Choose one mundane behavior from your log that is based on a social norm.  Violate this norm.  Be sure you are not breaking any rules or laws or putting yourself at risk in any way.

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To prepare for this discussion, please read Chapter 8 of your textbook (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (Feenstra, 2013).  In addition, read Milestones in the Psychological Analysis of Social Influence (Crano, 2000) and watch
Prudential: Everybody’s Doing It (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.(2013).  Finally, review Instructor Guidance and Announcements.  In this discussion, you will consider social influences on your own behavior.  Be sure to use your own academic voice (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and apply in-text citations (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.appropriately throughout your post.

  1. Consider your own social behavior and the various normative and informational social influences you encounter in everyday life.  Then, complete the following activities.
  2. Appraise your behavior.  For 24 hours, keep a log of every behavior in which you engage that is due to conformity or obedience.
  3. Select one of the following:
  4. Examine your social influence log and your experience living a day of nonconformity/violating a social norm.  Include the following in your summary:
    • To what extent is your everyday behavior shaped by social influence?
    • How do people react when you do not conform/obey?  What factors influence people to follow?

Post your initial response of 250 words or more by Day 3 (Thursday).  Respond to at least two of your peers by Day 7 (Monday).  You are encouraged to post one or more of your required replies early each week (e.g., by Saturday) to stimulate more meaningful and interactive discourse in the discussion forum.  In addition, strive to provide a response to classmates who replied to your initial post and/or the Instructor (if applicable).  Peer responses may vary in length but should be carefully crafted and insightful.  Below are some suggestions to assist your thinking.

Guided Response:  Reply to at least two or more peers overall.  The goal of the discussion forum is to foster continual dialogue, similar to what might occur in a verbal face-to-face exchange.  Consider the following in your responses:

  • What about your peer’s experience was most surprising?
  • How would you have reacted to the nonconformity of your peer?

Briefly define the concepts of reliability and validity as they apply to psychological assessment. Role of testing and assessment in the diagnostic process

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Assessment Guide

For written transcript, click here.

Psychological assessment guides are created by psychology professionals to provide the public with accurate and authoritative information appropriate for their current needs. Information available to the public about psychological testing and assessment varies widely depending on the professional creating it, the purpose of the assessment, and the intended audience. When professionals effectively educate the public on the how, what, and why behind assessments and the strengths and limitations of commonly used instruments, potential clients are in a better position to be informed users of assessment products and services. The Assessment Guides developed in this course will be designed to provide the lay public with accurate and culturally relevant information to aid them in making informed decisions about psychological testing. Students will develop their Guides with the goal of educating readers to be informed participants in the assessment process.

There is no required template for the development of the Assessment Guide. Students are encouraged to be creative while maintaining the professional appearance of their work. The Guide must be reader-friendly (sixth- to ninth-grade reading level) and easy to navigate, and it must include a combination of text, images, and graphics to engage readers in the information provided. Throughout their Guides, students will provide useful examples and definitions as well as questions readers should ask their practitioners. To ensure accuracy, students are expected to use only scholarly and peer-reviewed sources for the information in the development of their Guides.

Students will begin their Guides with a general overview of assessment, reasons for assessment referrals, and the importance of the role of each individual in the process. Within each of the remaining sections, students will describe the types of assessments that their readers may encounter, the purposes of each type of assessment, the different skills and abilities the instruments measure, the most valid and reliable uses of the measures, and limitations of the measures. A brief section will be included to describe the assessment process, the types of professionals who conduct the assessments, and what to expect during the assessment meetings.

The Assessment Guide must include the following sections:

Table of Contents (Portrait orientation must be used for the page layout of this section.)
In this one-page section, students must list the following subsections and categories of assessments.

  • Introduction and Overview
  • Tests of Intelligence
  • Tests of Achievement
  • Tests of Ability
  • Neuropsychological Testing
  • Personality Testing
  • Industrial, Occupational, and Career Assessment
  • Forensic Assessment
  • Special Topics (student’s choice)
  • References

Section 1: Introduction and Overview (Portrait or landscape orientation may be used for the page layout of this section.)
Students will begin their Guides with a general overview of assessment. In this two-page section, students will briefly address the major aspects of the assessment process. Students are encouraged to develop creative titles for these topics that effectively communicate the meanings to the intended audience.

