Results of Examination of 91 at a State Institution
- Author:
Margaret C. Brooke, M.A.
Child Study Department, Rochester, New York In 1925, a request came to the Univ. of Penn. Psychological Clinic for someone to do psychometric work at a state school for delinquent girls. Work was so arranged that it was possible for a member of this clinic staff to be available for this work at certain times weekly. As a result, ninety-one girls were tested, ranging from nine years, five months, to eighteen years, eleven months. The comparison of the ninety-one scores with the seven hundred seventy-eight girls tested by this Clinic at the “fifteenyear level” is very interesting and significant.
Environmental Factors
The girls in this group are placed in the institution by civil authorities- throughout the state, and their placement generally means a two-year program there. They are neither kept nor accepted after twenty-one years of age. The cottage plan is used and the atmosphere of the entire plant savors less of institutional life than is generally the case. Undoubtedly the “wheels go round,” but one never sees them. To the casual observer, these girls apparently have unlimited freedom, but actually, their whole program revolves itself around an elaborate system of merits and demerits. With the possible exception of the cottage where the newest arrivals live, the examiner was always impressed by the absence of almost everything which savored of group disciplinary life usually apparent in institutions. Individualism was allowed even in dress, with no semblance of regulation uniform.
At the time this group was tested, school was not in session; consequently the grade proficiency was listed as given by the girl prior to her placement. Most of the girls had never been in school at the institution. In almost no instance did the intellectual level correlate with the grade given?the retardation ranging from two to five or six years.
The emotional make-up of this colony was especially wholesome ?laughter and singing seemed spontaneous, with a normal tendency to chastise and “kid.”
CULTURAL STATUS
The cultural status was not so easily recognized, due perhaps to the heterogeneous mixture of human beings. The cottage life was a great stimulus. Furniture and decorations were in excellent taste?entirely in keeping with the surroundings. Everything was immaculate, and every girl, to all appearances, was keenly interested in keeping it so. The living rooms were livable, and looked as though they were really used. Each cottage had some individual and differentiating feature?doubtless due to the varying tastes of the matrons and her assistants. Jazz music and jazz records were both seen and heard; the latest in “bobs” was to be seen on all sides, and the afternoon and morning dresses were dainty, and of the prevailing mode. Every girl seemed to enjoy her meals, and typical of her sex, those at the small tables in each dining room, all talked at once without being boisterous. Doubtless those in authority would be prone to smile at these impressions of a rank outsider, but I repeat, doubtless wheels did go ‘round, but seldom where the public figured, or when visitors were on the scene. Personally, the examiner was converted at the time of her first contact?and is now a loyal and sympathetic admirer of the institution as a whole. Naturally, these girls suffered from a mal-adjusted home environment, otherwise they would never have reached the Court because of truancy, immorality, et cetera, but in the majority of cases they were “more sinned against than sinning.”
In each examination, some attempt was made to get:
a) Mental status from a battery of tests used at the fifteenyear level. &) School proficiency with fundamentals. Little attempt was made and little recorded concerning the social status, since that information was self-evident from the office records, and the mere fact that the girl was in the institution. The battery of tests to determine mental status and school proficiency were those used originally in making standards and norms at the fifteen-year level (Learning). This included first and second trials on the performance tests, known as the Witmer Cylinders and Dearborn Formboard 1C. The former has been standardized and found to be a test at about the six-year level. Statistical data has not been compiled on the Dearborn Formboard
1C, but it is undoubtedly a more difficult performance test than the Witmer Cylinders.
Memory span for digits, both auditory and visual, and the reverse span were given. The latter was not included in Dr Learning’s original study. The Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale was given, and an arithmetic test including eight problems involving the four fundamental processes, using digits only. The Binet Test, the simple arithmetic problems and possibly the memory span were given as an index to intellectual status, since they dealt with knowledge and the ability to organize knowledge through language. According to Dr Witmer, intellectual ability is that which makes it possible to ‘’ acquire, retain, organize and use knowledge.”
