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Okay, so I've been on a bit of a cultural competency kick lately. Now I want to tackle or have a discussion about one of the most contentious issues in modern psychological debate: dealing with racial/ethnic/cultural differences on IQ tests. Specifically, I want to focus on if we should be having these discussions when going over results with culturally diverse patients.
As we know, IQ tests do not purely measure how smart someone is. Rather, things like impulsivity, knowledge, cultural background, anxiety, etc., can affect how a person scores on an IQ test.
I wonder if there is utility in providing education about testing bias - that when someone’s culture does not necessarily fall in the dominant group in a normed test, IQ tests must be interpreted cautiously - especially as results can underestimate certain skills, as can a myriad of things. Sometimes when working with a hyper or anxious kid, I will communicate something along the lines of "this estimate is likely an underestimate of their true reasoning skills because of the behaviors observed above." Has anyone ever communicated this with diverse patients?
APA recently issued an apology for the role measuring intelligence has historically played in eugenics. And people use IQ assessment to create a hierarchy, and I want to get in front of that. I think they lay public puts too much of an emphasis on IQ, failing to understand that other things affect that score. The family is one google away from finding some horrendous stuff about race and IQ under the guise of science (some twitter accounts seem to be very popular). I want to get in front of that a little. People take fake IQ tests online and boast about their results. IQ is ubiquitious as E-MC^2. I want to just make it clear that a lot of stuff can, like attention, impulsivity, culture, background, language issues can affect an IQ score and the point is to help the family know that it’s not a simple summative number - that there is more to it than intelligence.
There is some debate about IQ and bias. But this is my best understanding: "Intelligence tests contain cultural bias — they contain a bias that is in favor White, middle class groups; for example: (a) the tests measure knowledge and content that are more familiar to White, middle class students than to diverse students; (b) the language on these tests is more familiar to White, middle class students; and (c) the examples used in questions are more familiar to White, middle class students. In this case, it is argued that such tests are measuring what diverse groups have not been exposed to and their differential experiences rather than their intelligence — the construct being assessed."
As a result of these issues regarding intelligence tests, those who believe tests contain cultural bias argue that diverse groups are denied access to high quality, challenging educational opportunities, such as gifted education programs, and they are often misplaced in special education programs and low ability groups.
And we know that expectations matter. From Rosenthal and Jacobsen's groundbreaking work with Pygmalion in the Classroom to Good's work on expectation effects that established that some teachers do form and communicate differential expectations to their students and that some students internalise these expectations in ways that manifest in their actual performance (e.g., they get asked different types of questions, or get grouped differently).
Would it be wrong, if a kid was in a limited education setting (e.g., a behavioral classroom), to say "oh so and so IQ's is Average, and in fact, their reasoning skills are above that, because we know things like attention, cultural background and test bias, can serve to artificially deflate a score. To further highlight their strengths.
It kills me how many culturally Black/AA, Native American, etc., have missed out on gifted ed for missing a cutoff.
As we know, IQ tests do not purely measure how smart someone is. Rather, things like impulsivity, knowledge, cultural background, anxiety, etc., can affect how a person scores on an IQ test.
I wonder if there is utility in providing education about testing bias - that when someone’s culture does not necessarily fall in the dominant group in a normed test, IQ tests must be interpreted cautiously - especially as results can underestimate certain skills, as can a myriad of things. Sometimes when working with a hyper or anxious kid, I will communicate something along the lines of "this estimate is likely an underestimate of their true reasoning skills because of the behaviors observed above." Has anyone ever communicated this with diverse patients?
APA recently issued an apology for the role measuring intelligence has historically played in eugenics. And people use IQ assessment to create a hierarchy, and I want to get in front of that. I think they lay public puts too much of an emphasis on IQ, failing to understand that other things affect that score. The family is one google away from finding some horrendous stuff about race and IQ under the guise of science (some twitter accounts seem to be very popular). I want to get in front of that a little. People take fake IQ tests online and boast about their results. IQ is ubiquitious as E-MC^2. I want to just make it clear that a lot of stuff can, like attention, impulsivity, culture, background, language issues can affect an IQ score and the point is to help the family know that it’s not a simple summative number - that there is more to it than intelligence.
There is some debate about IQ and bias. But this is my best understanding: "Intelligence tests contain cultural bias — they contain a bias that is in favor White, middle class groups; for example: (a) the tests measure knowledge and content that are more familiar to White, middle class students than to diverse students; (b) the language on these tests is more familiar to White, middle class students; and (c) the examples used in questions are more familiar to White, middle class students. In this case, it is argued that such tests are measuring what diverse groups have not been exposed to and their differential experiences rather than their intelligence — the construct being assessed."
As a result of these issues regarding intelligence tests, those who believe tests contain cultural bias argue that diverse groups are denied access to high quality, challenging educational opportunities, such as gifted education programs, and they are often misplaced in special education programs and low ability groups.
And we know that expectations matter. From Rosenthal and Jacobsen's groundbreaking work with Pygmalion in the Classroom to Good's work on expectation effects that established that some teachers do form and communicate differential expectations to their students and that some students internalise these expectations in ways that manifest in their actual performance (e.g., they get asked different types of questions, or get grouped differently).
Would it be wrong, if a kid was in a limited education setting (e.g., a behavioral classroom), to say "oh so and so IQ's is Average, and in fact, their reasoning skills are above that, because we know things like attention, cultural background and test bias, can serve to artificially deflate a score. To further highlight their strengths.
It kills me how many culturally Black/AA, Native American, etc., have missed out on gifted ed for missing a cutoff.
