XII, 1. Vocabulary (forty definitions, 7200 words)
Procedure and scoring as in previous vocabulary tests.[68] In this case forty words must be defined.
XII, 2. Defining abstract words
Procedure. The words to be defined are pity, revenge, charity, envy, and justice. The formula is, “What is pity? What do we mean by pity?” and so on with the other words. If the meaning of the response is not clear, ask the subject to explain what he means. If the definition is in terms of the word itself, as “Pity means to pity someone,” “Revenge is to take revenge,” etc., it is then necessary to say: “Yes, but what does it mean to pity some one?” or, “What does it mean to take revenge?” etc. Only supplementary questions of this kind are permissible.
Scoring. The test is passed if three of the five words are satisfactorily defined. The definition need not be strictly logical nor the language elegant. It is sufficient if the definition shows that the meaning of the word is known. Definitions which define by means of an illustration are acceptable. The following are samples of satisfactory and unsatisfactory responses:—
(a) Pity
Satisfactory. “To be sorry for some one.” “To feel compassion.” “To have sympathy for a person.” “To feel bad for some one.” “It means you help a person out and don’t like to have him suffer.” “To have a feeling for people when they are treated wrong.” “If anybody gets hurt real bad you pity them.” “It’s when you feel sorry for a tramp and give him something to eat.” “If some one is in trouble and you know how it feels to be in that condition, you pity him.” “You see something that’s wrong and have your feeling aroused.”
Of 130 correct responses, 85, or 65 per cent, defined pity as “to feel sorry for some one,” or words to that effect. Less than 10 per cent defined by means of illustration.
Unsatisfactory. “To think of the poor.” “To be good to others.” “To help.” “It means sorrow.” “Mercy.” “To cheer people up.” “It means ‘What a pity!’” “To be ashamed.” “To be sick or poor.” “It’s when you break something.”
Apart from inability to reply, which accounts for nearly one fourth of the failures, there is no predominant type of unsatisfactory response.
(b) Revenge
Satisfactory. “To get even with some one.” “To get back on him.” “To do something to the one who has done something to you.” “To hurt them back.” “To pay it back,” or “Do something back.” “To do something mean in return.” “To square up with a person.” “When somebody slaps you, you slap back.” “You kill a person if he does something to you.”
The expression “to get even” was found in 42 per cent of 120 correct answers; “to pay it back,” or “To do something back,” in 20 per cent; “To get back on him,” in 17 per cent. About 8 per cent were illustrations.
Unsatisfactory. “To be mad.” “You try to hurt them.” “To fight.” “You hate a person.” “To kill them.” “It means hateful.” “To try again.” “To think evil of some one.” “To hate some one who has done you wrong.” “To let a person off.” “To go away from something.”
Inability to reply accounts for a little over 40 per cent of the failures.
(c) Charity
Satisfactory. “To give to the poor.” “To help those who are needy.” “It is charity if you are poor and somebody helps you.” “To give to somebody without pay.”
Of 110 correct replies, 72 per cent were worded substantially like the first or second given above.
Unsatisfactory. “A person who helps the poor.” “A place where poor people get food and things.” “It is a good life.” “To be happy.” “To be poor.” “Charity is being treated good.” “It is to be charitable.” “Charity is selling something that is not worth much.” “It means to be good” or “to be kind.”
When the last named response is given, we should say: “Explain what you mean.” If this brings an amplification of the response to “It means to do things for the poor,” or the equivalent, the score is plus. “Charity means love” is also minus if the statement cannot be further explained and is merely rote memory of the passage in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians. Simply “To help” or “To give” is unsatisfactory. Half of the failures are due to inability to reply.
(d) Envy
Satisfactory. “You envy some one who has something you want.” “It’s the way you feel when you see some one with something nicer than you have.” “It’s when a poor girl sees a rich girl with nice dresses and things.” “You hate some one because they’ve got something you want.” “Jealousy” (satisfactory if subject can explain what jealousy means; otherwise it is minus). “It’s when you see a person better off than you are.”
Nearly three fourths of the correct responses say in substance, “You envy a person who has something you want.” Most of the others are concrete illustrations.
Unsatisfactory. “To hate some one,” or simply “To hate.” “You don’t like ’em.” “Bad feeling toward any one.” “To be a great man or woman.” “Not to be nice to people.” “What we do to our enemies.”
Inability to respond accounts for 55 per cent of the failures.
(e) Justice
Satisfactory. “To give people what they deserve.” “It means that everybody is treated the same way, whether he is rich or poor.” “It’s what you get when you go to court.” “If one does something and gets punished, that’s justice.” “To do the square thing.” “To give everybody his dues.” “Let every one have what’s coming to him.” “To do the right thing by any one.” “If two people do the same thing and they let one go without punishing, that is not justice.”
Approximately 38 per cent of 102 correct responses referred to treating everybody the same way; 25 per cent to “doing the square thing”, 12 per cent were concrete illustrations; and 4 per cent were definitions of what justice is not.
Unsatisfactory. “It means to have peace.” “It is where they have court.” “It’s the Courthouse.” “To be honest.” “Where one is just” (minus, unless further explained). “To do right” (minus, unless in explaining right the subject gives a definition of justice).
It is very necessary, in case of such answers as “Justice is to do right,” “To be just,” etc., that the subject be urged to explain further what he means. “To do right” includes nearly 12 per cent of all answers, and is given by the very brightest children. Most of these are able, when urged, to complete the definition in a satisfactory manner.
Remarks. The reader may be surprised that the ability to define common abstract words should develop so late. Most children who have had anything like ordinary home or school environment have doubtless heard all of these words countless times before the age of 12 years. Nevertheless, the statistics from the test show unmistakably that before this age such words have but limited and vague meaning. Other vocabulary studies confirm this fact so completely that we may say there is hardly any trait in which 12- to 14-year intelligence more uniformly excels that of the 9- or 10-year level.
This is readily understandable when we consider the nature of abstract meanings and the intellectual processes by which we arrive at them. Unlike such words as tree, house, etc., the ideas they contain are not the immediate result of perceptual processes, in which even childish intelligence is adept, but are a refined and secondary product of relationships between other ideas. They require the logical processes of comparison, abstraction, and generalization. One cannot see justice, for example, but one is often confronted with situations in which justice or injustice is an element; and given a certain degree of abstraction and generalization, out of such situations the idea of justice will gradually be evolved.
The formation and use of abstract ideas, of one kind or another, represent, par excellence, the “higher thought processes.” It is not without significance that delinquents who test near the border-line of mental deficiency show such inferior ability in arriving at correct generalizations regarding matters of social and moral relationships. We cannot expect a mind of defective generalizing ability to form very definite or correct notions about justice, law, fairness, ownership rights, etc.; and if the ideas themselves are not fairly clear, the rules of conduct based upon them cannot make a very powerful appeal.[69]
Binet used the words charity, justice, and kindness, and required two successes. In the 1911 revision he shifted the test from year XI to year XII, where it more nearly belongs. Goddard also places it in year XII and uses Binet’s words, translating bonté, however, as goodness instead of kindness. Kuhlmann retains the test in year XI and adds bravery and revenge, requiring three correct definitions out of five. Bobertag uses pity, envy, and justice, requires two correct definitions, and finds the test just hard enough for year XII.