The Methodology of Racial Testing: Its Significance for Sociology

Author(s): Margaret Mead

Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 31, No. 5 (Mar., 1926), pp. 657-667
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2764354
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THE METHODOLOGY OF RACIAL TESTING:

SIGNIFICANCE FOR SOCIOLOGY'

ITS

MARGARET MEAD
Barnard College
ABSTRACT
A discussionof the methodologyof racial intelligencetestingis both pertinent
and necessary.Three problemsare involved: measurementof (i) the racial admixture factor; (2) the social status factor; (3) the linguisticdisabilityfactor. The
methodologyof each of thesephases of the problemis discussed.

The unquestioning
quotationof the resultsin one fieldof researchby workersin anotherfieldcarrieswithit at leasttacitapprovalofthemethodology
whichproducedthoseresults.The sociologistis, therefore,
verymuchconcernedwiththe methodsemployedin experimental
psychology,
whichfurnishes
him withso
muchoftherawmaterialforgeneralization.
Perhapsno resultsof
experimental
psychology
have been utilizedso widelyand so unof
criticallyas the resultsof intelligence
testing,and particularly
the intelligence
testingof different
racial and nationalitygroups.
In the discussionof race problems,a controversy
so encumbered
by worn-out
dogmasand hotpartisanships,
thisquantitativetype
of materialwas particularly
welcome.
The firstresearchto be generallyexploitedwas thearmytesting. But hereso manyopponentsof the resulting
generalizations
and so manydefenders
came forwardwithdestructive
criticism,
of thetestscarefully
triedto warnthelaymanagainstunjustified
becametoo publicto be dangerous.
thatthemischief
conclusions,
cautionquotethe
No discussionstodaywhichpretendto scientific
armytestswithoutmanyexplicitreservations.But the criticisms
of
of thearmytestswerein greatpartdevotedto the deficiencies
all intelligence
tests,ofverbaltests,or ofgrouptestsas such. Far
'This articlewas submittedfor publicationin August, 1924. Since the author
is out of the country,it has been necessarilyimpossibleto include the resultsof researchespublishedsubsequentto that time.
657

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658

THE AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY

lessattention
was devotedto thespecialproblemsinherent
inracial
and nationality
testing.Thus, whilethe writeron generalsocial
problemshas learnedthatthemethodology
of intelligence
testing
is stillin swaddlingclothes,he is notso consciousthata methodology adequate to deal withracial and nationalitytestinghas not
evenbeenborn. And,unwarned,
he drawsfreelyand uncritically
upon the findingsof special studieswhichappear fromtimeto
timein the scientific
journals. Many of thesestudiesappear to
have avoidedthepitfallsintowhichthearmytestsfell.They are
oftenindividualtestsinsteadof grouptests; the questionof inequalitiesofeducationis ruledoutwhenschoolgroupsare used as
subjects; the selectionargumentdoes not seem to be so readily
applicablewhenthesubjectsare all takenfromthesame cityand
oftenfromthesamepublicschool.So theseresultscometo be utilized in farotherwaysthantheirauthorsintended.Paradoxically
enough,one of the experiments
mostoftenquoted in heateddiscussionSla
is by theauthorof "On theNeed forCautionin EstablishingRace Norms."2A discussionof the methodology
of this
particularprovinceof intelligence
testing,a provinceso pregnant
withexplosiveresults,wouldseem,therefore,
to be bothpertinent
and necessary.I shall firstreviewthe experiments
whichhave
theneed forone or anotherof thesespecialmethodsubstantiated
ologicalrequirements-nopublishedexperiment
has taken them
all intoconsideration.
The specialproblemsinvolvedin thistypeof testingare three
in number: (i) the practicability
and validityof attemptsto
equate testscoreand amountof racial admixture;(2) the effect
whichsocial statushas on the resultsof such tests-the problem
here is threefold:Does social statusinfluencetest score? Is it
in thecase of immigrant
influential
particularly
groupsor groups
whichsufferfromsocial discrimination
because of theirrace?
What methodsare adequate to evaluatethe social status of the
childrenso tested? (3) Whateffect
does linguistic
disabilityhave
la

WilliamMcDougall,Is theWorldSafeforDemocracy?pp. 63-64. Lothrop

Stoddard, The Revolt against Civilization, p. 63, quoting A. H. Arlitt,"Further

Data on the Influence of Race and Social Status on the IntelligenceQuotient,"

Proc.Amer.Psych.Assoc.,1920.
2A.H. Arlitt,
Jour.ofAppliedPsych.,VI

(1921),

378-80.

