Special fields of psychology

Special fields of psychology

SPECIAL FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Physiological psychology

3. Psychoanalysis

4. Behaviourism

5. Gestalt psychology

6 .Cognition

7. Tests and Measurements

8. Development psychology

9. Social psychology

10. Psychiatry and mental health

11. Forensic psychology and criminology

12. Psychology, religion and phenomenology

13. Parapsychology

14. Industrial Psychology

Vocabulary

Literature

1. Introduction

Psychology, scientific study of behavior and experience—that is, the

study of how human beings and animals sense, think, learn, and know.

Modern psychology is devoted to collecting facts about behavior and

experience and systematically organizing such facts into psychological

theories. These theories aid in understanding and explaining people’s

behavior and sometimes in predicting and influencing their future

behavior.

Psychology, historically, has been divided into many subfields of

study; these fields, however, are interrelated and frequently overlap.

Physiological psychologists, for instance, study the functioning of the

brain and the nervous system, and experimental psychologists devise

tests and conduct research to discover how people learn and remember.

Subfields of psychology may also be described in terms of areas of

application. Social psychologists, for example, are interested in the

ways in which people influence one another and the way they act in

groups. Industrial psychologists study the behavior of people at work

and the effects of the work environment. School psychologists help

students make educational and career decisions. Clinical psychologists

assist those who have problems in daily life or who are mentally ill.

History. The science of psychology developed from many diverse sources,

but its origins as a science may be traced to ancient Greece.

Philosophical Beginnings. Plato and Aristotle, as well as other Greek

philosophers, took up some of the basic questions of psychology that

are still under study: Are people born with certain skills, abilities,

and personality, or do all these develop as a result of experience? How

do people come to know the world? Are certain ideas and feelings

innate, or are they all learned?

Such questions were debated for many centuries, but the roots of modern

psychological theory are found in the 17th century in the works of the

French philosopher Ren Descartes and the British philosophers Thomas

Hobbes and John Locke. Descartes argued that the bodies of people are

like clockwork machines, but that their minds (or souls) are separate

and unique. He maintained that minds have certain inborn, or innate,

ideas and that these ideas are crucial in organizing people’s

experiencing of the world. Hobbes and Locke, on the other hand,

stressed the role of experience as the source of human knowledge. Locke

believed that all information about the physical world comes through

the senses and that all correct ideas can be traced to the sensory

information on which they are based.

Most modern psychology developed along the lines of Locke’s view. Some

European psychologists who studied perception, however, held onto

Descartes’s idea that some mental organization is innate, and the

concept still plays a role in theories of perception and cognition.

Against this philosophical background, the field that contributed most

to the development of scientific psychology was physiology—the study of

the functions of the various organ systems of the body. The German

physiologist Johannes Miller tried to relate sensory experience both to

events in the nervous system and to events in the organism’s physical

environment. The first true experimental psychologists were the German

physicist Gustav Theodor Fechner and the German physiologist Wilhelm

Wundt. Fechner developed experimental methods for measuring sensations

in terms of the physical magnitude of the stimuli producing them.

Wundt, who in 1879 founded the first laboratory of experimental

psychology in Leipzig, Germany, trained students from around the world

in this new science.

Physicians who became concerned with mental illness also contributed to

the development of modern psychological theories. Thus, the systematic

classification of mental disorders developed by the German psychiatric

pioneer Emil Kraepelin remains the basis for methods of classification

that are now in use. Far better known, however, is the work of Sigmund

Freud, who devised the system of investigation and treatment known as

psychoanalysis. In his work, Freud called attention to instinctual

drives and unconscious motivational processes that determine people’s

behavior. This stress on the contents of thought, on the dynamics of

motivation rather than the nature of cognition in itself, exerted a

strong influence on the course of modern psychology.

Modern psychology still retains many aspects of the fields and kinds of

speculation from which it grew. Some psychologists, for example, are

primarily interested in physiological research, others are medically

oriented, and a few try to develop a more encompassing, philosophical

understanding of psychology as a whole. Although some practitioners

still insist that psychology should be concerned only with behavior—and

may even deny the meaningfulness of an inner, mental life—more and more

psychologists would now agree that mental life or experience is a valid

psychological concern.

The areas of modern psychology range from the biological sciences to the

social sciences.

2. Physiological psychology

The study of underlying physiological bases of psychological functions

is known as physiological psychology. The two major communication

systems of the body—the nervous system and the circulatory system—are

the focus of most research in this area.