  • Definition of a Test (e.g., What is a Test?)
  • Briefly define psychological assessment.
  • Types of Tests
  • Identify the major categories of psychological assessment.
  • Reliability and Validity
  • Briefly define the concepts of reliability and validity as they apply to psychological assessment.
  • Role of testing and assessment in the diagnostic process
  • Briefly explain role of assessment in diagnosis.
  • Professionals Who Administer Tests
  • Briefly describe the types of professionals involved in various assessment processes.
  • Culture and Testing
  • Briefly describe issues of cultural diversity as it applies to psychological assessment.

Categories of Assessment (Portrait or landscape orientation may be used for the page layout of this section.)
For each of the following, students will create a two-page information sheet or pamphlet to be included in the Assessment Guide. For each category of assessment, students will include the required content listed in the PSY640 Content for Testing Pamphlets and Information Sheets. Be sure to reference the content requirements prior to completing each of the information sheets on the following categories of assessment.

  • Tests of Intelligence
  • Tests of Achievement
  • Tests of Ability
  • Neuropsychological Testing
  • Personality Testing
  • Industrial, Occupational, and Career Assessment
  • Forensic Assessment
  • Special Topics (Students will specify which topic they selected for this pamphlet or information sheet. Additional instructions are noted below.)

Special Topics (Student’s Choice)
In addition to the required seven categories of assessment listed above, students will develop an eighth information sheet or pamphlet that includes information targeted either at a specific population or about a specific issue related to psychological assessment not covered in one of the previous sections. Students may choose from one of the following categories:

  • Testing Preschool-Aged Children
  • Testing Elementary School-Aged Children
  • Testing Adolescents
  • Testing Geriatric Patients
  • Testing First Generation Immigrants
  • Testing in Rural Communities
  • Testing English Language Learners
  • Testing Individuals Who Are (Select one: Deaf, Blind, Quadriplegic)
  • Testing Individuals Who Are Incarcerated
  • Testing for Competency to Stand Trial
  • Testing in Child Custody Cases

References (Portrait orientation must be used for the page layout of this section.)
Include a separate reference section that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. The reference list must consist entirely of scholarly sources. For the purposes of this assignment, assessment manuals, the course textbook, chapters from graduate-level textbooks, chapters from professional books, and peer-reviewed journal articles may be used as resource material. A minimum of 16 unique scholarly sources including a minimum of 12 peer-reviewed articles published within the last 10 years from the Ashford University Library must be used within the Assessment Guide. The bulleted list of credible professional and/or educational online resources required for each assessment area will not count toward these totals.

Attention Students: The Masters of Arts in Psychology program is utilizing the Pathbrite portfolio tool as a repository for student scholarly work in the form of signature assignments completed within the program. After receiving feedback for this Assessment Guide, please implement any changes recommended by the instructor, go to Pathbrite and upload the revised Assessment Guide to the portfolio. (Use the Pathbrite Quick-Start Guide to create an account if you do not already have one.) The upload of signature assignments will take place after completing each course. Be certain to upload revised signature assignments throughout the program as the portfolio and its contents will be used in other courses and may be used by individual students as a professional resource tool. See the Pathbrite website for information and further instructions on using this portfolio tool.

The Assessment Guide

  • Must be 18 pages in length (not including title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
  • Must include a separate title page with the following:
    • Title of guide
    • Student’s name
    • Course name and number
    • Instructor’s name
    • Date submitted
  • Must use at least 16 scholarly sources, including a minimum of 12 peer-reviewed articles from the Ashford University Library.
  • Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
  • Must include a separate reference page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
  • Must incorporate at least three different methods of presenting information (e.g., text, graphics, images, original cartoons).

What are the implications for education practice and policy if these abilities are mostly genetically determined?

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In your post, consider the nurture/nature debate as applied to intelligence and aptitude tests. Are intelligence and aptitude test scores mostly genetically determined, or are they mostly environmentally determined? What are the implications for education practice and policy if these abilities are mostly genetically determined? What are the implications if they are mostly environmentally determined? Please be sure to refer to the APA Code of Ethics in your post.

http://www.apa.org/topics/ethics/index.aspx

The Nature of Human Intelligence

One of the challenges of developing a measure of human intelligence is to decide on a coherent theoretical basis. What are the important aspects of intelligence that can and should be measured? Do the existing tests predict academic and career success? Contemporary intelligence theorist Robert Sternberg (2014) held that IQ tests only measure one type of intelligence: a formal type of analytic ability needed to perform well academically. This includes indicators such as verbal ability, reasoning ability, and logic. An individual might succeed academically, but may be less able to flexibly adapt to novel and changing demands when applying his or her knowledge, an activity that requires creative, imaginative thinking. Sternberg (2014) also identifies a practical, interactive social knowledge he identifies as “tacit learning,” which is the knowledge that is not formally taught in school, but is necessary for career success. For example, a geology professor could be extremely knowledgeable in his or her subject field, but to be a successful professor, he or she needs to acquire other information, such as how to obtain grants, attain good course evaluations, and understand and navigate department and college politics.

