Deck 16: Psychological Tests and Discrimination

Question 1

The first psychological tests as developed by Weber and Fechner measured

A) Sensory perception
B) Cognitive functioning
C) Emotional stability
D) All of the above.

Answer 1

Sensory perception

Question 2

Psychologists working in the military during World War I found correlations between intelligence tests and social class and race. They used this finding to argue

A) that these findings provided a scientific basis for making individual comparisons between ethnic and racial groups.
B) for restrictive immigration legislation in the 1920's.
C) for sterilization for the "mentally defective" to protect society.
D) all of the above.

Answer 2

all of the above.

Question 3

In the mid 1950's, some schools adopted the tracking system because

A) It allowed educators to keep track of student's academic progress
B) It allowed educators to maintain segregated classrooms because, on average, test scores of African-Americans tended to be lower and, therefore, these students were place din lower level classes
C) none of the above
D) Both of A and B

Answer 3

It allowed educators to maintain segregated classrooms because, on average, test scores of African-Americans tended to be lower and, therefore, these students were place din lower level classes

Question 4

Originally, the Larry P. Case led congress to

A) pass a legislation forbidding the protest of and disuse of IQ tests as a determinant for school placement.
B) pass legislation forbidding discrimination against handicapped people, including the mentally retarded, receiving federal funds.
C) pass legislation forbidding discrimination against handicapped/mentally retarded people in state funded programs only.
D) arrest Larry P. for disturbance of the peace and outlaw public demonstrations in front of government buildings.

Question 5

The results of various lawsuits following the Larry P. case included

A) the increased use of standardized tests.
B) the outlawing of the use of achievement tests or adaptive behavioral tests.
C) the limitation of the use of standardized intelligence tests in many jurisdictions.
D) there were no lawsuits against standardized tests.

Question 6

In the University of California Regents vs. Bakke, the Supreme Court

A) rejected a selection fairness model and ruled that race could be used as the primary factor for acceptance into a university
B) ruled that segregation is appropriate in all schools
C) ruled that affirmative action or any plans resembling it should me made illegal and that race should play no role at all in the admissions process
D) Accepted a selection fairness approach model and stated that it is acceptable for race to be an element in the mix of criteria used to select students, but not the primary factor

Question 7

Affirmative Action programs proved to be

A) politically unpopular
B) politically popular
C) successful in the sense that African American representation in colleges increased.
D) affirmative action is not successful in any aspect
E) both A and C

Question 8

National averages show that PSAT scores

A) are generally higher for boys.
B) are generally higher for girls,
C) are the same for boys and girls.
D) over predict female performance in the classroom.

Question 9

"The Lake Wobegone" effect refers to

A) most school districts reporting test scores well under the national average.
B) the fact that boys will do better on all standardized tests due to biological make-up.
C) most school districts report test scores that fall higher than the national average( a mathematical impossibility) due to cheating and test construction problems.
D) are extremely accurate in predicting job performance.

Question 10

According to the Supreme Court, scores from tests like the Wonderlic or Bennett Mechanical Comprehension tests

A) can never be used as the basis of deciding whether or not to hire someone.
B) can only be used if the employer can prove a business necessity for using the test and the test significantly correlates with job performance.
C) must always be used as a basis for hiring someone.
D) are extremely accurate in predicting job performance.

Question 11

In order for a state to forbid licensing examinations

A) a petition containing a specified amount of signatures against licensing examination must be signed and brought to court officials.
B) Licensing examinations would never be made legal under any circumstances.
C) A plaintiff would have to demonstrate discriminating intent under constitutional standards.
D) None of the above.

Question 12

What is the history of testing in psychology?

Question 13

How has testing been used in support of racial and ethnic discrimination?

Question 14

What are reliability, validity, fairness, and disparate impact? How do they enter into a consideration of discrimination through testing.

Question 15

What is the difference between discriminatory intent and discriminatory impact as it relates to use of testing for employment selection?

Question 16

What is meant by disparate impact and how does it enter into issues of business necessity in the use of tests for employment selection?

Question 17

Design a study to test Steele's hypothesis that the sense of racial vulnerability and ensuing anxiety may affect the willingness of African-American students to strive and thereby affect performance.