The nervous system consists of the central nervous system (the brain

and the spinal cord) and its outlying neural network, the peripheral

nervous system; the latter communicates with the glands and muscles and

includes the sensory receptors for seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting,

touching, feeling pain, and sensing stimuli within the body. The

circulatory system circulates the blood and also carries the important

chemical agents known as hormones from the glands to all parts of the

body. Both these communication systems are very important in overall

human behavior.

The smallest unit of the nervous system is the single nerve cell, or

neuron. When a neuron is properly stimulated, it transmits

electrochemical signals from one place in the system to another. The

nervous system has 12.5 billion neurons, of which about 10 billion are

in the brain itself.

One part of the peripheral nervous system, the somatic system,

transmits sensations into the central nervous system and carries

commands from the central system to the muscles involved in movement.

Another part of the peripheral nervous system, the autonomic system,

consists of two divisions that have opposing functions. The sympathetic

division arouses the body by speeding the heartbeat, dilating the

pupils of the eye, and releasing adrenaline into the blood. The

parasympathetic division operates to calm the body by reversing these

processes.

A simple example of communication within the nervous system is the

spinal arc, which is seen in the knee-jerk reflex. A tap on the

patellar tendon, just below the kneecap, sends a signal to the spinal

cord via sensory neurons. This signal activates motor neurons that

trigger a contraction of the muscle attached to the tendon; the

contraction, in turn, causes the leg to jerk. Thus, a stimulus can lead

to a response without involving the brain, via a connection through the

spinal cord.

Circulatory communication is ordinarily slower than nervous-system

communication. The hormones secreted by the body’s endocrine glands

circulate through the body, influencing both structural and behavioral

changes . The sex hormones, for example, that are released during

adolescence effect many changes in body growth and development as well

as changes in behavior, such as the emergence of specific sexual

activity and the increase of interest in the opposite sex. Other

hormones may have more direct, short-term effects; for instance,

adrenaline, which is secreted when a person faces an emergency,

prepares the body for a quick response—whether fighting or flight.

3. Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis, name applied to a specific method of investigating

unconscious mental processes and to a form of psychotherapy. The term

refers, as well, to the systematic structure of psychoanalytic theory,

which is based on the relation of conscious and unconscious

psychological processes.

Theory of Psychoanalysis

The technique of psychoanalysis and much of the psychoanalytic theory based

on its application were developed by Sigmund Freud. His work concerning the

structure and the functioning of the human mind had far-reaching

significance, both practically and scientifically, and it continues to

influence contemporary thought.

The Unconscious

The first of Freud’s innovations was his recognition of unconscious

psychiatric processes that follow laws different from those that govern

conscious experience. Under the influence of the unconscious, thoughts and

feelings that belong together may be shifted or displaced out of context;

two disparate ideas or images may be condensed into one; thoughts may be

dramatized in the form of images rather than expressed as abstract

concepts; and certain objects may be represented symbolically by images of

other objects, although the resemblance between the symbol and the original

object may be vague or farfetched. The laws of logic, indispensable for

conscious thinking, do not apply to these unconscious mental productions.

Recognition of these modes of operation in unconscious mental processes

made possible the understanding of such previously incomprehensible

psychological phenomena as dreaming. Through analysis of unconscious

processes, Freud saw dreams as serving to protect sleep against disturbing

impulses arising from within and related to early life experiences. Thus,

unacceptable impulses and thoughts, called the latent dream content, are

transformed into a conscious, although no longer immediately

comprehensible, experience called the manifest dream. Knowledge of these

unconscious mechanisms permits the analyst to reverse the so-called dream

work, that is, the process by which the latent dream is transformed into

the manifest dream, and through dream interpretation, to recognize its

underlying meaning.

Instinctual Drives

A basic assumption of Freudian theory is that the unconscious conflicts

involve instinctual impulses, or drives, that originate in childhood. As

these unconscious conflicts are recognized by the patient through analysis,

his or her adult mind can find solutions that were unattainable to the

immature mind of the child. This depiction of the role of instinctual

drives in human life is a unique feature of Freudian theory.

