Galton's On The Origin Of Species

Although the side of both nature and nurture are recently coming together to meet a consensus, nurture generally accounts for a bigger portion of the said intelligence. Nurture plays a bigger role because nurture is ultimately what shapes the person’s exact final motives and values, while nature on the other hand creates the predictions of what the person’s characteristics and intelligence level may will be (Segal 62). Many different environmental factors involved in nurture such as geographic location, social interactions, and personal experiences areis what heavily regulates a person’s intelligence. These environmental factors may assist in the determination of one’s intelligence.

Intelligence is a quality that is essential One of the first things a child is taught while growing up is the well-known cliché, practice makes perfect. This phrase has been the basis for trial and error situations time and time again, where if it doesn’t work the first time then keep trying. In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell leaves the audience with a memorable observation, the 10,000 hour rule. The basis of the 10,000 hour rule is that an area of interest requires 10,000 hours of practice in order to become an expert. Although this may be true in some situations, how can someone practice something they are unable to do? Natural talent and ability are crucial characteristics in order to become an expert in any area. This phenomena highly lends itself to the observations made about intelligence and genetics. The main misunderstanding when considering whether this argument is fundamentally nature or nurture is the difference between intelligence and education. Many consider education to be exactly equal to intelligence, which is the basis for the believing that working hard will essentially result in intelligence. Intelligence is considered as “a very general mental capability that, among other things, involved the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience” (Colangelo19-39.) Qualities that make up the realm of intelligence are things that people are simply born with and cannot easily be taught and trained. One may be able to work twice as hard as the next person and equalize their achievements, but the essential difference at work is the way the mind process information and the difference between intelligence and education. Although some consider intelligence to be an environmentally based attribute, they fail to understand the true meaning of

Gladwell reveals that to excel in the world, one must be born with or introduced to the right tools. These tools may include being born into a high class home, when one is born, as well as being recognized early in school. When Lewis Terman, in 1921, conducted the Genetic Study of Genius observation, he only took into account the subjects I.Q. scores. It wasn’t until later, when he noticed the divergence of three different groups A, B, and C, did he realize that it wasn’t only about scores. The groups were separated by societal class, group A born from the high end of the scale while C was from the lower end. Group A, as well as most of B, did superb at the same time that group C fell out. Intelligence

The role of the environment was minimalized due to Burt’s (1909) theory, intelligence was viewed as a fixed inborn state that could neither be developed or changed (Parrington 1996). Burt’s (1909) influence came from his research through the years 1920 to 1970, when children were segregated by capability. This was noticeable during secondary education

One of the main purposes of the eugenics movement was to attempt to control the level of intelligence in the human race. This is not completely possible, however, as all genes are linked to other genes, and intelligence is affected by many more than just the one gene (Agar, 2006). In contrast to Galton’s theory, intelligence is not actually completely hereditary. Between 47 and 58% of intelligence lies in DNA, and the rest is based on environmental factors (Steen, 1996). Many types of intelligence tests have been created to measure the level of intelligence in humans. Defining intelligence in itself is a difficult task, as there are

In my opinion from watching the documentary and videos and what I have read in the book --- The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk is that I am glad that someone took the time and effort to figure out what most of what humans learn from is from the environment more so than genes. Genetic differences do exist and they do matter tremendously. Most of us don’t know what our true genetics are. One common characteristic in all successful adults is that some point in their lives they come to realize how much of the process of improvement is in their own control. People that understand that achieving success has to do with process and skill building are more ambitious and they do better. There is a big difference between what statistics tell you about genes and what biology tells you about genes. For example: Epigenetics introduce the concept of free will into our idea of genetics. Then there is Gene Expression which is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product. Another is Gene Environment interaction which is the phenotypic effect of interactions between genes and the environment. As stated in the textbook: “Intelligence,” as they have seen can mean many things. But however we define or measure it; clearly some people think and behave more intelligently than others. What

Many scholars believe that "the new science of behavioral genetics has intellectual roots in the old ideas of Eugenics" (Steen 33). Eugenics disguised a political agenda as a scientific one in an attempt to endow discrimination with credibility. Supporters of genetic determinism theories do the same. Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray defend the theory of genetic determinism in The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, which was published ten years ago. Their book is one of the most widely referenced works regarding the theory that intelligence is inherited. The authors claim that the social order mirrors natural selection, wherein the genetically superior or more intelligent human rises to the top. Of course this means that the lower class, predominantly blacks, are represented as genetically inferior (xxi-xxiii). The authors claim that "ethnic differences in cognitive ability are neither surprising nor in doubt" (269) and attribute the inequality of life among Americans to inherent differences between races in intelligence (127). Their argument rests on the assertion that intelligence is both inheritable and immutable and is supported by intelligence test scores. The text is full of contradictions and a close analysis proves it to be lacking in evidence and smacking of social myth. Their theories are developed using speculation and are tainted by bias. There is no science involved.

