Application of Theory
When one speaks of intelligence or how bright another person is, the often quoted figure is the IQ or intelligence quotient. It is the most often used standard of how smart a person is. This paper shall look at what intelligence tests measure, how the IQ tests measure intelligence and interrogate their history. It shall then apply the tests to school policy and hence evaluate their validity.
There are a slew of tests that attempt to measure how intelligent human beings are. They all measure different aspects and those factors will be covered here. One of the misconceptions is that the tests measure inborn intelligence. Few of the activities are designed for that purpose. They actually measure a person’s interaction with the environment and what they have learned from that interaction. The most common tested aspect is critical thinking. Instead of straightforward questions, intelligence tests offer questions with a twist. It is assumed that the most intelligent people will see obvious flaws in the obvious answers (Steinberg & Williams, 2015). Some intelligence tests also measure reflexes, both mental and physical. The assumption is quick reaction times reflect an active brain and in the line of thinking, a more intelligent person.
One would assume that intelligence testing in the United States began with psychiatrists or government officials. It was actually a football coach who coached the University of South California at the start of the century. He
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When comparing Alfred Binet and Lewis Terman on their approaches to intelligence testing there are some similarities amongst the two. One such similarity would be regarding content. Alfred Binet’s approach to intelligence testing consisted of tests that ranged in difficulty levels from easy to hard. These tests required one to demonstrate his or her own cognitive ability, decision making, and verbal skills. Lewis Terman’s approach to intelligence testing was an updated version of Binet’s. Terman also used cognitive ability, decision making, and verbal skills in his testing; however, he added mathematics, attention span, and processing skills. However, their purposes for intelligence testing were quite different from one another. Alfred
Knowledge isn’t all about what people know or how well they are in school. IQ tests test the intelligence of the person; however they test the pure thinking capacity rather than what people know. This means that intelligence comes from the entire cognitive thinking ability and not what they
Sir Francis Galton (1869, 1883) quantified traits that were assumed to be correlated, and developed the first comprehensive test of intelligence. By the end of the 19th century, the foundation was laid for modern day intelligence testing (Wicket, 1998). In 1905, the French psychologist Alfred Binet published the first modern intelligence test to identify students who needed special help in coping with the school curriculum (Neiser, et al. 1996). Shortly thereafter in 1908 and 1911, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon published revisions of the Binet intelligence test (Wicket). The mental age concept was adopted to express the results in adequate units. The concept is based on an individual’s performance in comparison to the average performance of individuals in a specific chronological age group (Kaplin, & Saccuzzo).
Also, in the early 1900’s there were different intelligence test conducted mainly to “justify racial and ethnic discrimination”. According to the understanding race website, “The results of these intelligence tests were influential in shaping U.S. immigration policy that limited immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, and in justifying race-based segregation in public education, and U.S. conscription during World War I. Previously, the scientific debate centered largely on perceived differences in racial intelligence based on cranial size”. (Science: 1900s-1930s Race and Intelligence)
Each theory of intelligence has not only a different method of testing intelligence, but also a different definition of intelligence, which each creator ascribes to. Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (Terman, 1916), or IQ tests as they are commonly referred to as, are currently one of the most widely used tools for intelligence measurement, however, research suggests they are a poor predictor of future academic success for particular cultural groups (Gardner, 1993). In one of the largest neurocognitive-based intelligence studies performed to date, it was revealed through the observation of neuroimaging data that IQ scores alone were not likely to indicate a fundamental intellectual ability because intelligence is composed of multiple anatomically distinct components (Hampshire, Highfield, Parkin, & Owen, 2012). Considering this development, it would appear that IQ tests are only measuring one subsection of intelligence, located in the frontoparietal cortex (Gray, Chabris, & Braver, 2003; Hampshire, Highfield, Parkin, & Owen, 2012). In order to provide analogous statistics to base research upon, it is vital to create multifaceted, culturally sensitive measurements because cultures differ greatly in the emphasis they place on certain aspects of intelligence (Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Kidd, 2005).
Intelligence quotient-also known as IQ-is the measure of the mind's ability to retain and interpret analytical facts. Educational institutes are largely conditioned to determine what the IQ score of a person is through standardized testing. These forms of testing are commonly focused on a person’s ability in short-term memory, analytical thinking, mathematical ability and spatial recognition. The standardized testing used in educational institute only accounts for a certain percentage of their actual IQ level. A person’s IQ proves how intelligent a person is, respective to the many forms of of acquiring knowledge-work experience, project experience, using the internet. The projection an educational institute suggests on a resume for a job screening, is that of the person's academic ability within the general demographic of persons with a similar IQ level-determined by a form of standardized testing. There are many assumptions that this statement suggestions. This revolves around the notion that individuals are attending institutes that respectively correlate to their
The major findings of that report indicated that the effects of these tests on social classes were ‘strong and consistent’ and that while ‘the upper respondent is more likely to favor the use of tests than the lower class respondent,’ the lower class respondent is more likely to see intelligence tests measuring inborn intelligence (Garrison).
