home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Phoenix CD 2.0
/
Phoenix_CD.cdr
/
02a
/
phd_idea.zip
/
THESIS.321
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1987-03-24
|
4KB
|
69 lines
Can You Drive? -- an Adaptive Test of Intelligence
PhD. thesis proposal #321
by
Robert J. Weinstein
Since the Stanford-Binet was first published in the United States, the
sine qua non of I.Q. testing has been vocabulary. The Raven matrices
and the Kohs block design, both of which are commonly considered to
require minimal verbal skills and which appear to measure abstract
thinking, have long demonstrated high correlations with tests of
verbal intelligence. Edgar Doll's work, including the Vineland Social
Maturity Scale led to the inclusion of adaptive behavior in
considerations of intellectual capabilities. This basic concept
(adaptive behavior) of psychology [with thanks to Ann Boehm] was
formally codified in the AAMD definition of mental retardation which
roughly states: significantly subaverage general intellectual
functioning which occurs within the developmental period and which is
associated with deficits in adaptive behavior.
I work as a senior psychologist in a 100 bed residential treatment
facility; I work in an institution. It (the Rockland Multiply Disabled Unit)
is operated under the auspices of Letchworth Village Developmental Disability
Services. I am an employee of N.Y.State's Office of Mental Retardation and
Developmental Disabilities. My unit, we call it "the MDU", is located on the
grounds of a suburban (N.Y.S. Office of Mental Health-operated) psychiatric
center. Some of my clients (I am personally responsible for 50) are dually
diagnosed which means that they have been diagnosed as both mentally retarded
and psychiatrically impaired. And in my spare time, I am co-sysop of an
extremely large computer bulletin board, PC-Rockland BBS.
For those of you who "modem", the freeboard number is (914) 353-2176; comm.
parameters = N81;1200/2400 baud;24 hrs;IBMPC/MS-DOS only;4nodes;308 MB.
I have always wished for better tests of intelligence and I have
thought of developing a new one. Even better, I want to attempt
to reconceptualize some of the definitions of several of the basic
terms of psychology, including "mental retardation".
The greater part of my vocational efforts over the past six years has
been devoted to the development and implementation of behavioral
programs. Now, perhaps it's time to move on in my profession.
I never completed a Ph.D. thesis; I'd like another chance.
Some of us learn slower than others (I'm almost 40!).
Maybe now I have an idea that I think is good enough.
My basic thesis is that any individual who has demonstrated the
independent ability to drive a car is functioning adequately in this
society and therefore should not be classified as mentally retarded.
Moreover, any individual who cannot drive a car solely because of
their intellectual limitations should be classified as retarded,
assuming that they they have been given the opportunity to learn the
requisite skills, received adequate and appropriate training (we need
better/cheaper simulators) and otherwise meet the previously specified
AAMD criteria.
Finally, I offer the glimmer of an idea... half-baked so to speak.
Might I have stumbled over the beginning to a fair test of the right to vote?
Whatcha think?
w/thanks to mn/MDU/CI/KPG/PC/VB/blondie/Mom/Eve/Jeff and Beth
0:00:53 3/24/1987*****************************************rjw