On the Binet Test, these girls failed more consistently on the tests involving understanding and use of language than on those in which understanding only was involved. Consequently, the vocabulary and questions involving likenesses and differences were more often a source of failure than those in which intelligence was involved to a greater degree than intellect?for example, the problems of fact, and the morals from fables. At the eight-year level of the Binet Scale?the problems of similarities, involving a series of four questions, the first being, “How are wood and coal alike?”?95.6% pass this test, and 4.4% fail. At the twelve-year level?problems of similarities, the first of which is, “How are a snake, a cow and a sparrow alike?”? 46.1% pass and 53.9% fail. At the fourteen-year level?questions involving differences between President and King, including Tenure, Accession and Power?8.2% pass, and 91.8% fail.
At the fourteen-year level?problems of fact, involving three questions, the first of which is, “A man who was walking in the woods near a city stopped suddenly, very much frightened, …. etc. “?51.6% pass, and 48.3% fail. At the sixteen-year level? tests asking for an interpretation of Fables?23.1% pass, and 76.9% fail.
An index to intellectual status is available in Test No. 4, eight-year level, if something more than a simple likeness is given, but most of the children pass this test by giving obvious comparisons which, of course, must be credited, but which are not an index to their intellectual level. This test involves discernment more than complexity or intellect. Test No. 8, at the twelve-year level (“In what way are and alike?”) is a more complex one if for no other reason than that a third word is introduced, necessitating a higher intellectual level for purposes of classification with increased ability to discern, not necessary in the similar test at the eight-year level. Test No. 3 at the fourteen-year level, concerning the differences between president and king is a test where intellect, or academic training, is essential, for no child without school training could answer this satisfactorily. It is then very significant, but not surprising that such a large percentage of this group should fail with this test.
In direct contrast are the problems of fact at the same age level. Here we find intelligence?which, according to Dr Witmer, is “the ability to solve what for the individual is a new problem ?the necessary equipment for satisfactory completions, together with an ideational background producing appropriate associations. These prerequisites?primarily intelligence?were not lacking, as shown by the percentage of satisfactory completions, as were the prerequisites?mainly intellectual?in the tests of differences, both tests at the fourteen-year level.
The percentage of failures with the Fables is particularly significant where delinquents are concerned. Terman says this is a generalization test valuable when examining delinquents, since it gives an insight into the status of social consciousness and the ability to interpret motives underlying acts and attitudes. Probably a lack of this insight is sufficient explanation for the failure of transgressors to meet human problems and situations without outside help or interference. In other words, the fables involve the practical application of an abstract situation, and from generalizations, the ability to appropriate broader interpretations applicable in everyday life.
VOCABULARY ANALYSIS (91 Cases) Number % Word Number % Word passing Failing passing Failing 1. gown 85 6.6% rul0 8? 5.5% 2. tap 82 9.9% 7. health 71 22.0% 3. scorch 83 8.8% 8. eye-lash 74 18.7% 4. puddle 81 11.0% 9. copper 42 53.9% 5. envelope 88 3.3% 10. curse 79 13.2% 26 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC 11. pork 82 9.9% 25. hysterics 32 64.9% 12. outward 63 30.8% 26. Mars 23 74.8% 13. southern 62 31.9% 27. mosaic 100.0% 14. lecture 51 44.0% 28. bewail 14 84.7% 15. dungeon 62 31.9% 29. priceless 14 84.7% 16. skill 23 74.8% 30. disproportionate . 11 88.0% 17. ramble 17 81.4% 31. tolerate 7 92.4% 18. civil 27 80.4% 32. artless 8 91.3% 19. insure 45 50.6% 33. depredation 100.0% 20. nerve 51 44.0% 34. lotus 3 96.8% 21. juggler 18 80.3% 35. frustrate 1 98.91% 22. regard 22 75.9% 36. harpy 100.0% 23. stave 10 89.1% 37. flaunt 1 98.91% 24. brunette 30 67.1% 38. ochre 1 98.91% Not one girl made a vocabulary score of seventy-five, which is required at superior adult level. No one word in the list of words was scored perfectly by the entire group. “Envelope” receives the highest score for the group?88 passed; “rule” was second, with 86 passing; “gown,” third, with 85. Not one passed “mosaic,” “harpy” or “depredation” or any word in the first line after ‘’ ochre.’’ At the higher age levels, there are very few questions where the use of language is not involved, consequently the Intelligence Quotients suffered. In many cases the girls had the ability to answer questions, but lacked the vocabulary adequate to enable them to pass the tests according to the standards laid down by Terman.