Question 18

The first intelligence tests were intended to

A) improve selective breeding among humans
B) identify children who could not keep up in regular classes and could better be taught in special classes
C) identify talented and gifted children who could move through the regular curriculum more quickly
D) measure practical intelligence and ability to function in social situations outside of school

Question 19

The first intelligence tests were validated by showing that

A) children from wealthier families who did well in school scored higher on the tests than children from poor families who did not do as well in school
B) teachers judgments were wrong because children they characterized as problems did better on the tests than did children who were not problems
C) younger children could pass the same items older children passed thus showing there was no age bias in the tests
D) the tests could identify children who did not do well in school but who had practical intelligence and could solve problems in their environment

Question 20

Group tests of intelligence were

A) first developed by industries who wanted to screen out intelligent workers who would be leaders in strikes
B) first developed in public schools in support of a "free market" solution to the problems of public schools
C) first developed in the military to assign recruits to various military occupations on the basis of test scores
D) first developed to identify and screen out of manual labor occupations those who would get bored easily and would not be good workers

Question 21

Achievement tests and intelligence tests

A) are really the same tests under different names
B) were designed to take education out of politics by providing objective measures on which to base funding of schools
C) were designed to show that scores were not correlated with social class and ethnicity
D) are intended to measure different matters; intelligence tests measured general cognitive skills, and achievement tests measured the degree of mastery of the content children were taught in school

Question 22

Achievement tests are objective measures

A) that are used under law to evaluate schools
B) and therefore not subject to use in political conflicts
C) that are not used to evaluate charter schools because they are experimental
D) of school learning whose publication is intended to break the public school monopoly over education

Question 23

A test used for occupational selection or for school placement may have a disparate impact

A) even if it has content and face validity
B) if its use adversely affects opportunities for one group more than for another
C) even if it has construct validity
D) even if it has differential validity

Question 24

Fairness is

A) another way of describing criterion validity
B) unimportant to the discussion of the use of tests in school and occupational selection and placement because it is not a technical legal or psychological term
C) the value basis for evaluating whether a test has disparate impact, and whether it is valid for the purpose for which it is used
D) is just another subterfuge of values for maintaining segregated tracking in schools based on tests

Question 25

A model for occupational and educational selection and placement that weights social and economic values and the values of diversity

A) may be politically controversial but it is scientifically valid
B) is designed to increase the disparate impact that results from using tests alone
C) is illustrated by court decisions holding that special class placement for Spanish speaking children based on tests administered in English is acceptable
D) is one less based on predictive validity of tests, but rather on the value of selection fairness

Question 26

Intelligence test results showing differences between ethnic and racial groups

A) were controversial and put the heredity environment controversy in the public arena
B) resulted in an emotion-free objective intellectual debate about the use of tests to design different educational programs for blacks and for whites
C) resulted in new federal legislation requiring the use of tests that had disparate racial impact in public school programs
D) led activist psychologists to drop planned law suits challenging school placement in special classes because test results were objective and had predictive validity

Question 27

The disproportionate placement of minority children in classes for the Educationally Mentally Retarded (EMR) in California schools

A) showed that California educators were really sensitive to issues of selection fairness in special education
B) provided an opportunity for activist psychologists to try to have intelligence tests which had an adverse disparate impact on black children declared "illegal" by the courts
C) was based on incorrect results of tests because psychologists using them failed to use nonstandard methods of administration
D) was an opportunity for activist judges to correct social ills stemming from socioeconomic causes

Question 28

In a second court case in which intelligence tests were "put on trial"

A) tests were again declared illegal by the court
B) the judge reviewed the tests item by item himself and he found all the test items were racially and culturally biased
C) the law suits could not resolve the scientific question of what intelligence tests measure and whether the tests were racially biased
D) a follow up showed that school psychologists simply ignored the court order not to use intelligence tests and used them anyway

Question 29

When we admit students to the 20% of highly selective desirable schools, we are

A) best off as a society if we simply admit everyone who applies, thus allowing market forces to make the decision
B) we should rely strictly on a policy of selection fairness and use test scores alone to decide admissions
C) cannot adopt a policy of selection fairness because the US Supreme Court has struck down any use of race at all in decisions about admission to selective schools
D) are distributing a scarce resource and need to decide how much weight to give in admission decisions to test scores which have an adverse disparate impact on black applicants

Question 30

Opponents of affirmative action appeal to fairness values

A) denying that the legacy of unequal treatment in the past should be allowed to override the interests of majority members today who themselves have not been agents of discrimination
B) when they argue that other minorities who have been subject to discrimination but are not the beneficiaries of affirmative action are affected adversely
C) and to efficiency values when they say that changing the rules from a system of just deserts and distributing resources efficiently by merit as measured by test scores is simply wrong
D) all of the above

Question 31

Affirmative action policies implemented in the past resulted in

A) in an increase in the representation of African Americans in the professions
B) has had very little effect on the admissions of African Americans to schools of higher learning
C) has been politically favored as represented by a referendum in California supporting the use of racial or gender preferences in admission standards to California colleges and universities
D) a decline in the motivation of educational administrators to adopt admission plans that promoted diversity on campuses and in professional schools based on a belief that diversity is simply not of value for the society

Question 32

The U.S. Supreme court in deciding cases involving race and affirmative action in colleges and in law schools

