Psychology,
Society, and Ability Testing (1859-2002):
Transformative alternatives to
Mental Darwinism and Interactionism
Paul F. Ballantyne 2002©
Preface,
Beginning
in 1859 with Darwin's (rather Lamarckian) views on mental evolution and ending
with an emphasis on the regressive aspects of the federal "Leave No Child
Behind" Act in America (signed by Bush on Jan, 8, 2002), this book obviously
covers a fair bit of interdisciplinary and cultural-historical ground. It tells
the tale of how both Mental Darwinism (i.e., the psychometric selection
of the so-called fittest, most talented minds) and Interactionism (i.e.,
genes plus environment rationales) have guided the production, implementation,
and interpretation of past and ongoing standardized testing programs. It also,
however, compares the track record of these two "bell curve" based approaches
with that of a succession of examples of those who took a third path -which I
call "Transformative."
Any
good teacher, baseball coach, or personnel manager will already have an inkling
of what this third approach is all about. You assess what your clientele can do
and then work with those initial abilities toward some defined and benevolent
end (call it education, rehabilitation, professional development, whatever). In
such common sense situations, assessment itself (and the implications thereof)
never becomes a stand-alone ideology in the manner indicative of past "IQ"
and present so-called "school accountability" testing movements. Instead,
both the practical goals and limitations of assessment are typically held firmly
in mind. It would not be fair, for instance, to assess an inner city or rural
dentist solely on the number of cavities his clientele has, yet this is what is
proposed in the newly expanded system of educational tests throughout the United
States.
Such (common sense vs. testing ideology) contrasts abound in the following detailed account of the cultural-historical origins and assumptions that underlie the standardized testing industry's initial self-promotion and gradual rise to ubiquity. Yet this book is intended as more than a mere indictment of past testing mistakes (in animal, school, vocational, and military settings). The gist of the argument made herein is that the first two (exclusionary and discriminatory) approaches to testing have occasionally, and can in principle be, replaced with the latter (more democratic and empowering) transformative approach.
Will the mere illustrative elaboration and labeling of this transformative approach serve to change the current system from within? Not likely. During the course of writing, it became clear to me that both general psychologists and large textbook publishers have long been the primary vehicles for marketing or promotion of off-the-shelf standardized tests to both politicians and to educational institutions at all levels of American society. These groups have a profound conflict of interest on the issues at hand and are therefore the least likely agents of progressive reform. It will be shown that past change in the subdiscipline of testing resulted from the persistent efforts of outside forces and was adopted only after internal alternatives had been actively ignored or conveniently written out of textbook histories or test training manuals.
The
archeological recovery and collection of these isolated disciplinary alternatives
'under one banner' has taken me a decade to produce and will not in itself bring
about the necessary professional changes to the testing subdiscipline. It is hoped,
however, that once a wider public readership learns the true origins and counter-arguments
to the logic of test-based school accountability, they will be encouraged to take
appropriate political action toward promoting the combined goals of educational
equality and excellence. The same course of professional, political, and legal
action is also urged on the part of those with a personal stake in the long-term
outcome of other areas of testing (both within and outside the U.S.).
It should also be mentioned that whether or not the "transformative" label takes hold in the discipline is of very little consequence. Inasmuch as this third approach (however labeled) recognizes cultural evolution as the predominant determinant of the normal development of higher mental processes in human beings, it is more in tune with the realities of our postmodern, digitized, and global 21st century existence than either of the two former approaches. Therein lies the hope for psychology, society, and ability testing.
Table of Contents
Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: Organic Evolution and The Mental Continuity
Doctrine: Mental Darwinism proposed and elaborated (1859-1916)
Section One:
Organic Evolution And Human Descent (Organic Darwinism)
Section Two:
The Mental Continuity of Species Doctrine (Mental Darwinism)
Conclusion
Chapter 2: American Animal Psychology and The Eugenics
Movement: Mental Darwinism Institutionalized (1900-1918)
Section One:
Pfungst and the Blight of Lay-public Anthropomorphism
Section Two:
The Loeb-Jennings Debate and Early American Comparative Psychology
Section Three:
Two American Comparative Psychologies
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Assimilation and Sorting Before World War I: American Schooling, Administrative Reform, And Individual Ability Testing
Section One:
From Common Schools to Progressive School Reform
Section Two:
Modern Schools: Structural-functional aspects and professional debates
Section Three:
Early educational debates (Dewey vs. Thorndike and Cubberley)
Section Four:
Schools as Sorters (Prior to World War I)
Chapter 4: The Rise of Group Ability Testing: World War I, School Tracking, and Early Vocational Guidance (1918-1932)
Section One:
War Committees and Motives for Army Testing (Yerkes vs. Scott)
Section Two:
The Postwar Context for Testing: Political unrest, College funding paradox, and Uniform Entrance ExamsSection Three:
School Tracking: Applying the additive definition of intelligenceSection Four:
Iowa Studies of Rural SchoolsSection Five:
Mental aptitudes, Vocational guidance, and Social relations
Chapter 5: From New Deal Training Programs to World War II Testing (1933-1946)
Section One:
The Great Depression: Educational Funding, New Deal Programs, and Ideological MaintenanceSection Two:
World War II Testing and Training: Psychometric ideology regained
Chapter 6: Ability Testing and the Cold War Confidence Game: Vocational assessment, Entrance exams, and the Search for Talent during the rise of a military-industrial complex (1947-1963)
Section One:
Promises, promises: Cold War confidence and guidance in an expanding job market (1946-1952)Section Two:
Initial Post-W.W.II Vocational Guidance and Higher Educational Gatekeeping (1946-1953)Section Three:
Ideology and technopolitics of the Korean War and Sputnik era (1950-1961)Section Four:
Administrative Mechanisms of the Post-Korea Sorting Machine: Military Deferment; Curricular Reform, and U.S. Employment Service TestsSection Five:
Education in a Free Society (1958-1963): The National Defense Education Act, Project Talent, and Reevaluation
Chapter 7: Questioning The Ideology Of Testing: The modernist search for an appropriate mental yardstick (1964-1981)
Section One:
The Great Society versus Escalation in Vietnam (1964-1974):Section Two:
Weakness of Traditional Interactionism (1946-1979): Rectangular Metaphor, Head Start assessment, and Disciplinary adjustmentsSection Three:
Ability Testing Under Attack (1970-1981): Testing Litigation and ETS evasions
Chapter 8: From Testing Malaise and School Accountability
to Neo-Vygotskian Approaches (1981-2002)
Section One:
Cultural and Testing Malaise during the 1980s & 1990sSection Two:
Strengths and Weakness of Revised InteractionismSection Three:
Toward an explicit Neo-Vygotskian MethodologyConclusion and prescriptions for remedial action:
Toward a 21st century transformative approach to ability testing
Paul F. Ballantyne, Ph.D.
pballan@comnet.ca