Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Human abilities in theoretical cultures
- Part II Cultural responses to ability measurement
- 7 The British “cultural influence” on ability testing
- 8 Cultural influences on patterns of abilities in North America
- 9 Human abilities in the Eastern Mediterranean
- 10 The Norwegian experience of test use: A selective review of Norwegian tests and measurements in cultural context
- 11 Human assessment in Australia
- 12 Test performance of blacks in Southern Africa
- 13 Individual differences among the peoples of China
- 14 Japanese abilities and achievements
- Part III Cultural limits upon human assessment
- Author index
- Subject index
12 - Test performance of blacks in Southern Africa
from Part II - Cultural responses to ability measurement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Human abilities in theoretical cultures
- Part II Cultural responses to ability measurement
- 7 The British “cultural influence” on ability testing
- 8 Cultural influences on patterns of abilities in North America
- 9 Human abilities in the Eastern Mediterranean
- 10 The Norwegian experience of test use: A selective review of Norwegian tests and measurements in cultural context
- 11 Human assessment in Australia
- 12 Test performance of blacks in Southern Africa
- 13 Individual differences among the peoples of China
- 14 Japanese abilities and achievements
- Part III Cultural limits upon human assessment
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Introduction and scope of the review
Research into the abilities of black people in Southern Africa has been motivated primarily by pragmatic objectives, chiefly in the spheres of assessing educability at school and trainability in the work situation. Relatively few studies were undertaken with the intention of testing the universality of (western) theories of cognitive behaviour. Research in South Africa has been dominated, furthermore, by the psychometric paradigm, although some interest as also been shown in the more experimental approaches to the study of cognition. Despite these limitations, there is sufficient literature from which to draw some conclusions regarding the nature of the psychological constructs underlying African performance on cognitive tests.
This chapter is prefaced by an historical sketch of events and is organized into three broad content areas:
The criterion-related validities of tests.
The moderating influence of environmental, dispositional, and other nontest variables on level of test performance.
The structure and patterning of cognitive abilities.
Although our concern is with Southern Africa, the considerable body of research findings from the rest of the continent, south of the Sahara, cannot be ignored. The distinction between “black” and “white” Africa is a political and not a cultural one. South Africa is fundamentally a “third world” nation with the majority of its inhabitants being subject to the same acculturative forces that operate elsewhere on the continent. We therefore feel justified in referring, where appropriate, to the African literature as a whole, the more so because there is unfortunately no contribution to this book from Central, West, or East Africa.
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- Human Abilities in Cultural Context , pp. 299 - 339Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988
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