A) barred any use of race in the admission decision
B) acknowledged that the objective of achieving a diverse campus was a compelling state interest that justified individual determinations as to whether an applicant would contribute to diversity on campus with race as a "plus"
C) allowed the admission process to weight race by a 20 points for every applicant of that racial group without evaluating the individual's contribution to diversity on campus
D) showed the all the justices were wholeheartedly in support of racial preferences

Question 33

The late Chief Justice Rehnquist, in dissent, showed that the rates of African American students in the applicant pool correlated with the rates of African Americans who were accepted by the law school. Therefore, he argued

A) the university was not using race unfairly or in a discriminatory manner
B) consistent with his opinion in a death penalty case, that one could not infer a pattern of institutional discrimination from statistics
C) on the basis of these statistical data, the law school was using systematic race-based planning in admissions which was not permissible
D) in great detail to show why his opinion on the use of statistics in the University of Michigan law school case was perfectly consistent with his view of statistics in the death penalty case

Question 34

The U.S. Supreme court found the admission procedure to the undergraduate College of Literature, Science and Arts (LSA) at the University of Michigan

A) was an ideal system for using race in admissions and accepted it on the grounds that diversity was a compelling interest
B) was fair in that automatically giving 20 points for membership in a favored minority group on a 150 point scale to an applicant was a good way to ensure that there was diversity on campus
C) irrational because it used an arbitrary point system scale of 150 points for admission
D) was impermissible because the university engaged in no individual determination to ensure that the successful applicant would contribute to diversity on campus

Question 35

Because of affirmative action programs in law schools the percent of African American students enrolled in accredited law schools

A) increased from about 1.3 percent to about 7.7 percent
B) decreased from about 7.7 percent to 1.3 percent
C) increased but most attended historically black law schools
D) decreased but those admitted under affirmative action standards felt more included

Question 36

Sander's study of American law students showed that

A) African Americans tended to have lower attrition rates than whites
B) race had no predictive value for first year law school grades, when one controlled for LSAT score and GPA
C) law school GPAs had little predictive value for earnings as a second year associate in a law firm
D) law schools continued to discriminate against African American student admissions be requiring higher credentials than whites for admission to elite schools

Question 37

Sander's study of American law students showed that

A) the black white gap in admissions credentials was found only in the most elite law schools
B) African American students did not receive any preference in law school admissions because law schools were not permitted to use race as the main factor in admissions
C) even though African Americans had lower LSATs, and lower college GPAs on admission than whites, the majority graduated and eventually passed the bar examination
D) the distribution of grades on examinations was no different for blacks than for whites

Question 38

Sander argues that color blind admissions to law schools based on LSAT and GPAs

A) would result in African American students being more competitive in the law schools that admitted them because on average their credentials would be the same as those of white students
B) would feel better about themselves because they were more competitive, do better on exams, graduate at higher rates, and pass the bar examination at higher rates
C) would result in higher earnings for African American students after law school because later earnings are correlated with law school GPA
D) all of the above

Question 39

Sander's theory of color blind admissions to law schools based on LSAT and GPAs was criticized because it

A) underestimated the decline in black students in elite schools that would occur without affirmative action
B) underestimated the advantages of graduating from an elite law school even if the student was not near the top of his or her class
C) under valued data showing students admitted to elite schools under affirmative action have had notable careers
D) all of the above

Question 40

The people committed to a diverse student body and a diverse workforce

A) include educators, business leaders, and leaders of the military
B) are primarily white liberals suffering from liberal guilt
C) those leaders black and white who have a vested interest in promoting a victim mentality
D) those legislators who are in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens

Question 41

Given the limits set by legal decision and some state laws barring the use of race directly for admission to schools and for other purposes as well

A) communities "grandfathered" in their race conscious admission practices so they didn't have to change their admission practices
B) social scientists were faced with the problem of devising indices that did not rely directly on race, but would select in more minority students than using tests would
C) newer methods using complex indices have accomplished the task of maintaining integrated schools even when the pool of applicants is not racially diverse
D) social scientists have been very successful in devising methods that would meet legal constraints on using race as an admission factor and yet maintain integrated schools

Question 42

Critics of "percent plans" in which the top x percent of the graduates of each high school is automatically admitted to campuses in the state's university system

A) say the plan achieves its aims only because all public high schools in a state have pretty much the same mix of race and ethnicity
B) say it achieves its aims because all of a state's colleges and universities have strong outreach plans to encourage black and Hispanic minorities to apply to the elite schools in the system
C) say it is unfair to students who are competing in school s with very high achievers because a student with better credentials than a student who stands well in a poorly achieving school would be excluded because he had lower standing in a class of high achievers
D) say the net gain in minority admissions is too great than would be expected by chance

Question 43

The SAT. which is really an aptitude test to assess ability to do college work has been challenged for gender bias because