According to Freud’s doctrine of infantile sexuality, adult sexuality is an

end product of a complex process of development, beginning in childhood,

involving a variety of body functions or areas (oral, anal, and genital

zones), and corresponding to various stages in the relation of the child to

adults, especially to parents. Of crucial importance is the so-called

Oedipal period, occurring at about four to six years of age, because at

this stage of development the child for the first time becomes capable of

an emotional attachment to the parent of the opposite sex that is similar

to the adult’s relationship to a mate; the child simultaneously reacts as a

rival to the parent of the same sex. Physical immaturity dooms the child’s

desires to frustration and his or her first step toward adulthood to

failure. Intellectual immaturity further complicates the situation because

it makes children afraid of their own fantasies. The extent to which the

child overcomes these emotional upheavals and to which these attachments,

fears, and fantasies continue to live on in the unconscious greatly

influences later life, especially love relationships.

The conflicts occurring in the earlier developmental stages are no less

significant as a formative influence, because these problems represent the

earliest prototypes of such basic human situations as dependency on others

and relationship to authority. Also basic in molding the personality of the

individual is the behavior of the parents toward the child during these

stages of development. The fact that the child reacts, not only to

objective reality, but also to fantasy distortions of reality, however,

greatly complicates even the best-intentioned educational efforts.

Id, Ego, and Superego

The effort to clarify the bewildering number of interrelated observations

uncovered by psychoanalytic exploration led to the development of a model

of the structure of the psychic system. Three functional systems are

distinguished that are conveniently designated as the id, ego, and

superego.

The first system refers to the sexual and aggressive tendencies that arise

from the body, as distinguished from the mind. Freud called these

tendencies Triebe, which literally means “drives,” but which is often

inaccurately translated as “instincts” to indicate their innate character.

These inherent drives claim immediate satisfaction, which is experienced as

pleasurable; the id thus is dominated by the pleasure principle. In his

later writings, Freud tended more toward psychological rather than

biological conceptualization of the drives.

How the conditions for satisfaction are to be brought about is the task of

the second system, the ego, which is the domain of such functions as

perception, thinking, and motor control that can accurately assess

environmental conditions. In order to fulfill its function of adaptation,

or reality testing, the ego must be capable of enforcing the postponement

of satisfaction of the instinctual impulses originating in the id. To

defend itself against unacceptable impulses, the ego develops specific

psychic means, known as defense mechanisms. These include repression, the

exclusion of impulses from conscious awareness; projection, the process of

ascribing to others one’s own unacknowledged desires; and reaction

formation, the establishment of a pattern of behavior directly opposed to a

strong unconscious need. Such defense mechanisms are put into operation

whenever anxiety signals a danger that the original unacceptable impulses

may reemerge.

An id impulse becomes unacceptable, not only as a result of a temporary

need for postponing its satisfaction until suitable reality conditions can

be found, but more often because of a prohibition imposed on the individual

by others, originally the parents. The totality of these demands and

prohibitions constitutes the major content of the third system, the

superego, the function of which is to control the ego in accordance with

the internalized standards of parental figures. If the demands of the

superego are not fulfilled, the person may feel shame or guilt. Because the

superego, in Freudian theory, originates in the struggle to overcome the

Oedipal conflict, it has a power akin to an instinctual drive, is in part

unconscious, and can give rise to feelings of guilt not justified by any

conscious transgression. The ego, having to mediate among the demands of

the id, the superego, and the outside world, may not be strong enough to

reconcile these conflicting forces. The more the ego is impeded in its

development because of being enmeshed in its earlier conflicts, called

fixations or complexes, or the more it reverts to earlier satisfactions and

archaic modes of functioning, known as regression, the greater is the

likelihood of succumbing to these pressures. Unable to function normally,

it can maintain its limited control and integrity only at the price of

symptom formation, in which the tensions are expressed in neurotic

symptoms.

Anxiety

A cornerstone of modern psychoanalytic theory and practice is the concept

of anxiety, which institutes appropriate mechanisms of defense against

certain danger situations. These danger situations, as described by Freud,

are the fear of abandonment by or the loss of the loved one (the object),

the risk of losing the object’s love, the danger of retaliation and

punishment, and, finally, the hazard of reproach by the superego. Thus,

symptom formation, character and impulse disorders, and perversions, as

well as sublimations, represent compromise formations—different forms of an

adaptive integration that the ego tries to achieve through more or less

successfully reconciling the different conflicting forces in the mind.

Psychoanalytic Schools

Various psychoanalytic schools have adopted other names for their doctrines

to indicate deviations from Freudian theory.

Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung, one of the earliest pupils of Freud, eventually created a

school that he preferred to call analytical psychology. Like Freud, Jung

used the concept of the libido; however, to him it meant not only sexual

drives, but a composite of all creative instincts and impulses and the

entire motivating force of human conduct. According to his theories, the

unconscious is composed of two parts; the personal unconscious, which

contains the results of the individual’s entire experience, and the

collective unconscious, the reservoir of the experience of the human race.