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THE METHODOLOGY OF RACIAL TESTING

659

on thetestresults?These threeaspectsof thematterwillbe consideredin turn.

RACIAL ADMIXTURE

On thefaceof it,no methodofdetermining

in
racedifferences
intelligence
seemsmorepromising
thanthisattemptto equatetest
scoreswiththeamountofNegroor Indianblood,as thecase may
be, whenit is possible,as it oftenis in thiscountry,
to studysuch
a mixedgroup.In suchan instanceit seemshighlyprobablethat
languageand social statusmightbe controlled,
and the effectof
raceas suchisolatedand studied.But herewe are confronted
with
two difficulties:
one technological,
the othertheoretical.Does a
quantitativeexpressionof degreeof admixturehave any qualitativesignificance
and, if so, how may thisquantitativeexpression
be arrivedat? Garth suggests: "If the geneticlaw works in
mentaltraitsas it does in physicaltraits,possiblywe oughtto get
in one distribution
multimodaleffects
of mixedbloods' performance in a mentaltest; particularly
shouldwe get at leastbimodal
in a distribution
effects
ofperformances
ofan F2 population."But
thisis notenough.We cannotuse eitherdegreeofvariability
or a
multimodal
distribution
firstas hypothesis
and thenas proof.And
while increasedvariabilityis generallyrecognizedby physical
anthropologists
as an indexof racialadmixture,
itis notso specifically developeda conceptas to makepossibleexact equationsbetweenthe expressionof intelligence
in a testand exact degreeof
intermixture
involved.
If, however,we lay aside thistheoreticalobjectionas incapable of solutionon thebasis of ourpresentknowledgeof thelaws
ofheredity,
and an attemptis madeto establisha purelyempirical
relationship
betweendegreesof racial admixtureand intelligence
scores,whatmethodscan be used? Garth'and Hunter4used the
'T. R. Garth,"ResultsofSomeTestson Full andMixedBloodIndians,"Jour.
of Appl.Psych.,IV (I921), 359-72. "Comparison
of theMentalAbilityof Mixed
and Full-BloodIndianson the Basis of Education,"Psych.Rev., XXIX (I922),
22I-36.
"Mental Fatigueof Mixed and Full-BloodedIndians,"Jour.of Appl.
Psych.,VI (1922), 333-41. "NationalIntelligence
TestsGivento Mixedand FullBlood Indians,"Science,Decemberi, 1922.
4W. S. Hunter,
"A Relationof Degreeof IndianBlood to Scoreon OtisIntelligenceTest,"Proc.Amer.Psych.Assoc.,1920.

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66o

THE AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY

official
recordsofthegovernment
schools.Subjectto theaccuracy
of thesegenealogicalrecords,thismethodis thoroughand valid.
But hereGarthadmitsthathis resultsare quiteindeterminate
because the social conditionsforhis variousgroupswereprobably
extremelyvaried beforethe childrenenteredthe government
schools. Methodologically
however,theprocedureis sound.
In his studieson the AmericanNegro,Fergusonhas made a
less objectivemethodthe basis of his determination
of amount
of admixture.In I9I6B he tested907 schoolchildrenin several
Virginiacities,42 1 of whomwerecolored.He made his estimate
of amountofNegrobloodon thebasis ofskincolorgradedby an
eye judgment,
and findsan increasingly
highscorewithincreased
amountof whiteblood. Fromwhichresulthe generalizesas follows:
indicatethatit is a nativeabilityand not an acquired
Such considerations
the mixed fromthe pure negroes,and that skin
capacitythat differentiates
coloris its outwardsign. [Italics mine.] They also indicatethatthetestsused
are primarilytests of native capacity,and the consequentdifferences
found
betweenwhitesand negroesas a wholeare innatedifferences
... . The avof the coloredpeople of this countryin such intelligence
erage performance
workas that representedby the tests of highercapacityappears to be only
as efficient
about three-fourths
as the performanceof the white with the
same amountof training.

