Study of a Small Group of Irish-American Children
- Author:
Rebecca E. Leaming, Ph.D.,
University of Pennsylvania.
The question arises frequently in clinical work in psychology as to what extent and how racial differences are reflected in test results and subsequent diagnoses of mentality. This study of a small group of Irish-American children was attempted in an endeavor to secure some information on this subject, however meagre and incomplete it might prove to be.
In one of our large cities there is a thoroughly Irish-American neighborhood. There is probably no more amusing neighborhood to be found anywhere in the city. Families of no other nationality can live for long in this locality because their Irish-American neighbors make life far too precarious for them. Minor street fights are frequent occurrences and brawls, resulting in serious injury to one or more of the participants, are not regarded by members of the community as serious offences against law and order. The women as well as the men are great fighters. Sometimes during the day while the men are away at work hand-to-hand encounters occur among the women. Hair-pulling, scratching, biting, tearing of clothes and smashing of furniture in these feminine rows replace the more brutal beatings of the street fights. Family feuds are carried on sometimes for weeks and months and the female contingent of the household sit by the window during the day watching for an unwary female enemy to venture out to the doorstep or the street so that he may be immediately set upon and chastised. Not in all cases, however, does the aggressor wait for the enemy to appear upon the public highway before the attack is begun. Many times the stronghold itself is invaded by force and the battle takes place within the home of the victim.
Few of the women are employed and those who are usually have some janitorial job at which they work only a few hours a day in the late afternoon or early evening. The majority of the men are employed either as policemen, ice-cart drivers, private chauffeurs or truck drivers. The usual reply to the question “What does your father do to make a living?where does he work?” is “Me pop’s a cop” or “Me pop drives a truck.”
The homes in the neighborhood are very poor. In spite of prohibition, there is a great deal of drunkenness among both men and women. The houses, as a rule, are dirty and run down. There are a few clean, well-organized homes in the neighborhood, but these are in the great minority and are conspicuous, in fact, by their rarity. Crime, major and minor, is rampant. Human life is held very lightly. The idea of the individual’s rights to security and protection in the community, respect for law, order and authority, desire for peace and quietness, are virtually unknown quantities. Desire for excitement, amusement, diversion, quarreling, turmoil, strife and unrest are the outstanding characteristics of the group. No serious work, no intellectual improvement, no self-help of any kind appeals to them.
In this neighborhood there is a large social center and as soon as a social worker assigned there discovers that this group does not want to be improved in any way, that they will not undertake serious work of any kind, just then and not before does her usefulness to the center and the group begin. She must learn that these people live truly on the very surface of life, in the foam and froth, untroubled by any deeper yearnings for greater self-development or complexity of existence, by any thoughts as to what may possibly lie under the exciting crest of the wave. To be of real service to these people the worker has to realize that at least the hours spent in the social center in games, dancing, amateur theatricals and so forth, are not spent in the unwholesome resorts of the neighborhoods, in the bad homes, nor in perfecting the arts of street brawling and highway banditry. In summer the free shower baths, the playground and the swimming pool of the center attract great throngs of the children of the neighborhood. The children upon whom this study is based were recruited from this host.
Selection of Children.
The children were selected for testing in an absolutely random fashion. Three or four at a time were sent upstairs, to the testing room, from the playground and neither age nor sex figured in their selection. Those right at hand or within easy calling distance at the moment were usually sent. Although no attempt was made to secure a certain number of cases at any age or of either sex, when the testing was completed it was found that of the 110 children examined, 56 were boys and 54 were girls. All ages between 5 and 16 years were represented. There were 2 five-year-olds, 10 six-yearolds, 23 seven-year-olds, 16 eight-year-olds, 10 nine-year-olds, 9 tenyear-olds, 6 eleven-year-olds, 6 twelve-year-olds, 12 thirteen-yearolds, 10 fourteen-year-olds, 2 fifteen-year-olds, and 4 sixteen-yearolds.
Tests Used.
The starred or shortened form of the Terman Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale was given to every child, the auditory, visual and reverse digit memory span, the learning span for one digit more than the true memory span, and the Witmer Cylinders. With children up to nine years old Young’s Maze A was given as a second performance test and with those between nine and sixteen the Dearborn Formboard 1C was used for a supplementary performance test. Some children between nine and sixteen were given both the Maze and the Dearborn. With children up to twelve a simple test of grade proficiency, hastily adapted from the school curriculum, was given, while with children above twelve the Monroe Silent Reading for grades 6, 7, 8, a shortened Courtis Arithmetic Test and the Wood worth and Wells Hard Directions Test were used. A Witmer Analytic Diagnosis Sheet was filled out for every child. His health was estimated on a five point scale with 3 as average good health, 4 above average and 2 below, one and 5 representing the extremes? 1 real illness and 5 an extreme degree of robustness. The physical type was estimated on a three point scale representing the different anatomical types. The heavily boned, rugged type makes up type 3, the average normal individual represents type 2, while type 1 is the small boned, lightly muscled type. The height and weight of each child was carefully measured and recorded and then compared with Hastings tables. The maximum, minimum and average ratings given in the case reports are those of Hastings Tables.
Results.
The results of individual case records are so much more interesting in this group than mass results and the results for the entire group represent such a small number of cases that it seems advisable to present some typical case records rather than attempt an elaborate statistical treatment of group results. (Brief tables of results for the group will be found at the end of the article.) A few notes, however, on the results in general seem necessary. The intelligence quotients ranged in a normal distribution from 154.3 (a very exceptional case reported in the individual case records) to 63.0 (also reported in the case records). The auditory digit memory spans divide up as follows:
Digits. Cases.
