.

Other recent studies have focused on the relationship between the aging

process and intellectual competence; contrary to the traditional notion

that a person’s intellectual skills decline rapidly after the age of

55, research indicates that the decline is gradual. American studies of

adulthood, building on the work of Erik Erikson, point to stable

periods with a duration of 5 to 7 years, during which energy is

expended on career, family, and social relationships, punctuated by

“transitional” periods lasting 3 to 5 years, during which assessment

and reappraisal of major life areas occurs. These transitional periods

may be smooth or emotionally stormy; the “midlife crisis” is an example

of such a transition. Whether such transitions are the same for men and

women, and whether they are universal, is currently under study.

9. Social psychology

Social Psychology branch of psychology concerned with the scientific

study of the behavior of individuals as influenced, directly or

indirectly, by social stimuli. Social psychologists are interested in

the thinking, emotions, desires, and judgments of individuals, as well

as in their overt behavior. An individual’s inner states can be

inferred only from some form of observable behavior. Research has also

proved that people are affected by social stimuli whether or not they

are actually in the presence of others and that virtually everything an

individual does or experiences is influenced to some extent by present

or previous social contacts.

Development of Theory. Social psychology is rooted in the earliest

intellectual probes made by individuals into their relations with

society. Many of the major problems of concern to contemporary social

psychology were recognized as problems by social philosophers long

before psychological questions were joined to scientific method. The

questions posed by Aristotle, the Italian philosopher Niccol

Machiavelli, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, and others

throughout history are still asked, in altered form, in the work of

present-day social psychologists.

The more recent history of social psychology begins with the

publication in 1908 of two textbooks—each having the term social

psychology in its title—that examine the impact of society on the

development and behavior of individuals. One of these was written by

the British psychologist William McDougall, and the other by the

American sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross. McDougall framed a

controversial theory of human instincts, conceived of as broad,

purposive tendencies emerging from the evolutionary process. Ross, on

the other hand, was concerned with the transmission of social behavior

from person to person, such as the influence of one person’s emotions

on another’s in a crowd, or the following of fads and fashions.

Another textbook on social psychology, published in 1924 by the

American psychologist Floyd H. Allport, had an important influence on

the development of social psychology as a specialization of general

psychology. Allport extended the principles of associative learning to

account for a wide range of social behavior. He thus avoided reference

either to such mysterious social forces as were proposed by Ross or to

the elaborate instinctive dispositions used by McDougall and his

followers to account for social behavior. Through the remainder of the

decade, the literature of social psychology continued to be devoted to

similar discussions and controversies about points of view, and little

empirical work, that is, work relying on experience or observation, of

theoretical or practical significance was done.

Early Experimentation. In the 1930s empirical research was first

undertaken on such matters as animal social behavior, group problem-

solving, attitudes and persuasion, national and ethnic stereotypes,

rumor transmission, and leadership. The German-American psychologist

Kurt Lewin emphasized the necessity of doing theoretical analysis

before conducting research on a problem, the purpose of the research

being to clarify explanatory mechanisms hypothesized to underlie the

behavior being studied. The theory proposes an explanation of certain

behavior and allows the investigator to predict the specific conditions

under which the behavior will or will not occur. The investigator then

designs experiments in which the appropriate conditions are

methodically varied and the occurrence of the behavior can be observed

and measured. The results allow modifications and extensions of the

theory to be made.

In 1939 Lewin together with two of his doctoral students published the

results of an experiment of significant historical importance. The

investigators had arranged to have the same adults play different

leadership roles while directing matched groups of children. The adults

attempted to establish particular climates—that is, social

environmental conditions—of democratic, autocratic, or completely

laissez-faire leadership. The reactions of the children in the groups

were carefully observed, and detailed notes were taken on the patterns

of social interaction that emerged. Although the experiment itself had

many deficiencies, it demonstrated that something as nebulous as a

democratic social climate could be created under controlled laboratory

conditions.

The originality and success of this research had a liberating effect on

other investigators. By the end of World War II, an outpouring of

experimental research involving the manipulation of temporary social

environments through laboratory stagecraft began. At the same time,

important advances occurred in nonexperimental, or field, research in

social psychology. The objective rather than the speculative study of

social behavior is the current trend in social psychology.

Research Areas. Social psychology shares many concerns with other

disciplines, especially with sociology and cultural anthropology. The

three sciences differ, however, in that whereas the sociologist studies

social groups and institutions and the anthropologist studies human

cultures, the social psychologist focuses attention on how social

groups, institutions, and cultures affect the behavior of the

individual. The major areas of research in social psychology are the

following.

Socialization. Social psychologists who study the phenomena of

socialization, meaning the process of being made fit or trained for a

social environment, are interested in how individuals learn the rules

governing their behavior toward other persons in society, the groups of

which they are members, and individuals with whom they come into

contact. Questions dealing with how children learn language, sex role,

moral and ethical principles, and appropriate behavior in general have

come under intensive investigation. Also widely studied are the methods

by which adults learn to adapt their patterns of behavior when they are

confronted by new situations or organizations.

Attitudes and Attitude Change. Attitudes have generally been regarded

as learned predispositions that exert some consistent influence on

responses toward objects, persons, or groups. Attitudes are usually

seen as the products of socialization and therefore as modifiable.

Because the behavior of a person toward others is often, although not

always, consistent with his or her attitudes toward them, the

investigation of how attitudes are formed, how they are organized in

the mind, and how they are modified has been considered of great

practical as well as theoretical importance.

The discovery that attitudes follow from behavior as well as vice versa

emerges from the well-tested assumption that people desire to preserve

logical consistency in their views of themselves and their

environments. A number of theories of cognitive consistency have become

important in social psychological thinking. These theories stress the

idea that individuals have a personal stake in believing that their own

thoughts and actions are in agreement with one another, and that

perceiving inconsistency between one’s actions and thoughts leads to

attempts to reduce the inconsistency. Through research, social

psychologists attempt to understand the conditions under which people

notice an inconsistency and the conditions under which they will

attempt to reduce it by changing significant attitudes. Studies support

the consistency-theory prediction that the attitudes of a person about

a group of people can often be changed by inducing the person to change

his or her behavior toward the group; the attitude change represents

the efforts of the person to bring his or her ideas about the group

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