Background and history of intelligence testing

Background and history of intelligence testing The first intelligence test to be administered was in France in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Theophile Simon. The purpose of the first intelligence test was to identify mentally deficient children in French public Schools (Franklin 2007). Henry Goddard followed and, translated the intelligence test in 1910, and administered it to what he believed were four hundred children who lacked intellectuality and following year the number of students increased to two thousand white children considered normal. (Franklin 2007). In 1911 Goddard was to produce a range of scores that was to be compared to urban, native born foreign born, and others. Suggesting that children cannot learn beyond the scope of their grade of intelligence and was the first to suggest that intelligence tests measured the how much a child was capable of learning at a chronological age (Franklin 2007). Since these tests, an array of intelligence test has been administered to people in attempts to measure a person cognitive abi lity. Assessing students abilities through intelligence testing has questioned of the appropriateness of psychometric measures in regards to reliability and validity. Reliability regarding relies on consistency. For a test to be able to show consistency, error variance must be minimized. Test construction, test administration and test scoring and interpretation are the main three areas of error variance that can affect reliability (Cohen and Swerdilk 2010). It was argued , Simon Binets test needed to be revised in 1937 because the test originally administered in 1917 showed tasks not always as well chosen s those for ages from six to twelve and that upon retesting black students social scientist had shown that black students had received a higher intelligence score(Franklin 2007) . Regarding validity, in the early 1920s black social scientists debated what intelligence testing was measuring. Validity should be psychometrically sound to avoid test bias. Howard Longs research shows the Armys Alpha and Beta test yielded results that were greater in variation of individuals and groups within races than between races (Franklin 2007). Bond a director of Education at Langston University in Oklahoma also agreed explaining that the army intelligence score were a reflection of social and environmental impacts rather than innate intellectual abilities of those tested (Franklin 2007). The Brisbane Catholic Education, concentrated on refugees that seemed to be misrepresented as having an intellectual disability. The argument is that the validity of standardized cognitive tests is not able to measure peoples intelligence from a different background and implying that psychometric instruments had not yet been developed in their country (Fraine and Mcdade). Tests that were stan dardized to certain background schooling experience, level and quality of education and conceptions of behavior test taking experience would affect certain groups if taken the intelligence test(Fraine and Mcdade). There has been problem in intelligence testing and psychometric properties in relation to non- linguistics intelligence testing. In a study results show that although the Ravens Progressive Matrices is supposed to be a culture fair IQ test people from English speaking backgrounds did much better scoring 96.71 that people from Zimbabwean sample that scored 72.36 (Shuttleworth-Edwards, Kemp, Rust, Muirhead, Hartman, and Radloff 2004). Fairness is also a concern when a person takes an intelligence test. Controlling reliability and validity of a intelligence test shows a sound measurement, fairness aims at explaining the test and if it is used in a justifiable way. African refugees have been described as intellectually disable upon Australian schools. The Brisbane Catholic Education in Australia believes refugees from African backgrounds are labeled intellectually disabled upon completing intelligence test and other assessment of consideration such language barriers, culture difference acculturation trauma and previous experiences make it harder for psychologists to assess whether an African American is genuinely intellectually disabled(Fraine and Mcdade). Similar findings displayed that social conditions and low-test scores were highly correlated when measuring mental ability (Franklin 2007). When testing non -linguistic most children scored in the normal range, however these children were black and placed in a sch ool that separated white children from black children (Franklin 2007). The aim of this study is to check for sound psychometric measurements and culture bias when comparing different groups and the intelligence test taken. It is hypothesized that The PSYGAT will show good internal consistency and validity when tested against the Queendom Verbal. It is hypothesizes that the PSYGAT will show low when tested against the culture fair test. The Queendom tests are a verbal and a culture fair IQ test that are believed to have psychometric properties. The PSYGAT is a intelligence verbal test that was created by third year undergraduate psychology students. The PSYGAT was correlated well with the ACER AL a test that was designed by the Australian Council for Education for testing verbal abilities. Method Participants The sample consisted of three hundred and thirty seven undergraduate psychology students recruited from Monash University. Participants were recruited from campuses located at Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa, Clayton, and Caulfield. Participants were split into English speaking background and non-English speaking backgrounds. There were two hundred and sixty females and sixty-eight males. Two hundred and forty four participants were from an English Speaking background and ninety-three participants were from a Non English Speaking background. Materials Participants engaged in taking three intelligence tests. The tests were to be taken in their own time under no supervision. Participants used the computer to complete the three intelligence tests. Just before beginning the PSYGAT intelligence test a questionnaire asked the participants of the sex age and whether they were from an English or non- English speaking background. All participants results would be analyzed at a later stage regarding item analysis. Procedure Undergraduate monash psychology students were asked to complete three intelligence tests that would be administered via computer. Firstly, every participant found access to a computer to participate in the first intelligence test. The first test that was taken was