FIFTEEN-YEAR LEVEL INSTITUTIONAL GROUP
778 Females 91 Females Chronological Age Chronological Age Maximum 19-2 Maximum 18-11 Minimum 12-0 Minimum 9-5 (3 below 12 yrs.) Mode 60% 14-4 to 15-8 Mode 60% 14-3 to 16-11 Memory Span?Auditory Memory Span?Auditory Maximum 10 Maximum 9 Minimum 4 Minimum 5 60% Mode 6-8 60% Mode 5-7 Memory Span?Visual Memory Span?Visual Maximum 10 Maximum 9 Minimum 5 Minimum 0 60% Mode 7-9 60% Mode 6-8 No Reverse Span given at fifteen-year level. No correlation available. EXAMINATION AT STATE INSTITUTION 27 Intelligence Quotient Intelligence Quotient Maximum 144 Maximum 100 Minimum 54 Minimum 40.6 60% Mode 81-110 60% Mode 63.5-84.9 Cylinders?First Trial Cylinders?First Trial Maximum F Maximum F Minimum 22” Minimum 40” 60% Mode 52-96” 60% Mode 58-112” Cylinders?Second Trial Cylinders?Second Trial Maximum F Maximum ^ Minimum 18” Minimum 26” 60% Mode 41-66” 60% Mode 41-72” Dearborn 1C?First Trial Dearborn 1C?First Trial Mnyirmim F Maximum ^ Minimum 36” Minimum 60% Mode 104-375” 60% Mode 132-549” Dearborn 1C?Second Trial Dearborn 1C?Second Trial Maximum F Maximum ^ Minimum 21” Minimum 30” 60% Mode 55-185” 60% Mode 72-272”
CONCLUSIONS
I. The results show marked pedagogical retardation, but a normal display of intelligence. Since no test has been devised that determines intelligence alone, the conclusion that these girls display more intelligence than intellect is reached only through analysis and interpretation of their reactions to submitted test material. The examiner attempted to accomplish this by noting kinds of errors and how they were corrected, which necessitated an insight into the many contributing factors. From careful observation of children, it is the consensus of opinion that intelligence is not acquired through education, but is an aggregate of congenital abilities, both general and specific. Intelligence is thought to be above average when it works at a high intellectual level. As this group does not function at such a level, they may be diagnosed as having normal intelligence. Intellectual levels are determined by school proficiency, which is relative superiority in competition. Their school competency can be estimated only through school proficiency. These proficiencies were especially apparent in their deficient vocabulary and lack of arithmetical foundations. II. If delinquency is largely referable to truancy and pedagogical retardation?in fact, any number of things which might result from poor home environment?the comparisons and findings in this study are especially interesting and valuable.
III. Many of those in this group are adolescent girls who are chronologically able to profit by additional instruction and will doubtless raise their intellectual level as the result of the school programs to which they are now subjected. For this reason, a subsequent psychological examination would be interesting and should be significant, before they leave the institution, not only from a psychological point of view, but as an index of the value of the program carried out in the institution.
IV. Personality ratings giving some index of emotional traits with social and psycho-physical characteristics, would make an interesting correlation and enhance the value of the psychological findings. An insight into the individual qualities from this angle would also be invaluable to the personnel of the institution. Findings could be recorded weekly by the persons exercising the most constant supervision and consistent authority over each girl.
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