4 15 5 32 6 31 7 22 8 10 9 2
Nothing particularly significant was discovered about the memory span, except possibly that although the majority of those with memory span of only 4 digits were six-year-olds there were older children among the 4 group. One boy particularly of twelve years, nine months and one girl of ten years, eight months were especially noticeable.
The performance tests disclosed nothing startling on the quantitative side. The time and scores distribute normally. On the qualitative side, however, the lack of planfulness in solutions was very noticeable. A low type of trial and error performance was the general rule. In fact, it is on the qualitative side rather than the quantitative side that the characteristics of this group can be pointed out. A few individual case reports will illustrate some of the qualitative difference.
Case Reports.
Case No. 1 was a little, underdeveloped boy of six years and one month of age who looked far more like a four-year-old. He was dressed in a clean white shirt, blue trousers, sneakers and no stockings. His brown bobbed hair surrounded a little face with small fiat features and small, dull brown eyes under a bulging forehead. He was quite deaf and his eyesight was evidently very defective, as shown by the way he bent over the tests while working with them.
Record of Tests.
Height?39 inches, under minimum for Binet Vocabulary Score?0 5 years Cylinders?(1) F, (2) F Weight?37 lbs., minimum for 5 years Maze A?(1) F, (2) F
Physical Type?1 Memory Span:
Health Rating?2 Auditory?4 (5 on ten rep.) Number of years in school?1 year Visual?None School Proficiency?None Reverse?None Mental Age?4 Drawing Square?No Intelligence Quotient?67.2 Diamond?No His greatest defects were in complexity, vivacity, trainability, retentiveness, understanding, observation and intellect. His physical condition was very poor and this together with his mental confusion and dazed attitude, suggested some post-encephalitic, post-meningitic or tubercular condition. He was probably feebleminded and a thorough medical examination was recommended to see whether medical interference could improve his mental condition. If his mental condition was not directly related to some physical condition which could be remedied the boy was undoubtedly a case for an institution. This boy was one of only two or three who could really be called feebleminded. He was not typical of the group with his clean shirt, his good blue trousers and the presence of “sneakers” on his feet. Neither was he typical in his lack of vivacity but his poor physical condition and the defect in hearing and vision represented the low physical level of the group.
Case No. 2 was a little girl of six years and six months, with a funny long triangular shaped face which sloped sharply from a very wide forehead to a narrow pointed “old woman” chin. She had a peculiar kind of long thin ears which protruded oddly from her head, very thin lips, slanting eyes which suggested Mongolism, straight yellow bobbed hair, light eyebrows and heavy dark eyelashes around big hazel eyes. She had small feet and small hands with long tapering fingers. Her whole makeup was strongly suggestive of physical degeneracy. She wore a filthy yellow dress, dirty white socks with worn out patent leather slippers.
Record of Tests.
Height?in., average for 7 years Cylinders?(1) F, (2) 176 seconds Weight?401 lbs., average for 6 years Maze A?(1) 96 seconds, (2) 34 seconds Physical Type?2 Memory Span:
Health Rating?3 Auditory?5 (6 on six rep.) Number of years in school?None Visual?None School Proficiency?None Reverse?None Mental Age?5-9 Drawing Square?No Intelligence Quotient?88.1 Diamond?No Binet Vocabulary Score?0 She was decidedly below normal in initiative, and complexity.
She had a serious defect in attention and was deficient in trainability and retention. She was dull of comprehension and lacking in planfulness. Her intellect was better than her intelligence. She could organize knowledge which she already had better than she could solve new problems. She was very much below normal in her ability to meet new problems adequately. She represented the physical degenerate type which is fertile soil for psychopathic conditions. This girl represents one of the types frequently encountered in the investigation?physical degeneracy with a psychopathic trend. Case No. 3 was a chubby little chap of six years, seven months. He had a small bullet-shaped head, a round face with fat rosy cheeks, a scarlet Cupid’s bow mouth, a little wide nose and big blue eyes. He had light brown close cropped hair, light eyebrows and lashes. His hands were chubby and very much like a small baby’s. Although he was a husky, healthy little fellow he looked exactly like a Kewpie doll and gave one the impression that he was really a photographic enlargement of a year-old baby.
Record of Tests. Height?44| in., average for 7 years Cylinders?(1) F, (2) 290 seconds Weight?46 lbs., maximum for 6 years Maze A?(1) 105 seconds, (2) 220 Physical Type?3 seconds Health Rating?5 Memory Span: Number of years in school?None Auditory?5 (6 on five rep.) School Proficiency?None Visual?None Mental Age?5 years Reverse?None Intelligence Quotient?75.9 Drawing Square?No Binet Vocabulary Score?0 Diamond?No In both intellect and intelligence he was below normal for six years old and his mentality, like his physical appearance, was extremely infantile. His mental reactions were those of a two or threeyear-old child. He was very attractive and his pleasing personality will undoubtedly help to cover up and compensate his lack of real mental development. If, however, he does not soon begin to mature and grow up, if he retains his present state of infantilism he will in time reach the point where there can be no doubt that he is feebleminded on the simple score of physical and mental retardation. Here is a case where winning personality and physical attractiveness serve to cover up serious defects in mental development. The people with whom “Kewpie” comes in contact are willing to forgive him much because he is so cute.
Case No. 4 was a very thin, undersized little fellow of seven years. The hazel eyes in his grimy, freckled face had deep blue shadows under them. His short brown hair was rumpled and unkempt. His entire costume consisted of an old torn and dirty white sailor blouse and a pair of ragged overalls, the latter so worn and frayed that they looked ready to fall off him at any minute. He was a forlorn and vaguely appealing little soul.
Record of Tests.