This is obviouslyreasoningin a circle; he divideshis group

accordingto skincolor,findsdifferences
betweenthesedivisions,
thenassumesthatthisprovesskincolor a valid indexand that,
so foundare innate.In IgIg6 Ferguson
the differences
therefore,
similar
of
madea
analysis theresultsof thearmytestingof 5,425
Negroesat Camp Lee. Againon thebasis of an eye judgmenthe
dividedI,132 of theseNegroesinto a "darker"and a "lighter"
group,and foundthatthe medianAlpha score forthe "lighter"
groupwas 5I, forthe"darker,"40; on theStenquistcombination
testthegroupclassifiedas "lighter"made a medianscoreof i9;
thosecalled"darker,"a medianscoreof I7. Eightadditionalcom' G. 0. Ferguson
of theNegro,"Arch.of Psych.,Vol. XXIII,
Jr.,"Psychology

I9I6.
6

of theNegroesat Camp Lee," Schooland

G. 0. FergusonJr.,"Intelligence

Society,IX

(I9I9),

721-26.

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THE METHODOLOGY OF RACIAL TESTING

66i

companies were classifiedby otherobserversand gave results,

a similaratparable to these. Fergusonhas severelycriticized7
as "rough,"yethis ownmethtempt,madeby Morseand Strong,8
ods are open to the same criticism.There is no conclusiveeviis a reliableindexof
dencethatskincolor,accuratelydetermined,
racial admixture.Such a classificationis even less admissible
deviceas thecolortop.
whenuncheckedby any suchquantitative
The methodsof Garthand Hunteron one hand, and that of
of a scientific
Fergusonand Strongon theother,are illustrations
and unscientific
approachto this problem.If the genealogical
and supplemethodcould be subjectedto extensiveverification
mentedby sometechniqueforholdingthe otherfactorsconstant
it mightbe productiveof valuableresults.
SOCIAL STATUS

Severalcarefulattemptshave been made to ascertainthe influencewhichsocial statushas in thistypeof testing.Veryoften

have to be rejectedbecause
oftheseexperimenters
theconclusions
uponthisone problemand neglectedother
theyhave concentrated
conditions,but theyare none the less valuable as
complicating
of the particularmethodological
point.
illustrations
of
of the intelligence
In I9I2 Phillips9made an investigation
whiteand Negrochildrenin thePhiladelphiapublicschools,using
of the social statusfactorwas a
the Binet scale. His treatment
constant.
The homesof the children
to
hold
it
specificattempt
scale. Only thosechilwerevisitedand ratedon a four-division
fromeach race,whosehomeswererated"good"
dren,twenty-nine
of
wereused in thefinalcomparisons.This methodof elimination
social statusis open to two objections.
all cases of incomparable
to
In the firstplace, strictcomparability
is exceedinglydifficult
and thefinaluse of onlyone statusgrouppreventsthe
determine,
utilizationof otherstatusgroupsas checks. And in the second
7Ferguson,I9I6,

op. cit.

"ThreeHundredand FiftyWhiteand ColoredChildren

Meas8A. M. Strong,
uredby theBinetScale,"Ped. Sem.,XX (1913), 485-515.
'B. A. Phillips,"Binet Tests Appliedto ColoredSchool Children,"Psych.
Clinic(19I4), I90-96.

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662

THE AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY

place,it is enormously
unpracticalin thatit paresdownthenumber of cases,and themoreexacttheclassification,
themorecases
thereare whichwillhave to be eliminated.
Miss Arlitthas studiedthe effectof social statusupon race
normsmorecarefullythan any otherinvestigator.In most reportedworksocial statushas been a side issue,a checkupon the
mainbodyoftheresults,notthecentralproblem.But Miss Arlitt
undertookto studyit specifically.She describestwo investigations. The firstone'0was made on 304 childrenin the primary
grades,I69 of native-born
whiteparentage,68 of Italian parentage,and 67 Negroes.Theyweredividedaccordingtosocialstatus
and the following
resultswereobtainedwhenthetotalgroupwas
considered:
Very superior....
Superior ...
Average...
Inferior........
Very inferior....

.....
.....

....