A) overall girls score higher than boys
B) overall boys score higher than girls
C) girls score higher than boys on math, but not on the verbal portion
D) boys score higher than girls on the math section but not on the verbal section

Question 44

The idea that SAT and PSAT tests had an adverse impact on girls

A) was not important because girls in general get lower grades in the first year in college than boys
B) was rejected by the test maker (ETS) who agreed to modify the test by adding a writing section that was expected to favor girls
C) was important because girls in general get higher first year college grades than boys despite lower test scores
D) was a problem because the gender gap does not appear on other tests which have consequences such as the GRE and the MCAT

Question 45

In Great Britain, because of the greater success of women than men on both tests and in performance in colleges and in entering graduate and professional schools

A) it shows that the tests in use in Great Britain have greater face validity
B) it shows that feminist ideology has been important in affecting educational practices of government officials
C) it shows that males are penalized on timed tests
D) it shows that in the future there may be a necessity for affirmative action for males to prevent the "feminization" of the professions

Question 46

"High stakes" testing mandated by some state legislatures

A) in theory tracks state set educational standards
B) doesn't override classroom performance and teacher grades so a student who passes all the courses but not the high stakes test can still graduate
C) includes a passing score which is well validated
D) includes a passing score set by a committee of educators and lay people who are provided with extensive validation data

Question 47

The social service version of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle applied to educational testing claims

A) that the Lake Woebegone effect (all children are above average) is a function of the local accountability systems
B) that whenever resource allocation depends upon an arbitrary quantitative index, either the index will be corrupted, or the process will be corrupted to produce the index
C) that state and federal standards for judging schools will be the same to reduce uncertainty in parents' minds about the quality of schools.
D) the integrity of the testing process depends on the honesty of those administering the test

Question 48

The percent of students in a school taking the test is important in understanding a school's test results because

A) the higher the percent of students taking the test, the higher the school's average score will be
B) the lower the percent of students taking the test, the lower the school's average score will be
C) the lower the percent of students taking the test, the higher the school's average score will be because the school will have discouraged those they expect to be low scoring from taking the test
D) it doesn't matter because the tests test individual knowledge

Question 49

High stakes testing most likely

A) results in improved test scores as a consequence of repeated drilling on the test
B) results in true learning as represented by the improvement not only on the state's test but on other independent tests of achievement as well
C) is a problem because experts in testing strongly recommend relying on the results of one test, but legislators tend to require several tests to assess the testing program's construct validity
D) results in the transfer of learning because of the intensive concentration on one test

Question 50

In the Griggs and early employment discrimination cases, the US. Supreme Court held that

A) employment tests were discriminatory under the law and could not be used for selection purposes
B) employment tests which had a disparate impact could be used if it could be shown that the test was valid, i.e. predicted job performance
C) employment tests which had disparate impact could be used if the employer simply asserted it was using the tests as a matter of business necessity
D) it was irrational to use tests with a disparate impact for employment selection purposes because the tests had high construct validity

Question 51

In the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Washington v. Davis, the Court reviewed the American Psychological Association's standards for tests and it accepted as the generally accepted method that should be used to establish business necessity

A) criterion validity, the most difficult method
B) predictive validity, the least expensive method
C) content or face validity, the simplest method
D) none of the above

Question 52

State professional licensing tests have disparate impact but

A) extensive validation tests have established the equivalent of "business necessity" so they may be used
B) screen out those who have demonstrated they would harm their clients or customers if permitted to practice thus protecting the public
C) limit upward social mobility of successful candidates and therefore promote equality
D) but challenges have failed because one would have to demonstrate discriminatory intent in a constitutional challenge

Question 53

Defenders of the use of psychological tests for employment selection argue

A) there is a statistically significant and linear relationship between tests and measures of productivity on the job
B) that psychometric evidence fails to establish that tests are biased against minorities
C) tests predict success in training offered by employers
D) all of the above

Question 54

Defenders of tests argue that

A) using tests for employment selection reduces employer costs for training because drop outs and failures are reduced
B) the increased use tests with face valid items will reduce the value of tests for measuring "g"
C) they are unfair only to the false negatives and the false positive cases
D) validity coefficients of tests used for employment selection are not very high and thus are most useful

Question 55

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his dissenting opinion in Grutter, the case that accepted the University of Michigan's affirmative action admission plan, argued that

A) a more effective affirmative action plan would avoid stigmatizing African American students in the law school
B) because of the affirmative action plan in the law school, all African American students, whether admitted regularly with excellent credentials or with affirmative action, are stigmatized as the undeserving beneficiaries of racial preferences
C) the threat of confirmation of negative group stereotypes helps African American students to cope positively in mixed racial environments
D) the stigma associated with affirmative action may take place in academic settings but it does not affect African Americans who reach the highest places in government, industry or academia