Height?43 in., maximum for 5 years Binet Vocabulary Score?0 Weight?37 lbs., minimum for 5 years Cylinders?(1) F, (2) 115 seconds Physical Type?1 Maze A?(1) 57 seconds, (2) 70 seconds Health Rating?2 Memory Span:
Number of years in school?None Auditory?5 (6 on three rep.) School Proficiency?Counted from 1 to Visual?None 30 Reverse?None
Mental Age 5 years Drawing Square?No Intelligence Quotient?70.2 Diamond?No
His mental status was low even for his group. He was especially deficient in initiative, complexity, distribution and persistence of attention, planfulness, comprehension, observation, intelligence and intellect. He was seriously undernourished and looked like a case of premature birth. There was a suggestion of something like senility in his appearance. His small pinched face looked more like that of an old person than a child of seven. It was impossible to say what his mental status might be if his condition of malnutrition were corrected. His actual rating at the time of the examination, while it could scarcely be called feebleminded, was undoubtedly below normal. This boy represents a type of retardation of physical and mental development accompanied by or caused by malnutrition which was prevalent in this group.
Case No. 5 was an infantile little chap of seven years, five months, with a peculiar ,microcephalic-shaped head, tapering toward the top and very straight and flat up the back. He had brown eyes and light hair and a high color under a heavy coat of sunburn. His flesh was firm and surprisingly clean. The bridge of his nose was flat and adenoidal, his eyes were somewhat Mongoloid. He kept his small mouth open continually and drooled most of the time. A transfiguring smile lit up his face from time to time and made him look almost attractive. There was a marked tremor of his hands while he was working with the tests which did not seem to be the result of nervousness or self-consciousness.
Record op Tests.
Height?445 in., maximum for 6 years Cylinders?(1) 135 seconds, (2) 130 Weight?42 lbs., the average for 6 years seconds Physical Type?1 Maze A?(1) 106 seconds, (2) 67 seconds Health Rating?3 Memory Span: Number of years in school?1 year Auditory?5 (not 6 on ten rep.) School Proficiency?Counted from 1 to Visual?3 20 by ones and fives Reverse?None Mental Age?6 years. 3 mos. Drawing Square?Yes Intelligence Quotient?84.3 Diamond?Yes Binet Vocabulary Score?0 His greatest defects were in attention, initiative, complexity, comprehension, intellect and intelligence. His condition might have been the result or sequelae of some specific disease, although no history to indicate this could be obtained. His status praesens was not far above feebleminded in spite of his I. Q. of 84. He was typical of the group in that his eager smile and attitude of expectancy would have passed for alertness without more careful observation or examination. As a matter of fact, it was in real mental alertness that he was most hopelessly deficient.
Case No. 6 was a little girl of seven years and six months, dressed in a clean red and white checked dress, sneakers and no stockings. Her face, hands and clothes were clean, which was a remarkable occurrence in this group. Her blue-gray eyes, which bulged unnaturally, were closely set, heavy-lidded and looked red and sore. Her hair, which was once a medium brown, was very coarse and thick and sunburned into peculiar streaks of nondescript color. Her eyebrows were thick, much sunburned and very bushy. Her skin, although fair and not at all sunburned, was coarse and rough in texture. Her face was very broad at the forehead and tapered sharply to a small pointed chin. Her mouth was very small and her cheeks were very full and looked as though she were going to blow a mighty puff at any minute. There were deep circles under her eyes and her general health condition was bad. She looked senile and gave the appearance of some kind of glandular disturbance. Her hands were very small with long, thin tapering fingers.
Record of Tests.
Height?45 5 in, average for 7 years Binet Vocabulary Score?0 Weight?44 lbs., minimum for 8 years Cylinders?(1) 214 seconds, (2) 140 Physical Type?2 seconds
Health Rating?2 Maze A?(1) 43 seconds, (2) 35 seconds Number of years in school?Finished Memory Span: 1st grade Auditory?6 (7 on six rep.) School Proficiency?Write name? Visual?5 count to 20 by ones and fives Reverse?3 Mental Age?6 years 9 months Drawing Square?No Intelligence Quotient?90 Diamond?No
She was below normal in initiative, complexity, alertness and planfulness. Her intellect and intelligence were normal at a low level. Her health condition and physical type were characteristic of the group, also her deficiency in complexity, alertness and initiative and planfulness, but she was unlike the group in that she added to these defects a lack of orientation and social proficiency which was very unusual. In most cases, no matter how low the level of competency, these children were well-oriented and socially proficient. Case No. 7 was a large, heavy, freckled, red-faced girl of eight years and five months. She had a broad face, large very blue eyes, with heavy lashes, a flat-bridged, wide turned-up nose and very large protruding ears. She had very large hands with exceptionally large palms, and long thin fingers. She wore a dirty gingham dress, sneakers and no stockings.
Record of Tests. Height?47^ in., average for 8 years Maze A?(1) 392 seconds, (2) 200 Weight?55^ lbs., minimum for 10 years seconds Physical Rating?3 Memory Span: Health Rating?3 Auditory?7 (not 8 on ten rep.) Number of years in school?2 years Visual?5 School Proficiency?First grade pro- Reverse?2 ficiency. Drawing Square?Yes Mental Age?6 years 9 months Diamond?Yes Intelligence Quotient?80.1 Binet Vocabulary Score?4 Cylinders?(1) 250 seconds, (2) 195 seconds
Her reaction time, both mental and physical, was very slow. She was extremely deficient in initiative and complexity, vivacity, alertness and interest. Her intelligence was very poor and her general competency level was low. She was extremely “thickheaded”, “dumb”, dull of comprehension. She was resentful, suspicious and sullen, ready to fight at any excuse. She was the markedly unintellectual type which is unfitted for ordinary scholastic work. Her emotional tone was suggestive of the commonly used term “fighting Irish”. She had a chip on her shoulder all the time and she went around just daring anybody to knock it off and hoping all the while that they would.