In the collective unconscious exist a number of primordial images, or

archetypes, common to all individuals of a given country or historical era.

Archetypes take the form of bits of intuitive knowledge or apprehension and

normally exist only in the collective unconscious of the individual. When

the conscious mind contains no images, however, as in sleep, or when the

consciousness is caught off guard, the archetypes commence to function.

Archetypes are primitive modes of thought and tend to personify natural

processes in terms of such mythological concepts as good and evil spirits,

fairies, and dragons. The mother and the father also serve as prominent

archetypes.

An important concept in Jung’s theory is the existence of two basically

different types of personality, mental attitude, and function. When the

libido and the individual’s general interest are turned outward toward

people and objects of the external world, he or she is said to be

extroverted. When the reverse is true, and libido and interest are centered

on the individual, he or she is said to be introverted. In a completely

normal individual these two tendencies alternate, neither dominating, but

usually the libido is directed mainly in one direction or the other; as a

result, two personality types are recognizable.

Jung rejected Freud’s distinction between the ego and superego and

recognized a portion of the personality, somewhat similar to the superego,

that he called the persona. The persona consists of what a person appears

to be to others, in contrast to what he or she actually is. The persona is

the role the individual chooses to play in life, the total impression he or

she wishes to make on the outside world.

Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler, another of Freud’s pupils, differed from both Freud and Jung

in stressing that the motivating force in human life is the sense of

inferiority, which begins as soon as an infant is able to comprehend the

existence of other people who are better able to care for themselves and

cope with their environment. From the moment the feeling of inferiority is

established, the child strives to overcome it. Because inferiority is

intolerable, the compensatory mechanisms set up by the mind may get out of

hand, resulting in self-centered neurotic attitudes, overcompensations, and

a retreat from the real world and its problems.

Adler laid particular stress on inferiority feelings arising from what he

regarded as the three most important relationships: those between the

individual and work, friends, and loved ones. The avoidance of inferiority

feelings in these relationships leads the individual to adopt a life goal

that is often not realistic and frequently is expressed as an unreasoning

will to power and dominance, leading to every type of antisocial behavior

from bullying and boasting to political tyranny. Adler believed that

analysis can foster a sane and rational “community feeling” that is

constructive rather than destructive.

Otto Rank

Another student of Freud, Otto Rank, introduced a new theory of neurosis,

attributing all neurotic disturbances to the primary trauma of birth. In

his later writings he described individual development as a progression

from complete dependence on the mother and family, to a physical

independence coupled with intellectual dependence on society, and finally

to complete intellectual and psychological emancipation. Rank also laid

great importance on the will, defined as “a positive guiding organization

and integration of self, which utilizes creatively as well as inhibits and

controls the instinctual drives.”

Other Psychoanalytic Schools

Later noteworthy modifications of psychoanalytic theory include those of

the American psychoanalysts Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack

Sullivan. The theories of Fromm lay particular emphasis on the concept that

society and the individual are not separate and opposing forces, that the

nature of society is determined by its historic background, and that the

needs and desires of individuals are largely formed by their society. As a

result, Fromm believed, the fundamental problem of psychoanalysis and

psychology is not to resolve conflicts between fixed and unchanging

instinctive drives in the individual and the fixed demands and laws of

society, but to bring about harmony and an understanding of the

relationship between the individual and society. Fromm also stressed the

importance to the individual of developing the ability to fully use his or

her mental, emotional, and sensory powers.

Horney worked primarily in the field of therapy and the nature of neuroses,

which she defined as of two types: situation neuroses and character

neuroses. Situation neuroses arise from the anxiety attendant on a single

conflict, such as being faced with a difficult decision. Although they may

paralyze the individual temporarily, making it impossible to think or act

efficiently, such neuroses are not deeply rooted. Character neuroses are

characterized by a basic anxiety and a basic hostility resulting from a

lack of love and affection in childhood.

Sullivan believed that all development can be described exclusively in

terms of interpersonal relations. Character types as well as neurotic

symptoms are explained as results of the struggle against anxiety arising

from the individual’s relations with others and are a security system,

maintained for the purpose of allaying anxiety.