MedianI. Q.
I26.9
II8.7
io6.5

....

87
83

Ninetyper cent of the native-bornwhitescame fromfamilies

rankedas superioror verysuperior;88.2 per centof theItalians
and Negroescame fromfamiliesofinferior
social
or veryinferior
status.WhentheItalianswerecomparedwithnative-born
whites
of the same social status,the difference
in intelligence
quotient
was only7.7 insteadof 22.2, thedifference
whenonlynationality
groups,withoutregardto status,werecompared.In the case of
of thesocial statusfactorreducedthe
theNegroes,consideration
from23.3 to 8.6 points.
difference
In her secondstudy" Miss Arlittagain studiednative-born
whites,Italians,and Negroes,makingthesocial statusratingson
the basis of Taussig's occupationalgrouping.She founda differenceof 33.9 betweenthe two extremeoccupationalgroupsin
thesame gradein school. WhenItalians and Negroeswerecom10A.H. Arlitt,"FurtherData on theInfluence
of Race and Social Statuson
theIntelligence
Quotient,"
Proc.Amer.Psych.Assoc.,I920.
' A. H. Arlitt,
"On theNeed forCautionin Establishing
Race Norms,"JourncalofAppl.Psych.,V (1921), 179-83.

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THE METHODOLOGY OF RACIAL TESTING

663

pared withtheirown occupationalgroupamongthe native-born

whitesof nativewhiteparentagea difference
similarto the one
quotedabove was found.'2
From whichinvestigation
Miss Arlittconcludesthat: "Race
normswhichdo nottake thesocial statusfactorintoaccountare
apt to be to thatextentinvalid." Althoughmanyinvestigators,
notablyTermanand Yerkes,have endeavoredto studytheeffect
of social statusupontestsscores,theseare the onlythoroughattemptsto analyzeits influence
whenracialand nationality
groups
are beingstudied.
A less carefulattemptalong thesesame lines was made by
foundbetween
Strong'8in I9I3 to correcttheextremedifferences
thescoresofNegroand whitechildrenby comparing
theNegroes
withthepoormillwhites;theystatethatsucha comparisonwas
muchlessunfavorable
to theNegro.
Anotherbodyofdata on thequestionof socialstatusis found
in thearmyresultswheretheeffectof northern
or southernresidenceis appreciablyindicatedin theNegroscores.14Fuckunda,5
in a studyof Japanesechildren,triedto equate occupationof
parentand score of child. However,he founda correlationbetweensocial statusand intelligence
quotientof only.i9. But he
had onlyforty-three
cases, and he failsto recordthe numberin
each of his threegroups,forwhichhis averageI.Q.s are givenas
I03, 82 and 92, respectively.
These experiments
are suggestivemethodologically,
although
in almosteveryinstancethe resultsare vitiatedby overemphasis
of thisone factorand a failureto deal withthe otheraspectsof
thecase. Once theimportance
of thesocial statusfactoris established,it willbe necessaryto further
refinethemethodsby which
it is estimated.There will have to be experimental
studyof the
'The difference
betweenthe Negroesand native-born
whiteswithoutregard
to socialstatuswas 23.1; whensocialstatuswas considered
it was only8.6. For the
Italiansthecorresponding
differences
were21.5 and 7.
" A. L. Strong,
1913, op. cit.
1
G. 0. Ferguson,
i9i9, op. cit.
15J.Fuckunda,"SomeData on theIntelligence
of JapaneseChildren,"
Amer.
Jour.ofPsych.,October,1923.

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664

THE AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY

adequacy of any such roughindexas the Taussig occupational

rating,whichwe knowis unsatisfactory
in at leastone case,where
ruralchildrenare involved.But theserecordedstudiesrepresent
a distinctadvance over the type of investigation
whichtests a
group,regardless
ofthesocialstatusfactor,
and drawsunquestioningconclusions
fromthescoresso obtained.
At thispointmightbe mentioneda mostinteresting
attempt
to determinethe relativeinfluenceof environment
and race. A
numberof standardizedtestsweregivento freshmen
in threecollegesin China and one in India; the resultswerethencompared
withAmericannorms.Unfortunately,
Waugh16does not givethe
numbertested,butanalysisoftheresultsis extremely
provocative.
Comparing
thescoresofAmericansand Indians,different
environbut
ment samerace,17
of2.34 pointsin favor
therewas a difference
oftheAmericangroup;comparing
theChineseand Indians,more
similarenvironment
and different
in scorewas
race,thedifference
2.5; comparing
theAmericansand theChinese,different
environmentand different
race,the difference
was 7.8. This approachis
highlysuggestive.
LANGUAGE DISABILITY