Case No. 8 was a little rat-like fellow of nine years, eleven months. He was a decided blonde, painfully thin, and looked sick. His skin was an unhealthy sallow pasty color. He had a very high narrow forehead and a very small head. He wore a dirty, ragged flannel shirt, ragged knickers and no shoes or stockings. He had a very heavy voice and a marked speech defect which sounded like a cleft palate. Examination of his mouth showed that he had a narrow, very arched and restricted roof to his mouth but no actual cleft. His speech defect was so great that his articulate language was almost incomprehensible.
Record of Tests. Height?47? in., average for 7 years Binet Vocabulary Score?8 Weight?46 lbs., minimum for 8 years Cylinders?(1) 187 seconds, (2) 91 secPhysical Type?1 onds Health Rating 2 Maze A?(1) 165 seconds, (2) 76 seconds Number of years in school?1 year Memory Span: School Proficiency?Count to 20 by Auditory?4 (5 on three rep.) ones, twos and fives Visual?3 Mental Age?6 years 3 months Drawing Square?No Intelligence Quotient?63.0 Diamond?No He was very much below par in energy and endurance. His physical and mental reaction times were abnormally slow. His memory span was very inadequate. His attention was very defective and he was deficient in initiative, complexity, vivacity and alertness. His competency level was very low. Unless it is possible to correct his speech, at least to some degree, his incomprehensible lingo combined with his defects will cause him to be definitely classed as feebleminded.
Case No. 9 was a boy of just ten years with black hair, eyebrows and lashes, gray eyes, and a very white skin under a generous coating of dirt. He had very high cheek bones, a large broad flat nose and a weak, thin-lipped mouth, over which an apologetic smile hovered continually. There was a fine growth of hair all over his face. His speech was that of the typical infantile stammerer or baby-talker. He had a constant fine tremor of the hands, was fidgety, nervous, ill at ease and furtive-looking. He was dressed in a torn and dirty white shirt and a pair of filthy and ragged khaki trousers?no shoes or stockings.
Record of Tests.
Height?51 in., average for 10 years Cylinders?(1) 85 seconds, (2) 77 secWeight?64 lbs., average for 11 years onds Physical Type?2 Maze A?(1) 58 seconds, (2) 17 seconds Health Rating?3 Memory Span: Number of years in school?4 years Auditory?5 (6 on four rep.) School Proficiency?3rd grade profi- Visual?6 ciency Reverse?2 Mental Age?7 years 3 months Drawing Square?Yes Intelligence Quotient?72.5 Diamond?Yes Binet Vocabulary Score?10 His reaction time, mental and physical, was very slow. He was below normal in initiative, complexity and vivacity. His attention, comprehension and planfulness were all poor. His intellectual level was low and he was below the average for his group in intelligence. He represented one type found often in the group, frequently with the better mentalities, those children with a very unstable nervous equilibrium, expressing itself in restlessness, tremors, tics, habit spasms and speech defects.
Case No. 10 was a sturdily built boy of ten years and seven months, with coarse, bristling black hair growing low on his forehead and in front of his ears. His brown eyes were slanted upwards and the canthus was adherent. He looked as though, for all his Irish name and environment, there must have been a touch of real Oriental blood somewhere in his heredity. His face was markedly asymetrical, his cheek bones were high, his nose small and flat, his mouth and chin small. His head was of a square type, high above the ears, which although small, protruded almost at right angles to his head. His hands were large but well-shaped. He was well-developed physically all over his body. He was barefooted and wore a dirty white shirt and blue overalls.
Record of Tests. Height?51i in., average for 10 years Binet Vocabulary Score?20 Weight?68 lbs., minimum for 12 years Cylinders?(1) 74 seconds, (2) 110 secPhysical Type?2 onds Health Rating?3 Maze A?(1) 42 seconds, (2) 24 seconds Number of years in school?3 years Memory Span: School Proficiency?3rd grade profi- Auditory?6 (not 7 on ten rep.) ciency Visual?5 Mental Age?8 years 3 months Reverse?3 Intelligence Quotient?77.9 Drawing Square?Yes Binet Vocabulary Score?20 Diamond?Yes
He was somewhat below normal in initiative, complexity, alertness, understanding and planfulness. His memory span was limited and his reaction time was slow but none of these defects were serious. This boy represented true mental retardation. There were no serious qualitative defects in his performances. Everything that he did was at the eight-year level, the place where he scored on the Binet Scale. He was quantitatively deficient in that he was mentally a perfectly good eight-year-old, but he was just two years behind the place where he should have been at ten years of age. This boy was very interesting because he represented so clear-cut a case of pure quantitative retardation uncomplicated by any serious qualitative defects. Case No. 11 was a red-haired, freckle-faced boy of twelve years and seven months, with extremely protruding ears. He had a pugnacious jaw, a cruel thin-lipped mouth, cold gray-green eyes and a brilliant smile. He had a high forehead and a very narrow head. One suspected him immediately of being clever, cunning and very unruly. He was the type who might seem to obey without demur, but the minute he was free from observation would do just as he pleased. The impression which his personality alone created was of a far more intelligent boy than the tests really proved him to be.
Record of Tests.
