Psychology Thesis Collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/10429/3842024-03-29T12:54:10Z2024-03-29T12:54:10ZThe Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale as A Predictor of Success In A College of EngineeringDe Martino, Hugo A.http://hdl.handle.net/10429/6052012-05-21T18:11:59Z2012-05-21T00:00:00ZThe Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale as A Predictor of Success In A College of Engineering
De Martino, Hugo A.
One of t he important aspects of research apparently neglected in the Wechsler-Bellevue literature is the reliability of the scale as a predict or of academic success. There have been many studies on its reliability and validity as an intelligence test and as a clinical tool in diagnosing mental disorder. Other studies have concentrated on its reliability in a shorter form and on its relationship to similar tests. However, studies relative to its reliability as a predictive device in educational and vocational counseling are extremely limited. Purpose of This Study This study was undertaken in an effort to determine the reliability of the Wechsler-Bellevue as a predictor of success with freshmen engineering students. More specifically this investigation is directed toward accomplishing four goals; 1. The Wechsler-Bellevue subtest weighted scores, the Wechsler-Bellevue Verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQs, Form II, and five freshman engineering courses. 2. The Wechsler-Bellevue Verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQs, Form II, and the Pre-Engineering Inventory Composite Scores. 3. The Wechsler Verbal, Performance and Full Scale IQs, Form II, and the grade point average. 4. The Pre-Engineering Inventory Composite Scores and the grade point average. Rationale Intelligence tests have been used for many years as predictors of academic success. In discussing intelligence as one of the f actors affecting college grades, Daniel Harris states that “Although more and more attention has been paid to factors other than intelligence, the importance of this factor is ever with us. Various investigators report correlation with grades ranging from .33 to .64. At a number of places intelligence test scores were found to be the best single predictive device for grades.” The possibility of utilizing the Wechsler-Bellevue as an aid to educational and vocational counseling was first inferred from Wechsler's own statements. In regard to the general significance of dividing the scale into a Verbal and Performance part, he asserted that “In practice this division is substantiated by differences between posited abilities and various occupational aptitudes. Clerical workers and teachers, in general, do much better on verbal tests, whereas manual workers and mechanics do better on performance. The correlations are sufficiently high to be of value in vocational guidance, particularly with adolescents of high school age. Edward E. Anderson and collaborators in a comparative study of the Wechsler-Bellevue, Revised Stanford-Binet and the American Council on Education Tests and grade point averages state that at the college level, “…intelligence tests are expected to show some correlations with scholastic success…” However, they recognized the need for further research with the Wechsler-Bellevue in this area and suggested that “…its usefulness with college students would be limited unless its relation to grade average compared favorably with that of other tests.” It is the hope of this investigator that this study will contribute to the research on the Wechsler-Bellevue in predicting academic success. The Instruments No attempt will be made in this study to describe the Wechsler-Bellevue since it is felt that its extensive clinical use and the many studies that have been published on it are familiar to psychologists and educators alike. However, the use of Form II in this study necessitates a brief consideration of its relationship to Form I. The standardization group used by Wechsler for Form II was based on successive samples of over 1,000 cases of male adults, ages 18-40. He supplemented this sample with studies on special groups. Wechsler indicated a high correlation between the two forms with a mean difference of less than two point s between the Full Scale scores. The writer used Form II of the Wechsler-Bellevue for two reasons; namely, less work has been done with this form and 46 subjects of the total sample used in this study had already been given Form II. The Pre-Engineering Inventory is a series of tests constructed for the purpose of measuring those abilities fundamental to successful study of engineering. It is designed primarily to assist in the selection of those students who will be the most likely to succeed in an engineering school. It serves a special purpose of comparing the freshman engineering student with the other members of his class and with freshmen engineering students in general. The tests are divided into two booklets. Booklet I consists of tests measuring general verbal ability, technical verbal ability, and ability to comprehend mathematical materials. Booklet II consists of tests measuring abilities in general mathematics, mechanical principles, spatial visualization and in understanding society. The inventory is designed to be administered in two three-hour periods which may be scheduled to the same day. It can either be hand or machined scored. Eight raw scores are finally derived, one for each of the tests plus a Composite Score. These are then converted to scaled scores and to percentile ranks. The norms for the inventory are based on a selected sample of 9,994 freshmen engineering students in colleges of engineering throughout the United States. Subjects The group selected for this study consisted of 100 freshmen in the College of Engineering at the University of Detroit. Of this group, 47 were obtained from a similar study conducted by Trygg Engen, who used 50 freshmen-engineering students to compare the Wechsler-Bellevue, Form II, with academic success in the College of Engineering at the University of Detroit. Three "Subjects in his sample were excluded from the total group since they did not complete the courses required for this investigation. The entire group selected for this study was obtained by a strictly volunteer system. A freshman engineering student, for the purpose of this study, was one who had no previous college training and was enrolled in the College of Engineering at the University of Detroit from the Fall Semester of 1951 to the Spring Semester of 1953. None of the group had taken the Wechsler-Bellevue previously. Procedure The Wechsler-Bellevue, Form II, as administered to 53 freshmen engineering students during the Fall Semester of 1952. The 47 students from Trygg Engen's group were tested during the Fall Semester of 1951. Testing conditions, such as place of testing, rapport, praise and encouragement were held as constant as possible. The time of testing, however, was difficult to control and possible influences due to fatigue should be noted. The students' final grades for the first semester and their Pre-Engineering Inventory Composite Score percentiles were obtained from the office files of the Dean. The inventory is administered by the College of Engineering at the beginning of the Fall Semester as part of its regular orientation procedure. All pertinent data for each subject, i.e., name, age, date of examination, birthdate, test scores, and the final grades were transcribed to a master chart to facilitate further statistical operations. It is assured that the use of Trygg Engen's group of 47 students has little or no effect on the final data since they were investigated under similar circumstances and each examiner used the standardized procedure outlined by Wechsler for the administration and scoring of the test.