Perhapsno complicatingfactorin appraisingthe resultsof

thiskindof intelligence
testinghas beenso neglectedas thequestionoflanguagedisability.Withtheexceptionof theworkof two
investigators,
the wholematterhas usuallybeen dismissedwith
statements
thatthechildwas underno languagehandicapbeyond
the firstgradeif he had gone to an Americankindergarten,18
or
that"all the Italians spoke Englishwithoutdifficulty,"'9
or that
thechildrenwereselectedby theprincipaloftheschoolas having
no languagehandicap.20
"K. L. Waugh,"A Comparison
of Orientaland AmericanStudents,"Proc.
Amer.Psych.Assoc.,I920.
7 Race is hereusedin itswidest
sense.
18K. Young,"MentalDifferences
in CertainImmigrant
Groups,"Univ.Oregon
Public.No. iI, 1922.
"A. H. Arlitt,1921, op. cit.
2'K. Murdock,"A Studyof Race Differences
in New York City,"Schooland
Society,XI (1920), 147-50.

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THE METHODOLOGY OF RACIAL TESTING

665

Rudolph Pintner21
has emphasizedthe importanceof this
language factor: "The questionof prognosisvalue for school
purposesmustnotbe confused
withthequestionofabsoluteintelligenceof different
racial groups.It seemsto the writerthatnonverbaltestsalone are adequate forthispurpose.It is inconceivable that childrenlivingin an English-speaking
environment,
hearing,speaking,and readingnothingbut English,shouldnot
have a distinctadvantagein tests requiringthe findingof opposites,thehuntingforan analogy,thefilling
in ofan uncompleted
sentence,and thelike,as comparedwithchildrenwhoheara foreignlanguageat homeand, in manycases, are requiredto communicatein a foreignlanguageto some people in theirenvironment.Suchcontrasting
groupsare veryfarfromhavinghad equal
previouspracticeon theelementswhichgo to make up the usual
verbaltest." Pintnermade twostudiesin whichtheperformance
of childrenspeakinga foreignlanguageis comparedwith,thatof
Americanchildren,on the Binet22scale and the Non-Language
test,and on theNationaland theNon-Language.2"The Englishspeakingchildrengained six monthsin the Non-Languageover
their Binet mental age; the foreign-speaking
gained sixteen
months. From which Pintner concludes that ......

when classi-

fiedaccordingto mentalage, thosechildrenwho hear a foreign

languagein theirhomesmaysuffer
a serioushandicapwhentested
onlyby therevisionof the Binetscale." WhentheNationaltests
wereused,Pintnerfoundthat50 per centof the foreign-speaking
childrenexceededthe medianmentalage forAmericanchildren
on the Non-Languagescale, but only37 per centdid so on the
Nationaltests.
Colvinand Allen24soughtto isolatethe effectof languageon
scoreby comparingthe performance
of fiftyAmericanand fifty
21R.Pintner,
"Comparison
of American
and ForeignChildrenon Intelligence
Test,"Jour.Educ. Psych.,May, I923.
2' R. Pintnerand R. Keller,"Intelligence
Test of ForeignChildren,"
Jour.of
Educ. Psych.(I922), pp. 2I4-22.
2' R. Pintner,
I923, op. cit.
a S. S. Colvinand R. D. Allen,"MentalTestsand Linguistic
Ability,"Jour.
ofEduc. Psych.,January,
I923.