Height?in., average for 13 years Intelligence Quotient?82.1 Weight?76? lbs., average for 13 years Binet Vocabulary Score?30 Physical Type?2 Cylinders?(1) 200 seconds, (2) 48 secHealth Rating?3 onds Number of years in school?Finished Dearborn?(1) F, (2) 252 seconds 5th grade Memory Span: School Proficiency?Not 5th grade pro- Auditory?7 ficiency Visual?7 Mental Age?10 years 4 months
It took him 190 seconds to complete the Woodworth and Wells Hard Directions Test, and he made three errors, making a total score of 17. With the Monroe Silent Reading he made a rate score of 98, but his comprehension score was only 13 where it should have been 27. It took him 540 seconds to do the eight simple problems in arithmetic and when he finished he had only one out of the eight correct. His errors were gross. Sometimes he would not have a single number in the whole answer correct. He did not fully understand the process of division and he understood even less the process of multiplication by more than one number. He was very typical of the group in that he presented a picture of alertness and keenness which the results of the tests failed absolutely to confirm. He was even below the grade for his group in intelligence. His trainability, memory, understanding and planfulness were all very poor. He had a marked defect in concentration and persistence of attention. He was very deficient in planfulness. His intellectual level was very low. He was a boy of the incorrigible, cunning unintellectual type who is dangerously susceptible to criminal influence.
Case No. 12 was a sickly looking girl of twelve years, eleven months. She had a high narrow forehead, a funny shovel-shaped nose which was thin and flat between her eyes and which spread out to a broad flat end. She had gray-green eyes, a big, thin-lipped, weak mouth and very large protruding ears. She wore a very dirty blue middy-blouse, from beneath which glimpses of even dirtier underwear could be obtained every now and then, a dirty brown plaid skirt, sneakers and no stockings. She was suffering very severely from pediculosis. She was physically immature.
Record of Tests.
Height?58 in., average for 13 years Binet Vocabulary Score?34 Weight?85 lbs., average for 13 years Cylinders?(1) 81 seconds, (2) 55 secPhysical Type?2 onds Health Rating?2 Dearborn?(1) 207 seconds, (2) 95 secNumber of years in school?3rd grade onds School Proficiency?Not 3rd grade pro- Memory Span:
ficiency Auditory?5
Mental Age?10 years 8 months Visual?5 Intelligence Quotient?82.5
She could not read well enough to do either the Woodworth and Wells Hard Directions Test or the Monroe Silent Reading. She could not do Arithmetic at all and so was unable to complete even the addition or subtraction problems of the test. She had just finished the third grade in parochial school but did not have third grade proficiency. If she had really spent three full years in school under even very incompetent teaching and had not acquired any more school proficiency than she had it seemed altogether probable that she represented that type of case sometimes encountered which may be called the “congenital illiterate”. She was below normal in energy, initiative, complexity and vivacity. She was not alert. Her memory span was insufficient for her age and she was decidedly lacking in planfulness. Her intelligence was poor and her intellectual level very low. She was the type of case which cannot justifiably be diagnosed feebleminded, but which could never acquire any of the intellectual arts. It was very doubtful whether she could ever be taught to use reading and writing as tools to obtain further knowledge. These accomplishments would probably always be an end in themselves for her, and she would use them much as a dog uses tricks which he has been painstakingly taught.
Case No. 13 was a tall, high shouldered, pale girl of thirteen years and four months. She had light brown, stringy hair, a freckled face, with nice hazel eyes marred by having ugly red rims around them, a small well shaped nose and a well formed mouth with very pale lips. She had unusually large hands and feet. Her finger nails were badly bitten. She wore a clean blue and white checked dress and no shoes or stockings.
Record of Tests.
Height?65^ in., above maximum for Mental Age?9 years 7 months 16 years Intelligence Quotient?71.8 Weight?112 lbs., maximum for 15 Binet Vocabulary Score?38 years Cylinders?(1) 123 seconds, (2) 45 secPhysical Type?3 onds Health Rating?2 Dearborn?(1) 515 seconds, (2) 97 secNumber of years in school?Finished onds 5th grade Memory Span:
School Proficiency?Fair 5th grade Auditory?5 proficiency Visual?7
It took her 430 seconds to do the Hard Directions Test and she made a score of 17. Her rate score on the Monroe Silent Reading was 98 and her comprehension was 25, which was good, as 27 is the maximum which she could have made with a rate score of 98. It took her 660 seconds to do the eight problems in arithmetic and she got only three correct. She had finished the 5th grade and had fair 5th grade proficiency. Her reaction time was very slow. She was deficient in energy, initiative, complexity and alertness. Her planfulness and observation were poor. Her intellectual level was low and her intelligence very limited. She was typical of the group in that ordinary conversation and social contact with her would never indicate how very low her performance level was.
A SMALL GROUP OF IRISH-AMERICANS. 31
Case No. 14 was a boy of fifteen years and nine months with a very small head and face. He had a mop of coarse unruly brown hair, small deep-sunken eyes set close together and tending to cross at the least movement. These eyes were almost hidden behind large tortoise-rimmed spectacles. He had a small nose, a petulant stubborn mouth with protruding lips, a very short upper lip, and a pugnacious jaw. He possessed a peculiar laugh which was at once shrill, unpleasant, nervous, self-conscious, hysterical and idiotic. He had all of the earmarks of a trouble-maker and an incorrigible. He was what is most aptly termed “a tough customer”, a “bad egg.”