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2012-05-21T00:00:00ZThe Validity of the Subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children with Five and Six Year OldsKureth, Genevieve, Sisterhttp://hdl.handle.net/10429/6042012-05-21T18:10:55Z2012-05-21T00:00:00ZThe Validity of the Subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children with Five and Six Year Olds
Kureth, Genevieve, Sister
The problem of this thesis is to determine to what extent the subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) are correlated with the Revised Stanford-Binet and to ascertain whether the mean of each subtest approximates a weighted score value of ten. The Revised Stanford-Binet has been used for years as the basic instrument in measuring general intelligence. Extensive research has been carried out on this test and clinicians in general regard it as very useful. The Stanford-Binet yields reliable mental ages and intelligence quotients which have served to indicate potentialities of future development. The WISC, on the other hand, is a comparatively new scale. It is a point scale which includes a performance as well as a verbal scale. This latter feature caused psychologists to accept this new test with enthusiasm because they hoped it would answer many of their criticisms of the Stanford-Binet. However, it is necessary to substantiate clinical impressions of any new instrument. Detailed and comprehensive studies of the WI SC must be made in order to determine its validity and to evaluate its specific merits. Even aside from validity it is important for clinical practise to know to what degree any two instruments are correlated. Therefore, it is the main purpose of this thesis to determine the validity of the subtests of the WISC with five and six year old children, using the Revised Stanford- Binet as the criterion. It has frequently occurred to the writer that the WISC is inclined to underrate the children, particularly in the younger age groups. This opinion was strengthened after reading various studies on its validity. In every instance this scale under-estimated the children's ability, especially at the five year level.
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2012-05-21T00:00:00ZThe Validity of the Detroit Alpha Intelligence Test in Grades IV to VIII as Correlated with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for ChildrenLevee, John Richardhttp://hdl.handle.net/10429/6032012-05-21T18:08:55Z2012-05-21T00:00:00ZThe Validity of the Detroit Alpha Intelligence Test in Grades IV to VIII as Correlated with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
Levee, John Richard
Purpose of the Study This study was made for the purpose of investigating the validity of the Detroit Alpha Intelligence Test, Form S, for grades IV to VIII by correlating it with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. The validity of the Detroit Alpha was determined by use of the correlations obtained by a Pearson Product Moments technique. Value of the Study Borrowing from Lindquist we know that “The validity of a test may be defined as the accuracy with which it measures that which it is intended to measure, or as the degree to which it approaches infallibility in measuring what it purports to measure" In this study the validity of the Detroit Alpha is measured by correlating it with the well known and well-standardized Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Thus, if fairly good correlation with the WISC can be found on the various scales of t he Detroit Alpha, or even one scale and for different grades, one can see the advantage of using the group test to appraise a large number of pupils within the school setting. There is no need to mention the impracticability of attempting to test every pupil individually. The Detroit Alpha Intelligence Test is used extensively within the Detroit School System to evaluate pupil intelligence and predict future school performance. In an interview with Dr. Harry Baker, who devised the test, he mentioned to the author that very little attempt has been made to standardize the Detroit Alpha with a nationally standardized test; other than a correlation study made with the Short Form of the California Test of Mental Maturity using Form S with 98 subjects. On this study a correlation of .834 ± 02 was obtained. Dr. Baker feels that the Detroit Alpha is adequate for predictability purposes within Detroit's own schools, but he admits of its shortcoming in not being adequately validated against reliable nationally standardized tests and feels such a study is justifiable area for research. Since the Detroit Alpha Intelligence Test is being used extensively in the Detroit School System as a group test of intelligence it is of value to know how well it measures intelligence by comparing it with a good reliable tool. Procedure The validity of the Detroit Alpha Intelligence Test, Form S, grades IV to VIII was determined by its Pearson Product -Moment correlation with the WISC. 1. The Detroit Alpha raw scores of the Language Scale for each separate grade were correlated with the WISC Verbal Scale scaled scores for each separate grade. This yielded a Pearson correlation of WISC Verbal Scale to Detroit Alpha Language Scale for each grade. In addition, the overall correlation of all grades for the WISC Verbal Scale and the Detroit Alpha Language Scale was found. 2. The correlation between the WISC Performance Scale and the Detroit Non-Language Scale was found for each grade and then the overall Performance or Non-Language correlation as in 1 above. 3. The correlation between the WISC Full Scale and the Detroit Full Scale was found for e ach grade and then for the overall Full Scale correlation as in 1 and 2 above. 4. The levels of significance were found for e ach correlation obtained as in 1, 2 and 3 above. 5. The me an scores were found for each grade on the language, non-language and full scales for both the WISC and the Detroit Alpha. Next, the means of these means for language, non-language and full scales and for all grades were found. 6. The standard deviations from each mean and mean of the means for 4 above were found . No attempt was made to cross-correlate the various scales, i.e. WISC Verbal to Detroit Performance, WISC Performance to Detroit Verbal, WISC Verbal to Detroit Full, etc., as typical of the 3x3 method of comparison. Such a comparison study is broader in scope than this paper and might prove to be a valuable study.