Melanie Klein

An important school of thought is based on the teachings of the British

psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. Because most of Klein’s followers worked with

her in England, this has come to be known as the English school. Its

influence, nevertheless, is very strong throughout the European continent

and in South America. Its principal theories were derived from observations

made in the psychoanalysis of children. Klein posited the existence of

complex unconscious fantasies in children under the age of six months. The

principal source of anxiety arises from the threat to existence posed by

the death instinct. Depending on how concrete representations of the

destructive forces are dealt with in the unconscious fantasy life of the

child, two basic early mental attitudes result that Klein characterized as

a “depressive position” and a “paranoid position.” In the paranoid

position, the ego’s defense consists of projecting the dangerous internal

object onto some external representative, which is treated as a genuine

threat emanating from the external world. In the depressive position, the

threatening object is introjected and treated in fantasy as concretely

retained within the person. Depressive and hypochondriacal symptoms result.

Although considerable doubt exists that such complex unconscious fantasies

operate in the minds of infants, these observations have been of the utmost

importance to the psychology of unconscious fantasies, paranoid delusions,

and theory concerning early object relations.

4. Behaviriourism

The literature of this school of psychology is still awaiting its

bibliographer. Though this interpretation of human actions and

reactions has been strongly criticized by other psychologists, the

leading figures - B.F.Skinner, J.B.Watson and E.C.Tolman - have also

been recognized and respected as great scholars. Skenner`s own summary

About behaviorism, 1974, contained numerous bibliographic references to

this important interpretation of man’s relationship to the world around

him. Strange compilation of references designed to show the errors of

this school of psychology was published by A.A.Roback in 1923 as part

of his critical discussion entitled Behaviorism and Psychology; it is

now only of historical interest.

We have already referred to Robert 1 Watson`s The history of psychology

and behavioral sciences: a bibliographic guide, 1978. in our discussion

of the general background guides to psychology. It suffices to note,

here, that this work, though by one of the leading scholars of the

behaviorist school, is not, and does not pretend to be, a bibliography

of Behaviourism. In some respects the same can be said of

C.Heidenreich`s Dictionary of personality: behavior and adjustment

terms, which appeared in 1968. Both these books have been compiled by

leading members of this behaviorist school and unquestionably

representative of the views of that school. We have mentioned these

works here for that reason, but stress that these are scholarly and

unbiased reference works which do not include or misrepresent

references to other interpretations of human behavior.

5. Gestalt psychology

Gestalt Psychology, school of psychology that deals mainly with the

processes of perception. According to Gestalt psychology, images are

perceived as a pattern or a whole rather than merely as a sum of

distinct component parts. The context of an image plays a key role. For

instance, in the context of a city silhouette the shape of a spire is

perceived as a church steeple. Gestalt psychology tries to formulate

the laws governing such perceptual processes.

Gestalt psychology began as a protest. At the beginning of the 20th

century, associationism dominated psychology. The associationist view

that stimuli are perceived as parts and then built into images excluded

as much as it sought to explain; for instance, it allowed little room

for such human concepts as meaning and value. About 1910, German

researchers Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kцhler, and Kurt Koffka rejected

the prevailing order of scientific analysis in psychology. They did

not, however, reject science; rather they sought a scientific approach

more nearly related to the subject matter of psychology. They adopted

that of field theory, newly developed in physics. This model permitted

them to look at perception in terms other than the mechanistic atomism

of the associationists.

Gestalt psychologists found perception to be heavily influenced by the

context or configuration of the perceived elements. The word Gestalt

can be translated from the German approximately as “configuration.” The

parts often derive their nature and purpose from the whole and cannot

be understood apart from it. Moreover, a straightforward summation

process of individual elements cannot account for the whole. Activities

within the total field of the whole govern the perceptual processes.

The approach of Gestalt psychology has been extended to research in

areas as diverse as thinking, memory, and the nature of aesthetics.

Topics in social psychology have also been studied from the

structuralist Gestalt viewpoint, as in Kurt Lewin’s work on group

dynamics. It is in the area of perception, however, that Gestalt

psychology has had its greatest influence.

In addition, several contemporary psychotherapies are termed Gestalt.

These are constructed along lines similar to Gestalt psychology’s

approach to perception. Human beings respond holistically to

experience; according to Gestalt therapists, any separation of mind and

body is artificial. Accurate perception of one’s own needs and of the

world is vital in order to balance one’s experience and achieve “good

Gestalten.” Movement away from awareness breaks the holistic response,

or Gestalt. Gestalt therapists attempt to restore an individual’s

natural, harmonic balance by heightening awareness. The emphasis is on

present experience, rather than on recollections of infancy and early

childhood as in psychoanalysis. Direct confrontation with one’s fears

is encouraged.