Recokd op Tests. Height?61 in., maximum for 14 years Binet Vocabulary Score?42 Weight?100 lbs., maximum for 14 Cylinders?(1) F, (2) 72 seconds years Dearborn?(1) 380 seconds, (2) 221 Physical Type?2 seconds Health Rating?3 Memory Span: Completed 6B grade Auditory?7 Mental Age?12 years 2 months Visual?7 Intelligence Quotient?77.2 He took 320 seconds to do the Woodworth and Wells Hard Directions Test and made a score of 13. His time for the arithmetic test was 812 seconds and he got four out of the eight problems correct. His rate score on the Monroe Silent Reading was 98 and his Comprehension Score was 14. This boy strongly suggested the psychopathic type if he was not already the victim of some definite psychopathic disorder. He was the typical, inspired trouble-maker with a positive genius for “starting things.” His ability to create rebellion and confusion indicated a much higher level of mentality than the results of the tests would indicate. Strange as it may seem, on the analysis of his performances with the tests he seemed to be lacking in complexity of thought, concentration of attention, planfulness and systematized observation. His intellectual level was low and his intelligence low normal. His nervous and mental equilibrium were very poor. He brought to the surface the peculiar nervous instability which one felt lurking in so many of these children but which seldom was presented for observation in so well-defined a form. His potentiality for getting into trouble and his instability made the prognosis for any constructive work with the boy very poor. His erratic, pugnacious, troublehunting, unintellectual, nervously unstable make-up was an exaggeration of a composite picture of the frailties of the group and the boy was an extremely interesting case for that reason.
Case No. 15 was a girl of sixteen years and one month. She was freckle-faced and had a mop of tawny-colored bobbed hair. She had a humorous, very Irish face with a decided chin and gray-blue Irish eyes. Her hands were very large and coarse and her nails were badly bitten. She was dressed in a dirty pink smock, “sneakers” and no stockings.
Record of Tests. Height?64? in., above the maximum Cylinders?(1) 72 seconds, (2) 50 secfor 16 years onds Weight?110 lbs., average for 16 years Dearborn?(1) 207 seconds, (2) 60 secPhysical Type?2 onds Health Rating?4 Memory Span: Completed 6B grade Auditory?6 Mental Age?10 years 10 months Visual?7 Intelligence Quotient?68.0 Reverse?5 Binet Vocabulary Score?22
She did the Hard Directions Test in 395 seconds and made a score of 12. It took her 1021 seconds to do the arithmetic test and she did not get any of the problems correct. With the Silent Reading Test she made a rate score of 54 and a comprehension score of 13. Her rate of response was very slow. She was noticeably lacking in initiative, alertness and comprehension. Her intelligence was better than her intellect, although neither was of a very high order. The qualitative side of her performance tests was very good but she fell way below on the Binet both quantitatively and qualitatively. She worked well enough with concrete material but could not deal with abstract ideas at all. The girl seemed conscious to a certain degree of her mental limitations.
This girl was particularly interesting because, on the authority of the workers at the social center, she represented very well what the younger girls develop into by the time they are sixteen, seventeen or eighteen years old. Any gleam of hope which may have existed in the social workers’ mind with respect to getting a younger girl interested in serious things and self-development is entirely extinguished by the time the girl reaches fifteen or thereabouts. The social workers reported that there was an actual mental deterioration. That girls who were bright enough when they were ten and eleven became very dull by the time they reached this age. Psychologically speaking and judging from the I. Q.’s it is very probable that by ten or eleven these girls have reached the limit of their mental development and they are up to the mark for ten-year-olds, but each year thereafter they become more and more inadequate as the chronological age goes on and their mental level remains the same.
Two cases stand out in marked contrast to the rest of the group. Case No. 16 was a boy of just six years. He was a little infantile-looking fellow, with yellow sun-bleached hair, cornflower-blue eyes, a fair white skin which on the exposed parts of his body was sunburned to a ruddy glow. He was small in stature, still had his first teeth, and looked much like an overgrown baby. He was quiet and demure in his manner and very docile. His face and hands were clean, his blue overalls and white linen shirt were spotless and whole. He wore shoes but no stockings.
Record of Tests.
Height?42 in., minimum for 6 years Cylinders?(1) 210 seconds, (2) 125 Weight?41 lbs., below average for 6 seconds years Maze?(1) 80 seconds, (2) 32 seconds Physical Type?1 Memory Span:
Health Rating?5 Auditory?5 (6 on four rep.) Number of years in School?? year Visual?5 School Proficiency?1st grade Reverse?3 Mental Age?6 years 9 months Drawing Square?Yes Intelligence Quotient?112.5 Diamond?Yes Binet Vocabulary Score?0
His intelligence was way above the average for his group. His attention was excellent. He was well-oriented and his performances were qualitatively above the level of the group. He had been in school but half a year but had acquired full first grade proficiency in that time. The quality of his performances was so startling and so different from the rest of the group that at the close of the day’s testing the social worker in charge was sought out and asked to furnish some information on the boy which might help to explain this difference from the group. Her explanation cleared up many things. Although neither his name, looks, nor speech suggested it, the boy was of German parentage. Both his parents were born in Germany. The family had lived in the neighborhood only a short time, but were already planning to move out. The great qualitative difference which had been noticed was thus accounted for because the boy was really not a member of the group at all.
The second case which attracted notice by way of contrast was the girl who made the I. Q. of 154.3?Case No. 17. She was nine years, eight months old and a “typically Irish” looking little thing with gray-blue eyes, a freckled face and snub nose. Her mousy brown hair was straight and stringy and grew very low on her forehead. Her eyelashes were thick and long, her brows dark and bushy. Her cheek bones were flat and her forehead narrow, which made her heavy jowls and fat, puffy cheeks appear to stick out all the more in contrast. She had a large mouth, with thick protruding lips, which she kept hanging open most of the time. The expression on her face, if it could be actually classified as an expression, was one of dazed incomprehension as to what it was all about anyway. When she entered the room the examiners mentally made notes, as they afterward confessed, that here came one real feebleminded child, even though another one might not be encountered in the group. But No. 17 was full of surprises.
