AP Seminar: Is Intelligence The Key To Success?

In one of the most watched Ted talk videos, “The Key To Success- Grit,” recorded in May 9 2013, the speaker Angela Lee Duckworth explains how the strongest performers in their fields were typically not the ones with the highest IQ’s, but the ones with the most amount of Grit. What is that? Angela defines Grit to be the passion and perseverance for a long-term goal and to go through with it with no quitting. She then goes on and talks about the studies and their results relating to pure Grit being the answer. Although her her speech is moving and brings hope to those who don’t think they can do much with a low IQ, her reasoning seems to not carry enough evidence.

This chapter is intended to “review the history of SES and provide an overview of the association between SES and children's well-being for three major domains of development (cognitive, socioemotional, health)” (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002, p.372). Since it is a more of a review of knowledge already published than a study in itself, the methodology included reviewing prior studies. Their search ended in finding that there is an extremely complex relationship between socioeconomic status and cognitive attainment that may not always be seen in a concrete answer. Where some researchers argue that specific cognitive skills are reliant on family income and others are completely independents, different researches assert the opposite. Something they mentioned that I would like to consider in my study is the relationship between socioeconomic status and attendance. Bradley and Corwyn (2002) say “SES also appears to affect school attendance and number of years of schooling completed” (p.378). While these two aspects have enough information to be a study of their own, they do play a role in my personal

Passion and determination towards long term goals (otherwise known as ‘grit’) are parts of cognitive development. (Kantrowitz 2016). Grit is seen to be necessary for academic expertise in all fields ranging from sciences to the arts. (Ericsson, Prietula and Cokely 2007). Natural born Intelligence Quotient, also known as ‘IQ’, is described as a person’s ability to complete problems and understand concepts. This is compared across the population to give an average IQ score (Latham 2006). However, can this number accurately measure whether a human will become an expert in a field sooner than a grittier person? The focus of this essay is to evaluate whether grit or IQ has the most positive effect on cognitive development.

The American Psychological Association studies have shown that environmental factors can contribute to an individual’s intelligence factor. Different revolution factors, natural selection factors, and environmental differences have an impact (Saletan 4). For example, a black kid living in a run down neighborhood may do worse than a white kid living in a rich neighborhood. Due to this, most children feed off of their peers, either at school or even at home. People in disadvantaged groups generally score lower on IQ tests than those who are not disadvantaged (Jackson 1). Different races have different advantages due to

Parents push their children to excel in sports and other activities, so why don’t they push them to excel in academics? Students’ View of Intelligence Can Help Grades, an article by Michelle Trudeau, talks heavily on this topic. Trudeau uses Psychologist Carol Dweck’s very compelling and factual arguments in support of this topic.

Intelligence is most important in today's society. Some individuals have high intelligence, some have low intelligence. An appropriate environment plays an important role in the development of a child’s intelligence. Stephen Jay Gould exchanged many views on intelligence in his book The Mismeasure of Man

In today’s modern world, recent scientific research has been conducted, which reveals that world-wide IQ test scores have risen, and continue to rise every year. In Alison Gopnik’s article, “Smarter Every Year? Mystery of the Rising IQs,” she discussed how these recent scientific discoveries relate to our society throughout the last century. It is evident that in our society a person’s level of intelligence is extremely important in our culture which is obsessed with being knowledgeable. In her article, Gopnik addresses the historical evidence that supports the conclusion that people are getting smarter as the years go on because of today’s society. Gopnik effectively explains the fact that people’s IQs are rising every year, by using the results of scientific research to support her point, and by explaining theories which state how the world’s social and economic environment are significant factors towards a person’s level of intelligence.

In the article ,The Key to Success, it says that no matter how talented you are or how high your IQ is, grit is the key to success. Grit and perseverance are the two

The development of children can depend on many factors, one of the important ones being socioeconomic status (SES). SES can be defined as a multidimensional construct, including measures of social factors such as power, prestige and hierarchical social status, and economic resources (Hackman and Farah, 2009). Child development can be studied from multiple dimensions such as physical, mental, social, and emotional development among others. For the purposes of this study, I will be focusing on how socioeconomic status affects child cognitive development.

The strong relationship between education and one’s economic mobility is well recognized. Traditionally, it is thought that the level of education of an individual is determined by his or her ability. However, differences in home environment, parental wealth, and neighborhood all have effects on educational attainment. According to scholars, racial differences in educational attainment can be directly linked to racial differences in family

I do agree with you when you say that being book smart doesn’t equal success, in fact, the Terman’s child geniuses did not turn out as he expected and there was a child that was rejected to his research because of his IQ went on to win a Nobel Price. Also, I believe creativity play a great role, being creative and being out spoken is something that an individual learns in their everyday life.

People who live with grit do not feel afraid to face difficulties, and working hard to reach their dreams regularly and carefully. Grit is following the future goals under harsh condition, and overcome obstacles with a firm resolve Duckworth (2014). According to Dweck (2013), People with a growth mindset can develop their abilities through hard work. In opposing, position people with higher IQ enjoyed higher education and greater degrees (Tanner 2015). Also, the intellectual abilities are more important as it provides you more chances in life (Hambrick and Meinz 2011). Moreover, Oden's research into Terman's data (Tanner 2015) which showed that not all the children with high IQ were successful in life, and these kids with dynamic personalities traits can be more successful in their lives. Therefore, the idea of high cognitive ability is not always correct. In fact, not only the people who were born with intelligence they can reach success. Studies show that people can achieve success if they work hard and long enough. According to Dweck (2013) and Duckworth (2014) People can be successful if they focus on their goals and work toward them. Also, these people need support and encouragement until they reach their

The socioeconomic status of a child’s parents has always been of one the strongest predictors of the child’s academic performance. Wealthier parents are capable of providing enriched learning opportunities such as tutoring sessions, advanced curriculums and more experienced teachers. Additionally, students are only allowed to attend schools within their districts. This means that the students in low-income regions, such as School D, would never be able to attend a better, newer school. As a result, desirable schools are surrounded by expensive residences. Furthermore, higher-income families are more likely to invest in their children’s cognitive development. These families enroll their children in sports and community activities, and are able to teach their children essential skills such as time management. The children whose parents have higher-income jobs tend to work less. The reduced amount of time required for the parent to work enables them to spend more time with their children and offer important insight to their children. For example, low-income mothers are typically young, unemployed, single or divorced, and have low levels of education. Dissimilarly, high-income mothers are likely older, employed, and married thus allowing them to aid their child’s cognitive development and displays the rift between the ability of higher and lower income

Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the most widely studied constructs in the social sciences. Several ways of measuring SES have been proposed, but most include some quantification of family income, parental education, and occupational status. Research shows that SES is associated with a wide variety of health, cognitive, and socioemotional outcomes in children, with effects beginning prior to birth and continuing into adulthood. A variety of mechanisms linking SES to child well-being have been proposed, with most involving differences in access to material and social resources. For children, SES impacts well-being at multiple levels.

When a person utters the word “intelligence,” people tend to think of a genius like Albert Einstein developing some obscure equation that the great majority of the population will never understand. The problem with the definition of intelligence is that people relate intelligence to words like “genius” which require intelligence but do not have the same definition as intelligence. Often, people try to use related words to define intelligence, but these words are unable to define intelligence since many are only different levels of intelligence. While many definitions try to encompass the meaning of intelligence and various definitions describe a small part of intelligence, no definition completely explains intelligence, because