Deficiency and Delinquency: An Interpretation of Mental TestingMiner, James Burt
Science
Deficiency and Delinquency: An Interpretation of Mental Testing
Miner, James Burt
Children with mental disabilities; Juvenile delinquents; Mentally ill offenders; Psychological tests
After reading a paper on “A Percentage Definition of Intellectual
Deficiency” before the American Psychological Association in 1915
(_151_), I was pleased to discover that Prof. Rudolf Pintner and Donald
G. Paterson were also about to propose a percentage definition of
feeble-mindedness for those who are dealing with mental tests (_44_).
While their idea seems to be fundamentally similar, their paper shows
that their conception is to be sharply distinguished in several
particulars from that which I am advocating. They would limit the use of
the term “feeble-mindedness” to individuals who test in a rather
arbitrarily chosen lowest percentage of the population. As opposed to
this I suggest continuing the present social definition of
feeble-mindedness and supplementing it, for the purpose of aiding in the
diagnosis, by indicating the social significance of those testing in
certain lowest percentages. Such tested deficients I designate as
“intellectually deficient.” It is important to consider their statement
and to note what percentage they have chosen to regard as feeble-minded.
They say:
“It is in order to avoid this vagueness and uncertainty attaching to
the term that we suggest a definite psychological concept. The
lowest three per cent. of the community at large, that is, the
lowest as determined by definitely standardized mental tests, are to
be called feeble-minded. Such a definition will be unambiguous and
the dividing line between this and other groups will become clearer
and clearer as we increase the accuracy of our measuring scales and
the adequacy of our standardizations. Furthermore, if evolution is
raising the degree of intelligence the three per cent. at the lower
end will still remain, for, whatever the degree of their
intelligence may be, they will still be feeble-minded as compared
with the normal.
“Such a definition will in addition restrict the term to such as are
lacking in intelligence and will differentiate them from the moral
defectives and the psychopathic personalities, which are at present
often confused with the group that we propose to call feeble-minded.
An individual may be at the same time a moral defective and
feeble-minded, but there is reason to believe that moral deficiency
may exist without such intellectual defect as to warrant a diagnosis
of feeble-mindedness. The same may be said of the psychopathic
personality.
“The further question, whether all those coming within the proposed
definition of feeble-mindedness are to be confined in institutions,
is purely social and will be determined by the social needs of each
community and does not concern us here. It is obvious that many more
in addition to the feeble-minded as defined by us will require the
restraint of an institution, even though no real mental defect
exists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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