the Queendom Verbal IQ test. Participants attempted the three tests it in their own time and were told that the test should take them approximately 30-35 minutes to complete. After Participants finished the test, they were asked to make sure to keep a track of their score, as they needed the results for later purposes. The second test was the Queendom Culture Fair IQ test. The test involved answering 20 items that participants were told there was no time limits on this test. After completion of this test, participants kept a record of their score. The third test was the PSYGAT. The PSYGAT was a verbal test constructed by third year undergraduate students. Participants were also asked to complete this test as the third and l ast test. Before beginning, the test participants were asked to enter the scores of the Queendom verbal and Queendom culture fair IQ test before continuing to be tested on the PSYGAT verbal IQ test. The test also asked participants of their age and gender and if they were of English or from a Non English background. Results Pearsons r investigated the relationship between the PSYGAT test, Queendom verbal IQ and the Queendom culture fair IQ for English and non-English speaking backgrounds. Pearsons r showed that that there was a significant result according to the relationship of the PSYGAT and Queendom verbal in both the English speaking background group ,r=.433,n=244,p0.05 but a small significant relationship between the PSYGAT and the Queendom culture fair for the non English speaking background group , r=.238,n 93,p0.05. Z scores were also used to determine if there was a significant difference in validity coefficients between the two groups regarding the PSYGAT and Queendom verbal and the PSYGAT and culture fair IQ. Pearsons r-values were transformed into Z scores to determine a statistical significance of the correlations between groups. Pearsons r-values were also transformed into z scores because of participant difference for each group. Results show that there was not a statistical significant d ifference in validity coefficients between the English and non English speaking background of the correlation between the PSYGAT and the Queendom verbal IQ z=-1.39,p>0.05. However a large statistical significance was shown in the correlation between the PSYGAT and the culture fair IQ z=3.73, p> 0.05. Discussion The aim of this study was to check for sound psychometric measurments and culture bias when comparing different groups and the intelligence test taken. It was hypothesized that the PSYGAT and the Queendom verbal would show no statistical significance in validity coefficients between the English speaking groups and non-English speaking groups. It was also hypothesized that there would be a statistical significance in validity coefficient between the PSYGAT verbal and the Queendom culture fair. The study showed that there was weak validity regarding the PSYGAT and Culture Fair IQ tests. Although there was The results of the study-undertaken reveal that intelligence tests can show bias of different groups. These biases from this study can be related to lack of understanding cultural backgrounds as well as using relevant psychometric measures, which can be linked to low validity in intelligence tests. Bonds argument that social and environmental differences in groups can affect test scores are may suggest similarities within this study in regards to the social setting and environment of participants that took the test. The Intelligence and School Achievement of Negro Children also showed that social conditions were highly correlated with low-test score (Franklin 2007). The results from this study show a significant statistical result between groups for the PSYGAT and culture fair test suggesting that social and environmental differences upon taking the test could have caused bias. In addition, The Brisbane Catholic Education argues that psychologists assessing refugees for intellectual abilities may show bias in their assessment due to lack of proper interpretation (Fraine and Mcdade). That is background-schooling experience, level and quality of education and conceptions of behavior test taking experience can reduce a test score for a certain type of group (Fraine and Mcdade). Th is Study could have affected one group more than another because of such factors. Suggestion of having psychometric instruments that can measure intelligence scores for different types of groups should also be developed in both countries to reduce bias in regards to cultural differences. In this case, Intelligence tests need to have psychometric properties that can be valid for analyzing score between different groups Cohen and Swerdilk 2010). Similar findings were found when people from English speaking background and non-English speaking backgrounds were tested on their IQ. Results show that although the Ravens Progressive Matrices is supposed to be a culture fair IQ test people from English speaking backgrounds did much better scoring 96.71 that people from Zimbabwean sample that scored 72.36 (Shuttleworth-Edwards, Kemp, Rust, Muirhead, Hartman, and Radloff 2004). Zindi also suggests that lack of westernized test sophistication may be the cause for lower scores (Shuttleworth-Edwards, Kemp, Rust, Muirhead, Hartman, and Radloff 2004). This study may have contribu ted to some cultural bias in regards to scores because of one of the test may not have been up to standards in regards to psychometric measures regarding content validity. The limitations in this study could have affected the results. Firstly, the way the three tests were administered could have yielded different intelligence scores for both the groups. Supervising the test takers making sure that the tests were taken without any aid of books or other people could change the results, which could have yielded different interpretation of the validity of the tests. In addition, although there was good internal reliability between the groups the large difference in participants could have changed the chronbachs alpha to either a higher or a lower value. Participant range could have also affected the statistical difference between the groups when assessing the PSYGAT and culture fair IQ component of the study. In addition item analyses should also be investigated to check whether the items begin tested are fair to all participants taking the intelligence test. That is one question could portray more than one meaning to different participants taking the test . Cole suggests item analyses is a difficult task because one must ensure that the item being used is relevant in construct therefore affecting bias (Cole 1989).

Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank

Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 for their efforts in creating economic and social development for the masses below.The Chairman of the Nobel Committee said in his prize announcement speech that poverty is reduced if large groups of people work towards it, and microfinance is one such method. Muhammad Yunus is one person who had the leadership and the vision and took an initiative to translated those visions into practical action, and benefitted people in Bangladesh and other countries. He established the idea to give loans to poor people who had no financial security. Muhammad Yunus was given the award because he established a model for many other organizations to follow.He had the vision that every man, no matter how poor, has some talent within him that he can pursue for his own economic uplift. This is especially true for the women in the society who deserve to get an equal opportunity to men to acquire the necessary finances to pursue t heir talents. Microcredit is one of the methods that Muhammad Yunus thought could help in the erosion of poverty from the world. (Cozyinhel, 2006)Muhammad Yunus gave a speech about the microfinance revolution. In this video, he talks about how he came up with the idea of microfinance. He explained how when Bangladesh was formed, it faced a lot of problems, economy was sliding down and famines struck too. He was an economics teacher at that time and he felt terrible for not being able to use all that he teaches to help the people of his country. He wanted to remove people from this frustration and agony and the one thing that caught his attention most was the ruthlessness of the money lenders in a small village.He researched into how many people in the village actually went to these money lenders for money and found out how less they borrowed. He realized how entrenched the money lending system was in the roots and this led him to the solution that he came up with. He thought that if he gives the mere amount of money to people from his own pocket, they can return that to the money lender and they will be free. So the basic idea he had in mind was to free the people from the money lenders.He did this initially as a onetime action and later wanted to expand this into a systematic system. He then thought of an idea to go to a bank and ask them to lend that amount to the villagers, which blatantly refused to lend money to the poor people because they were not credit worthy. He then convinced them to allow him to be the guarantor and lend money to the poor.This was agreed upon and he kept growing this system. He is of the opinion that during the entire process, all he did was to struggle against mindsets (Calit2ube, 2007).He was also of the opinion that banking system was unjust because it excluded the poor and the women, so he decided to put his maximum focus on lending money to the women. Again at this point, he faced a struggle of mindset because women themselves were scared and unwilling to take the money and use it to create something. But he said that this was not the voice of the woman but the voice of fear and if worked upon patiently, these fears can be removed. Ultimately, they started lending to women and the impact on the families was much stronger than lending to men.Keeping this in mind, Grameen Bank thus started lending 97% to women only! Grameen Bank was owned by these poor women, who were the shareholders and on the Board of Directors, and it worked for the poor women too. Grameen Bank went to the poor, the women and the rurals. They worked on the philosophy, â€Å"The less you have, the more attractive a borrower you are for the Bank† (Calit2ube, 2007).He thus started a system that was then established all over the world. Muhammad Yunus is of the opinion that poverty is not created by the poor people, it is created by the system, by our mindsets and by our institutions. Microfinance enabled people to change their lives , it gave a mere 15$ to enable people to move away from a begging position to a dignified position.In an interview with Charlie Rose, Muhammad Yunus said that the system was to give money to poor people without collateral and a guarantee. The existing financial system served to only top one third people who have a huge amount of money and lent money to those who had money to give you collateral.They decided to give money to those who have no money to start with. It worked so well and expanded all over the world because there always was a crying need for it and nobody had ever paid attention to it (Rose, 2007). He has a strong conviction that such a system if grown exponentially can eradicate poverty from this world because poverty is artificially sown in the society and once that seed is removed, it can be eliminated.