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

During the procedure researchers desired to acquire as much information as accessible during the one-week visit. The testing consisted of 50 hours of four personality trait scales, three aptitude and occupational interests and two intelligence tests in which each twin had to fulfill. The researcher’s results show that genetic influences resemble to justify for most of the disparities in human characteristics. Bouchard and Lykken have come to the realization that genetic has a major impact on the characteristics of human and that it is no longer a deliberation. Instead ideas must be looked upon to advance. Our clarifications on fundamental views about skills, interest, parenting, education, abilities, and social behavior come from the viewpoint that individual’s knowledge and judgement shape their character and not the genes. Bouchard and Lykken will be the first to contradict with clarifications and propose their own suggestions. Genetic influence mainly drives intellect. These influences contain education, family setting and social class. Also, in Bouchard and Lykken’s findings are some genetic and environmental influence combinations that determine individual

The chapter goes on to describe what happened on the other days of creation. Creationists obviously have to account for the fact that the world is not perfect as described in Genesis 1 and 2. They explain this through Genesis chapter 3, where Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. She and Adam her husband who was with her, learned of the knowledge of good and evil, thus ushering in sin into the world. This also brought death upon all creation, as God promised would happen if they ate of the fruit. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12, KJV).

‘Heritability’ refers to how far genetic differences are responsible for variations in traits, characteristics or abilities within a population. Heritability studies may involve twins or adopted children, where it might be possible to distinguish between genetics and environmental influence. These studies generally find that monozygotic twins are more intellectually akin than dizygotic twins; similarly children who have been adopted, remain intellectually comparable with their biological parents. This infers that there must be a genetic component responsible for differences in intelligence. However heritability estimates are inconclusive. (Deary 2001) claims that the heritability estimate tends to be placed between 40% and

Genetic and environmental impacts on intelligence have been known as “the nature versus nurture” debate. The arguments supporting the biological or the environmental implications that influence the way we think, learn, and behave have been popular topics among psychologists, researchers, and educators. Several studies have shown that risks factors in

Is Intelligence a Malleable Trait? An overwhelming majority of people in the world believe that intelligence is fixed. They believe that from birth, those 46 chromosomes are the deciding factor between an educated businessman and an employee working on an assembly line. When deciding which topic, I was interested in discussing for my research paper, a memory from second grade popped into my mind. I remember that my classmates and I were in IDEAS class, and it was the first day where we would break up into reading groups. The blue group was the highest, with green as a close second, while yellow brought up the rear. I was placed in the blue group, while my friend Noah was placed in yellow. To make a long story short, two years passed by and Noah worked his way out of the yellow group, into the blue group. Fast forward eight years and there we are, sitting at graduation while Noah stands before us all, speaking to us as the Valedictorian of the Class of 2016. If this doesn’t support the idea that Intelligence isn’t fixed, I’m not sure what does. With that being said, as new research on this topic continues to be churned out, the statement that intelligence is inherited at birth continues to be proven wrong. Throughout this paper, I will do just that, by providing information to support my question, “Is Intelligence a Malleable Trait?”

The idea many people often perceive about intelligence today is how smart you are and what you're capable of remembering off the top of your head. It can be looked at as a black and white topic: your smart or you're not. But intelligence is much more than this, and

While this assumption is accepted by a majority of geneticists and behavioral scientists, there is great disagreement on the degree of influence each contributes. Arguments for environmental influences are compelling; at the same time there is growing evidence that genetic influence on intelligence is significant and substantial (Eyesenck, 1998; Mackintosh, 1998; Plomin, 1994; Steen, 1996). The purpose of this paper is to explore the question: "How is intelligence influenced by heredity and environment?"