Record of Tests. Height?49 in., average for 9 years Cylinders?(1) 75 seconds, (2) 55 secWeight?52 lbs., maximum for 8 years onds Physical Type?2 Maze?(1) 162 seconds, (2) 22 seconds Health Rating?3 Memory Span:
Number of years in school?3 Auditory?8 (9 on four rep.) School Proficiency?Full 3rd and part Visual?7 4th Reverse?7
Mental Age?14 years 11 months Drawing Square?Yes Intelligence Quotient?154.3 Diamond?Yes Binet Vocabulary Score?30
She was a very unusual child. She appeared stupid, almost feebleminded and yet gave performances which were quantitatively and qualitatively excellent. Her particular assets were an excellent distribution of attention, a very good and substantial memory span, a high degree of trainability and a high intellectual level. She was very well-oriented and socially proficient. Her language ability was excellent. While her mental processes were not amazingly quick, (they were inclined to be a little slow) they were very accurate, deliberate and clear-cut. She was highly educable as well as trainable. If ever appearances were against anyone they were against that girl. An interesting problem suggests itself as to how much the first impression she created will handicap her in life and how far her superior mentality will be able to compensate for this handicap.
Conclusions.
Only 110 of these children were tested and the number is far too small to draw any definite and lasting conclusions or to warrant elaborate statistical treatment. Certain characteristics of the group were discovered, however, which seemed to appear in the individuals frequently enough to justify reporting them. These observations and conclusions are presented as the result of testing, observing and working with these children one summer, examination of case histories, and the testimony of social workers who have worked with this group and another Irish-American group for many years.
A SMALL GROUP OF IRISH-AMERICANS. 35
First of all, the Irish-American child of this group is socially well-oriented. He is socially proficient. He is adequate to his social environment. Inferiority complexes do not trouble him. The child knows all about what is going on about him in his social group and he feels himself to be a necessary part of the picture. He makes friends easily, enemies even more easily. He is a good conversationalist and shines particularly in the field of repartee. These qualities all tend to give him an air of extreme alertness.
Second?this alertness, however, is what may best be termed “superficial.” The child’s attitude is one of great vivacity. He seems to be quick, keen, alive. These outward manifestations are entirely without mental backing and the conclusion has to be drawn that they are entirely a matter of physical attitude. The vivacity, restlessness, constantly changing movements and great show of motion is purely a motor phenomenon. In fact, not only are they not more alert than the usual run of children but they even suffer from a marked lack of alertness, expectancy, quickness of comprehension and the ability to make ready and facile mental adjustments to new situations. This is amazing, almost unbelievable, in view of their great amount of physical motion and their ability at repartee. Yet it is true. They are notably deficient in the very attributes in which their physical attitude and outward manifestations would lead us to believe they were particularly strong.
Third?their remarkable abilit}*- at repartee is very mystifying in view of the facts just presented. There is no evidence to be discovered, with the psychological methods which we have so far employed, that the quality of mentality exists in these children, which would be judged necessary to think out and express at exactly the correct and most efficacious moment, the entertaining, apropos and clever remarks at which the children are so adept. Social possibilities may be advanced as explanations of this striking ability. First, it may be a specific gift or talent which these children, and the group which they represent, possess, the means of operation of which they do not comprehend. A talent directly comparable to musical or artistic ability, or, on the other hand, a theory* which may be offered as a possible solution and which seems more logical and reasonable than the first theory, although neither can be definitely proved, on the data which we now have. It may be that all of the brilliant retorts of this group are merely the results of habit formation. If all human relationships can be divided into a comparatively small number of type or pattern situations, which admit of certain numerous modifications and variations, but which remain intrinsically the same, * Suggested by Dr Samuel W. Fernberger, University of Pennsylvania. the child learns from the adult group a given set of quips and phrases which are the customary reactions and responses to a certain type of situation and other sets which are the approved reactions and responses to other types of situations. Possibly this whole body of clever remarks is merely an accumulation of phrases acquired by the child, as he acquires all of the patterns for his social performance, through habit formation imposed upon him by the group. It might be interesting to discover in this connection whether these witty and apropos remarks with which the Irish are so free are considered humorous within the group or whether they are merely taken for granted as the usual form of conversation.
There is still another explanation which may be offered for this particular ability. We do not know as yet the full force of goal ideas, especially in groups. The workings of that urge or stir which furnishes the motivation for the group are not yet thoroughly familiar to us. There can be little question that making money furnishes the motivation for the Jewish group. Anyone who has lived for any length of time in a Jewish community knows that not only the men but even the women and little children frame most of their conversation in terms of making money. Certainly it is true that the Jew has an advantage over others in the financial field. Given a Jew and a non-Jew with the same amount of intelligence and the same intellectual level and the ambition to make money, is there anyone who would not be willing to wager that the Jew would be the more successful at the undertaking? Money here is motive which drives the group. Maj’” it not be that just as the Jewish group hold the ability to make money up as a measuring stick by which the success of each member of the group is measured so the Irish hold the ability to make witty remarks? Since this group criterion of success appears to have a marked effect on the Jew why should the group criterion not have a similarly marked effect upon the Irish? If your estimation by the group depends upon your ability to make clever remarks certainly a great premium is placed on that accomplishment and the best that there is in the individual will be turned in that direction. Just as the Jew gives his best to making money, so the Irishman gives his best to making clever remarks. This is just another hypothetical explanation for a phenomenon for which it is difficult to account.
Whatever may be the explanation, one of the most puzzling things discovered about this small group was that they had an ability to make clever and fitting remarks for which psychological examination showed their mentality to be entirely inadequate, if judged by test results and the way in which their mentality was exhibited along other lines.