6. Cognition psychology

Cognition, act or process of knowing. Cognition includes attention,

perception, memory, reasoning, judgment, imagining, thinking, and speech.

Attempts to explain the way in which cognition works are as old as

philosophy itself; the term, in fact, comes from the writings of Plato and

Aristotle. With the advent of psychology as a discipline separate from

philosophy, cognition has been investigated from several viewpoints.

An entire field—cognitive psychology—has arisen since the 1950s. It studies

cognition mainly from the standpoint of information handling. Parallels are

stressed between the functions of the human brain and the computer concepts

such as the coding, storing, retrieving, and buffering of information. The

actual physiology of cognition is of little interest to cognitive

psychologists, but their theoretical models of cognition have deepened

understanding of memory, psycholinguistics, and the development of

intelligence.

Social psychologists since the mid-1960s have written extensively on the

topic of cognitive consistency—that is, the tendency of a person’s beliefs

and actions to be logically consistent with one another. When cognitive

dissonance, or the lack of such consistency, arises, the person

unconsciously seeks to restore consistency by changing his or her behavior,

beliefs, or perceptions. The manner in which a particular individual

classifies cognitions in order to impose order has been termed cognitive

style.

7. Tests and Measurements

Many fields of psychology use tests and measurement devices. The best-

known psychological tool is intelligence testing. Since the early 1900s

psychologists have been measuring intelligence—or, more accurately, the

ability to succeed in schoolwork. Such tests have proved useful in

classifying students, assigning people to training programs, and

predicting success in many kinds of schooling. Special tests have been

developed to predict success in different occupations and to assess how

much knowledge people have about different kinds of specialties. In

addition, psychologists have constructed tests for measuring aspects of

personality, interests, and attitudes. Thousands of tests have been

devised for measuring different human traits.

A key problem in test construction, however, is the development of a

criterion—that is, some standard to which the test is to be related.

For intelligence tests, for example, the usual criterion has been

success in school, but intelligence tests have frequently been attacked

on the basis of cultural bias (that is, the test results may reflect a

child’s background as much as it does learning ability). For vocational-

interest tests, the standard generally has been persistence in an

occupation. One general difficulty with personality tests is the lack

of agreement among psychologists as to what standards should be used.

Many criteria have been proposed, but most are only indirectly related

to the aspect of personality that is being measured.

Very sophisticated statistical models have been developed for tests,

and a detailed technology underlies most successful testing. Many

psychologists have become adept at constructing testing devices for

special purposes and at devising measurements, once agreement is

reached as to what should be measured.

Types of Tests

Currently, a wide range of testing procedures is used in the U.S. and

elsewhere. Each type of procedure is designed to carry out specific

functions.

Achievement Tests . These tests are designed to assess current performance

in an academic area. Because achievement is viewed as an indicator of

previous learning, it is often used to predict future academic success. An

achievement test administered in a public school setting would typically

include separate measures of vocabulary, language skills and reading

comprehension, arithmetic computation and problem solving, science, and

social studies. Individual achievement is determined by comparison of

results with average scores derived from large representative national or

local samples. Scores may be expressed in terms of “grade-level

equivalents”; for example, an advanced third-grade pupil may be reading on

a level equivalent to that of the average fourth-grade student.

Aptitude Tests. These tests predict future performance in an area in which

the individual is not currently trained. Schools, businesses, and

government agencies often use aptitude tests when assigning individuals to

specific positions. Vocational guidance counseling may involve aptitude

testing to help clarify individual career goals. If a person’s score is

similar to scores of others already working in a given occupation,

likelihood of success in that field is predicted. Some aptitude tests cover

a broad range of skills pertinent to many different occupations. The

General Aptitude Test Battery, for example, not only measures general

reasoning ability but also includes form perception, clerical perception,

motor coordination, and finger and manual dexterity. Other tests may focus

on a single area, such as art, engineering, or modern languages.

Intelligence Tests. In contrast to tests of specific proficiencies or

aptitudes, intelligence tests measure the global capacity of an individual

to cope with the environment. Test scores are generally known as

intelligence quotients, or IQs, although the various tests are constructed

quite differently. The Stanford-Binet is heavily weighted with items

involving verbal abilities; the Wechsler scales consist of two separate

verbal and performance subscales, each with its own IQ. There are also

specialized infant intelligence tests, tests that do not require the use of

language, and tests that are designed for group administration.

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