Sternberg (2014) identifies all three of these types of intelligence as necessary, useful, and indicative of very different kinds of knowledge, and he devised an intelligence test to measure these three types of intelligence. However, when his test was subjected to factor analysis (a statistical procedure that looks for clusters within data), only a single factor of general intelligence was found, suggesting his three types are not as distinct from one another as he believed, at least as measured by his test.

Nurture/Nature

One of the implications of the nurture/nature debate about intelligence is whether it can be modified. One position is that intelligence is mostly genetically determined, implying that an individual is born with a fixed amount of it: Either one has it or one does not. This argument is often used as a reason to deny funding to compensatory education programs, such as Head Start; it is claimed that the cost is not justified because ability cannot be modified or enhanced.

As a counterpoint, one researcher, Richard Nisbett (2009), believes that the genetic basis for intelligence has been greatly overstated and in his book Intelligence and How to Get It, he describes cultural, social, and economic factors that can be modified. One such factor is the frequency and manner in which parents talk to their young children. Those whose parents frequently ask them questions that elicit thinking, such as “What sound does a cow make?” are much more prepared for the formal learning demands of school.

Another researcher, Carol Dweck (2007), states that an individual’s personal theory of intelligence itself can determine his or her success. In her book Mindset, she describes two types of attributions children make about their intellectual ability: Some children see themselves as having a fixed amount of intelligence—if they answer questions quickly and correctly, or if learning comes easily to them, that means they are smart. However, given that premise, if they are not successful or do not learn immediately, they conclude that they must be dumb. Children with this “fixed” mindset avoid challenges and lose motivation quickly when they encounter setbacks. In contrast, a child with a “growth” mindset does not equate success or failure with how smart they are and will persist with the task, focusing on effort or different strategies. Both Nisbett and Dweck conclude that one way to increase intelligence is to increase persistence and motivation by reinforcing effort rather than “smartness.” To draw a parallel—a fixed mindset is analogous to the genetic viewpoint, whereas a growth mindset resembles the environmental viewpoint. These attitudes and attributions about intelligence are not measured by IQ tests, yet have large implications for academic attainment.

Reference

Dweck, C. (2007). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Random House.

Nisbett, R. L. (2009). Intelligence and how to get it: Why schools and cultures count. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Sternberg, R. (2014). Intelligence as trait- and state? Journal of Intelligence, 2(1), 143-144.

Clearly identify the specific outcomes you expect from the project. Then develop a method of evaluating the effectiveness of your project.

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The Individual Course Project Final Submission is due this week.

See the Individual Course Project Overview page in Introduction & Resources for more details and the Grading Rubric.

Part 4: Develop a Training or Intervention Strategy to Address the Needs

Creating a developmental strategy is the objective of the investigative segment of the project. The strategy may include the following.

  1. Training Sessions
    1. Traditional classroom
    2. Simulations
    3. Self-managed strategies
    4. Opportunity to perform
  2. Career management systems
    1. Self-assessment programs
    2. Mentoring systems
    3. Action planning
  3. Organizational development intervention activities
    1. Team building
    2. Intergroup activities
    3. Survey feedback activities
    4. Education and training activities
    5. Structural activities
    6. Process consultation
    7. Blake-Mouton grid activities
    8. Third-party peacemaking
    9. Coaching and counseling
    10. Career planning
    11. Goal setting
  4. System redesign
    1. Search conferences
    2. Confrontation meetings
    3. Strategic planning meetings

Part 5: Determine the Training or Intervention Cost and Quantify Expected Results

The fifth section of the Course Project is conducting a cost-benefit analysis. Training costs must be evaluated against anticipated results. This will only be palatable if, in the initial assessment, specific behaviors and processes and their impacts on the performance of the organization were determined. If so, conducting this final analytical segment should be possible.

Part 6: Develop a Method of Training Evaluation

Once you have completed the training, how will you know whether it has been successful? There are a variety of ways to evaluate training and development programs. Clearly identify the specific outcomes you expect from the project. Then develop a method of evaluating the effectiveness of your project.

Submit your assignment.