The constantly repeated picture in this group is that of the bright, apparently alert, quick, alive, ready talker with an excellent personality who, to the utter astonishment of the examiner, does miserably on the psychological tests. The particular type of test on which they do worst is one involving abstraction in any form. As long as they are dealing with concrete material they seem to feel that they have their feet on firm ground and they do fairly well. When, however, they are required to deal with abstract ideas they are not equal to the occasion. They do not show defects of sufficient quantity or quality to warrant any thought of feeblemindedness. Their defect is rather a lack of general complexity. Their mental processes are simple, too simple and uninvolved, as a rule, to pass tests satisfactorily at their age level. The great alertness which they display is all physical and they are woefully lacking mentally in that very quality.
Fourth?incorrigibility is rife in this group. There is a perverseness here which is almost pathological. Every child, with a few exceptions, seems to desire to do only that which is forbidden or which will harm or displease someone else. It matters practically not at all whether there be any material benefit accruing from a particular misdemeanor. The greatest satisfaction is to be derived not from a concrete reward of mere earthly possessions. Far sweeter and more dear is the inward satisfaction derived from knowing that some rule or regulation has been broken or someone, especially someone in authority, has been discommoded and possibly injured. This is pleasant knowledge, perhaps even pleasanter when it means some personal sacrifice or disgrace for the offender. Attempts to appeal to something in the child, some sense of justice, fair play, cooperation, reason, reciprocity, all appear in vain. There is one code he respects and only one?force and violence. He bows to the person who can “beat him up,” or to the person who can yell loudly and effectively enough at him to command his attention, and incidentally his respect, and who then exerts authority and has him forcibly put out. These things he understands and this is the only game he wants to play. Fifth?the health level of this particular group studied was very low. There were not so many specific and gross defects. It was rather that there was a very low physical tone recurring again and again in the individual children, which attracted attention. Furthermore, there was an unusually large number of minor nervous disorders present among children of this group. Mild chorea, tics, habit spasms, hysterical tendencies, speech defects, and general nervous instability were frequently encountered even in this comparatively small number of children.
General Observations.
These children are attractive. They have personal magnetism, and they are very good company. They are entertaining and amusing. They are good fair weather friends but they cannot be counted on in an emergency nor will they remain loyal when “the call of the wild” urges them to some violence and destruction. They are very independent and will not willingly contract an obligation. That is, they will not accept things which require some return recognition on their part. There is no give and take?you do this and I will do that. On the other hand, they will take and take and take anything or any service which is understood to be absolutely free and will never indicate by word or deed that they appreciate it in any degree. They are extremely clannish and will rally to the defense of the group at any time. They feel family ties strongly. Many of the older girls when called in for testing brought baby sisters or brothers with them. These babies had to be “parked” in another room while the tests were administered. These older girls are required to take the baby or babies of the family along with them and tend them all day long and apparently there is very little rebellion at being saddled with this burden. This is surprising when the generally rebellious and non-conformed nature of the group is considered.
There is another interesting characteristic of this group which soon becomes familiar to those who work with them for a very long period of time. They may mutilate or demolish the settlement house, public library or other civic improvement which has the misfortune to incur their displeasure at various odd times and feel that it is perfectly all right to do so. But, if someone else attacks either physically or verbally these same institutions they rally at once to their support and defense.
It must be remembered that this small group represents only a fraction of the Irish-American population. It is a small homogeneous group in a slum district living at a low intellectual level. It probably represents the unsuccessful members of the group because the able ones have undoubtedly moved out and climbed farther up the social and intellectual ladder. The clinical pictures of this group do not conform to the well-known clinical pictures of many Irish-Americans. For example, while pugnacity is an attribute of this group and is probably an attribute of the modal Irish-American there are many who are not pugnacious and are even pacifists. The members of this group are malicious, but there are some Irish-Americans who are beneficent. This group stands at the lowest rung of the intellectual ladder and their pugnacity is perhaps the only thing which enables them to keep their entity. If it were not for this attribute they would probably long ago have been pushed to the wall and annihilated.
TABLES.
110 cases 70 cases between 5 and 10 years 40 cases between 10 and 16 years Intelligence Quotients. 20 80 Years. Minimum. Per Cent. Median. Per Cent. Maximum. 5-10 63.0 84.1 98.3 108.4 154.3 10-16 68.0 81.6 93.3 112.3 131.2 Cylinders. First Trial. 20 80 Years. Minimum. Per Cent. Median. Per Cent. Maximum. 5-10 58 100 181 405 405 + 13 10-16 35 52 65 96 200 + 1 Second Trial. 5-10 45 69 103 155 296+2 10-16 30 41 55 75 100 Dearborn Formboard. First Trial. 20 80 Years. Minimum. Per Cent. Median. Per Cent. Maximum. 10-16 only 67 131 237 380 515+3 Second Trial. 10-16 only 35 62 85 162 463 Maze A. First Trial. 20 SO Years. Minimum. Per Cent. Median. Per Cent. Maximum. 5-10 only 17 44 86 141 392+6 Second Trial. 5-10 only 15 25 35 95 232 + 1 Memory Span. Auditory. -Digits7 8 9 10 Years. 5-10 Cases 14 23 20 10 1 0 0 10-16 Cases 2 8 9 12 9 2 0 Total cases 16 31 29 22 10 2 0 40 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC. Y EARS. -Visual5 6 7 8 9 10 5-10 15 3 15 16 9 7 2 1 0 10-16 00 0 7 8 10 782 Total 15 3 15 23 17 17 9 9 2 Auditory. 20 80 Years. Minimum. Per Cent. Median. Per Cent. Maximum. 5-10 4 4 5 6 8 10-16 4 5 7 8 9 Visual. 5-10 F* F 5 6 9 10-16 5 6 7 9 10 * F indicates that the child was unable to read figures and therefore could not give a visual memory span.
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