What Is a Message in Communication

In rhetorical  and communication studies, a message is defined as information conveyed by words (in speech or writing), and/or other signs and symbols. A message (verbal or nonverbal, or both) is the content of the communication process. The originator of the message in the communication process is the sender. The sender conveys the message to a receiver.   Verbal and Nonverbal Content A message may include verbal content, such as written or spoken words, sign language, email, text messages, phone calls, snail-mail, and even sky-writing, John O. Burtis and Paul D. Turman note in their book Leadership Communication as Citizenship, adding: Intentionally or not, both verbal and nonverbal content is part of the information that is transferred in a message. If nonverbal cues do not align with the verbal message, ambiguity is introduced even as uncertainty is increased. A message will also include nonverbal content, such as meaningful behavior beyond words. This includes body movement and gestures, eye contact, artifacts, and clothing, as well as vocal variety, touch, and timing Encoding and Decoding Messages Communication  refers to the process of sending and receiving messages, which can also be referred to as encoding and decoding messages. However, say Courtland L. Bovà ©e, John V. Thill, and Barbara E. Schatzman, in Business Communication Essentials, communication is effective only when the message is understood and when it stimulates action or encourages the receiver to think in new ways. Indeed, some people — such as those who are highly media literate, for example — may be able to see much more in a given message than others, says W. James Potter in Media Literacy, adding: They are more aware of the levels of meaning. This enhances understanding. They are more in charge of programming their own mental codes. This enhances control. They are much more likely to get what they want from the messages. This enhances appreciation. In essence, some people may be able to gain far more insight as they decode messages than others, depending on their level of literacy in the medium in which the message is being encoded. Those people will gain a higher understanding, control, and appreciation of a given message. The Message in Rhetoric Rhetoric is the study and practice of effective  communication. A rhetorical act, note Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Susan Schultz Huxman, in their book, The Rhetorical Act: Thinking, Speaking and Writing Critically, is an intentional, created, polished attempt to overcome the challenges in a given situation with a specific audience on a given issue to achieve a particular end.​ In other words, a rhetorical act is an effort the speaker makes to persuade others of her point of view. In performing  a rhetorical act, a speaker or author creates a message whose shape and form are melded in an effort to persuade an audience. The notion of rhetoric dates back centuries, to the ancient Greeks. Both Cicero and Quintilian accepted the Aristotelian notion that a rhetorical message [inventio] consists of the effective use of logical, ethical, and pathetic proof, says J.L. Golden, et al., in The Rhetoric of Western Thought. Golden adds that the rhetor who has command of these three persuasive strategies is in a good position to motivate an audience, according to these Greek thinkers. Messages in the Media Successful politicians and others have been able to put forward messages to persuade a vast audience as to their point of view. Peter Obstler, in his essay Working With the Media published in Fighting Toxics: A Manual for Protecting Your Family, Community, and Workplace, says: A well-defined message has two key components. First, it is simple, direct, and concise. Second, it defines the issues on your own terms and in your own words. Obstler gives the example of the well-defined message in the slogan used by Ronald Reagans presidential campaign in 1980: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? The message was simple and obvious, but it also allowed the Reagan campaign to control the rhetoric of the 1980 presidential election debate at every turn, regardless of the nature or complexity of the situation in which it was used. Bolstered by the persuasive message, Reagan went on to win the presidency by defeating his Democratic rival, incumbent President Jimmy Carter, in a general election landslide. Sources Barry National Toxics Campaign. Fighting Toxics: A Manual for Protecting your Family, Community, and Workplace. Gary Cohen (Editor), John OConnor (Editor), Barry Commoner (Foreword), Kindle Edition, Island Press, April 16, 2013. Bovà ©e, Courtland L. Business Communication Essentials. John V. Thill, Barbara E. Schatzman, Paperback, Prentice, 2003. Burtis, John O. Leadership Communication as Citizenship. Paul D. Turman, Paperback, SAGE Publications, Inc, November 6, 2009. Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. The Rhetorical Act: Thinking, Speaking, and Writing Critically. Suszn Schultz Huxman, Thomas A. Burkholder, 5th Edition, Cengage Learning, January 1, 2014. Golden, James L. The Rhetoric of Western Thought.  Goodwin F. Berquist, William E. Coleman, J. Michael Sproule, 8th Edition, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, August 1, 2003.

Benefits And Life Saving Properties That Vaccines Have For...

Many parents are choosing to forgo vaccinating their young children as of late due to the speculation that vaccines cause life-altering conditions such as Autism, or even something as serious as SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome. Although this debate has been on going for quite some time now; many of what these parents do not understand is that correlation does not cause causation. A child may have Autism and had been vaccinated and naturally that parent wants to blame something on the reason their child has this disorder so of course they would want to blame the vaccines for this. However, what they do not understand and take into consideration are all the benefits and life saving properties that vaccines have for children and their future. 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