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666

THE AMERICAN JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY

Italian childrenof the same school grade and attainmenton a

group,the National, and an individual,the Binet, test. They
pointswhenthe writtengrouptest
of thirteen
founda difference
of onlyone pointwhentheoralindividwas used,and a difference
in thegrouptest,it was in Arithual testwas used. Furthermore,
meticalone,the sectionof thetestrequiringleast verbalfacility,
thattheItaliansapproachedtheAmericanscore. They conclude:
"Fromtheevidencenowin ourpossessionwe can reasonablyconfactorin thescoreobabilityis an important
cludethatlinguistic
testthatis based largely
tainedby an individualin an intelligence
remarkthatthedifference
on wordsand theiruses." They further
is greatestamongyoungerchildren.
by an exThis last resultis apparentlydirectlycontradicted
perimentreportedby Young,2"whereina group of childrenof
"Latin" and NorthEuropeandescentwereretestedaftera period
quoof threeyears,and "the averagechangeof the intelligence
tientdownwardwas somewhatgreaterfortheLatinsthanforthe
in
othergroups." It does seem plausiblethat if the difference
due to languagedisability,it shoulddiminish,
scorebe primarily
not increase,afterthreeyears furtherexposureto English. In
thisconnection
a studyon "The Effectof Bilingualismon Intelligence,"by Saer,26is pertinent.He testedsome 1,400 Welshchildren,bilingualsand monoglots(speakingonly English) by the
testsand special composiStanfordscale,withspecial dextrality
tiontests.His resultsare carefuland detailed,presentedwithfull
analysisand cautiouscheckingup. He findsa distinctsuperiority
a superiority
somewhat
ofthemonoglot
childrenin ruraldistricts,
of monoglot
in urbandistricts;he findsa superiority
diminished
students;the sense
studentsover bilingualuniversity
university
of dextrality
is muchmorehighlydevelopedin the case of the
and therangeof theirvocabularyexceedsthatof the
monoglots,
bilingualsin eitherWelsh or English. He suggeststhatthisdifto adulthood.Similarresults
persisting
ferenceseemspermanent,
are reportedby Smith,27
also workingwithWelshchildrenovera
Young,I922, op. cit.
' D. J. Saer,Brit.Jour.ofPsych.,July,I923.
Brit.Jour.of Psych.,
and MentalDevelopment,"
27F. Smith,"Bilingualism
26 K.

XIII, 278.

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THE METHODOLOGYOF RACIAL TESTING

667

periodof threeyearsof carefulobservation.He concludes: "Regardedas a whole,therefore,

thesetestsindicatethatthemonoglot
child has an advantageover the bilingualchild,an advantage
whichincreasesduringhis schoollife."
We have here two distinctapproaches,that of Pintnerand
Colvinand Allen,whichis mainlyconcernedwiththevitiationof
testresultsdue to languagehandicap,28
and thismorespeculative
mayhave a fundasuggestion
of Saer and Smiththatbilingualism
mentalinfluence
on intelligence
itself,and notmerelyon itsmaniin verbaltests.
festation
of
From thesevariousattemptsto elaboratea methodology
racial and nationality
testingit is clearlyevidentthattestscores
are affected,
to a degreenot yet determined,
by social statusand
by languagedisabilities.No attempthas yetbeenmadeto analyze
the effects
of thatmoresubtleand less measurableaspect of environment
theattitudeofthesubjecttoward
whichmaydetermine
thetestsand profoundly
affecthis score. The methodof equating
testscoreand amountof racial admixtureis subjectto modificationin termsof theseothercomplicating
factors,and also to the
inherentweaknessesof the methodin the presentstate of ignorance concerningthe laws regulatingthe inheritanceof mental
traits.
All theseconsiderations
shouldsuggestextremecautionin any
of
attemptto drawconclusionsconcerning
therelativeintelligence
racial or nationality
different
groupson the basis of tests,unless
a carefulconsideration
is giventhefactorsoflanguage,education,
and socialstatus,and a further
allowanceis made foran unknown
amountofinfluence
to different
whichmaybe logicallyattributed
attitudesand different
habitsofthought.
'In this connectionI would like to referto an unpublishedinvestigationof
my own. I gave the Otis intelligencetest to 276 Italian childrenand comparedthe
scoreswith the amount of English spoken in the children'shomes,by theirparents.
It is to be noted that all these childrenwere above the fourthgrade in school and
all spoke English themselves.The comparisonshowed a steadilyrisingmedian from
an index of brightnessof 64.i6 for the group whose parents spoke all Italian, 69.3
forthosewhose parentsspoke some English,74 for those of homes in which English
was chieflyor entirelyspoken.

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