IQ tests can be considered biased measures of intelligence, as there are many factors that have to deal with it. Even though IQ test are total fairness it all depends on a person’s social interaction rate. For example, if a test taker comes from a third world country where education is not available vs. a test taker here the scores will range. Bias is present when a test score has implications that relevant showing the portrayal of the subgroup of test takers. It often has to do with social viewpoint and knowledge about the world.
How is intelligence measured? How is it possible to just have one way to measure intelligence? Is there really only one way to measure every individual’s intelligence? According to psychologists Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg there is. Gardner and Sternberg have developed two different theories to do so. Howard Gardner’s theory of intelligence is the way in which one carries out life goals. Gardner chose eight abilities that held to meet criteria: linguistic (speak and write well), logical-mathematical (use logical and mathematical skills to solve problems such as scientific quotations), spatial (think and reason about objects in three dimensional space), musical (preform, understand and enjoy music), bodily-kinesthetic (manipulate
Intelligence tests are inaccurate to measures true ability of a person because genes affect how a person responds to their surroundings, the tests cannot measure the person biological makeup or his true potential for being “smart”.
There is a relationship between intelligence and culture because intelligence is culturally shaped and defined and some cultures support and identify it as very vital in the context of social and ecological aspects. In the early years, there was a bias towards intelligence tests because they used English language and culture. The formation of Wesler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Addition (WAIS,IV) in 2008 by David Wesler was meant to minimise the bias. According to Westen, Burton and Kowalski (2006), intelligence assists human beings to take control of their lives and it varies cross culturally because the power dynamics differ in each society and this leads to differences in behaviour and line of thinking. These authors describe intelligence as multifaceted, functional and can be defined by culture because it is universal and studying intelligence using different culture as a sample that can be used to question Western ideas about intelligence with some emphasis on the assessment of skills and abilities using culturally appropriate methods (Benson, 2003)
Intelligence is not easily measured; there are many factors that influence the way we determine whether or not someone is considered “intelligent”, and many more to rank who is more intelligent than others. James R. Flynn, in his piece “The Sociological Imagination, and Kevin Warwick, in his work “Into the Unknown, both share a common argument: intelligence is subjective; therefore, social and environmental context should be considered. Both authors expand on the idea of nature versus nurture. Flynn’s main claim is that the way that intelligence is measured is flawed which is supported by his use of sub claims and evidence, such as intelligence is dependent on social scenarios and that Jensen measures intelligence only through Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Reaction Times (RTs), in order to illustrate what happens when social awareness recedes into the background, he offers 14 specific examples that also serve as reasons (181). Warwick extends on Flynn’s argument; his main claim is that within a particular group what is regarded as intelligence is based on a general consensus, which naturally depends on the culture and values of that society (199). Although they extend on each others’ arguments, they have a particular opposing view: Flynn believes that IQ tests could be an accurate measurement of intelligence if social context was in taken into account; yet Warwick believes this impossible
The Analysis of the Intelligence of Individuals and Groups Much controversy surrounds the subject of intelligence. Intelligence tests were developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to assess the intelligence of individuals and groups. However, criticisms quickly arose regarding tests due to results being used to justify discrimination between different groups and cultures. Theorists argued that the tests assess verbal, mathematical, and spatial capabilities, but they do not directly examine other abilities that seem to be inherent parts of intelligence: creativity, social understanding, knowledge of one’s own strengths and weaknesses and so on.
Intelligence is defined as general cognitive problem-solving skills. A mental ability involved in reasoning, perceiving relationships and analogies, calculating, learning quickly… etc. A number of psychologists have argued that intelligence can be quantified, primarily through testing. In 1905, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon devised a system for testing intelligence, with scoring based on average mental levels for various age groups. .I.Q(intelligence quotient) in general, is an assessment of your ability to think and reason. IQ score is a standardized way of comparing this ability with the majority of people the same age as you are. A score of 100 means that compared to these people in your general age group that you have basically an average intelligence. Psychologists say those scoring in a range of 95 to 105 are of a normal intelligence or have an average IQ. There have been many critiques about the use of IQ tests mainly on the uncertainty of the IQ score due to the external factors that are not accounted for in measuring IQ scores. This essay will be addressing To what extent do scholars suggest the IQ tests to be an accurate way to measure a person’s intelligence level? An example is the chapter critique of the bell curve from the book “The Mismeasure of Man” by Stephen Jay Gould.