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2012-05-21T00:00:00ZThe Use of the Weitz-Evans Community Checklist in the Retail Appliance Sales Field: a validation studyDonahue, Richard James Ph.B.http://hdl.handle.net/10429/6022012-05-21T18:07:46Z2012-05-21T00:00:00ZThe Use of the Weitz-Evans Community Checklist in the Retail Appliance Sales Field: a validation study
Donahue, Richard James Ph.B.
Nowhere in the history of the development of psychological tests can there be found any single period that surpasses, in terms of both quantity and quality of contributions made, that of World War II. The valuable findings of research conducted during this period have served as the strongest impetus that psychological tests have yet received. Research of the World War II period was responsible, to a large extent, for outlining the way to innumerable possibilities for the use of the testing technique. Progressive minded individuals in the areas of business and industry were quick to note the potential of this technique. They saw, in the use of psychological tests, the solution to many of their problems, particularly those associated with the selection and placement of employees. Consequently, the use of psychological tests for purposes of personnel selection in business and industry has been steadily increasing since that time. However, favorable experiences with psychological tests in business and industry has not always been the case. Misuse and abuse of the technique has, on occasions, given rise to some very costly and damaging effects. Extensive use of psychological tests as a tool in personnel selection has brought about a realization on the part of business and industry that (1) when properly used, the testing technique is able to satisfy a need f or objective information that is difficult to obtain from any of the other selection devices; (2) that there are definite limitations beyond which the efficacy of psychological tests rapidly decreases; (3) that a test, in order to be of real value, must conform with all the requirements of a truly scientific device; (4) that test administrators and interpreters must be more than just casually trained in the field of testing; that the predictive value of the testing device is directly related to the amount of skill possessed by the individuals handling the administration of it and the interpretation of the data obtained; and (5) that a worthwhile testing program is not inexpensive. An indication of the high degree of popularity now being experienced by psychological tests in business and industry can be discerned from the fact that a number of business organizations have set up separate testing sections within the framework of their general personnel operations. The principle concern of these testing sections is one of research. They are constantly active in their work of modifying, altering, redesigning, reevaluating and generally improving tests already in use, as well as developing new tests. They are genuinely interested in their search for new vistas through which they may promote their stock-in-trade. By reviewing various job areas and job classifications, these testing specialists are able to uncover many needs for their services. In so doing they create a condition in which the demand far exceeds the supply. Such a relation of demand and supply exists in the j ob classification that has been the inspiration for the present investigation, viz, retail appliance salesman. Probably because of the diversity of the qualifications demanded of a good salesman, there is an ever present need for aids in the selection of same. The testing device has proved to be among the more prolific sources for providing this aid, and as a result its use in sales personnel selection is continually increasing. recent American Management Association publication states that Available data indicates a great increase, over the past 13 years, in the use of tests in selecting salesmen. For example, out of 178 companies responding to A.M.A.’s survey, 95 (or 53 percent) use tests, as compared to 25 percent of companies covered by a similar A.M.A. survey in 1941. The intention of the present study is to investigate the possibility of employing an established test as a means of distinguishing among personnel in a job classification never before exposed to this particular test. The test, Weitz - Evans Community Checklist Form F, will be subjected to a series of validations that will bring forth the information necessary for determining whether- or not the technique can discriminate between successful and less successful retail appliance sales personnel stated more specifically, the hypothesis of this project is: the Weitz - Evans Community Checklist – Form F will not effectively discriminate between successful and less successful individuals employed in the retail appliance sales field. The term “attitude” will appear quite frequently through out this report. It should be understood, unless there is an indication to the contrary, that the term is meant to apply in its primary sense; that is, to represent the inclination to respond in a fairly definite, regular manner to conditions, situations, circumstances, etc. that have to do with basic standards, values, and other regulative principles which have been established by the individual as his fundamental guides. An attitude may vary slightly from time to time but generally the pattern of responses will remain consistant. It is intended that this section serve to introduce both the general and specific theme of the project, and to describe the relationship between them. It is hoped that an elaboration of this relationship can be developed through an arrangement of material in the following manner: Chapter II - a review of the literature, Chapter III - an explanation of the techniques and methodology employed, Chapter IV - presentation of findings, and Chapter V - summary field discussion of findings.
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2012-05-21T00:00:00Z