Intelligence Stereotypes

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 many stereotypes regarding those with intellectual disabilities. This may be because these individuals range in cognitive ability, receptive and expressive language, and physical need. While it may be assumed that those with disabilities are not able to process the world around them, they are not immune to mental health disorders and the, sometimes tragic, events that take place throughout a lifetime. Someone without an intellectual disability may find solace in a friend, partner, or family member. If the event is impactful enough, they may even turn to a mental health professional that is trained to help those going through a tough time. Unfortunately, individuals with disabilities do not always have that same network of support.

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).

Labeling bias exists when a test claims to measure one thing but actually measures something else. Tests that claim to assess such traits as “aptitude” or “intelligence” imply that they are measuring something innate, given that many people assume that these traits are genetic. However, Jencks notes that “almost all psychologists now agree that while an individual’s score on an intelligence or aptitude test depends partly on his or her genetic makeup, it also reflects a multitude of environmental influences” (p. 56). Thus, such tests are racially biased estimates of the innate traits that most laypeople think these tests are purporting to evaluate. Fortunately, this bias can be eliminated by simply changing the names of what these tests claim to measure.

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)

Many Black psychologists debunk the army intelligence testing during WWI that seem to confirm Galton eugenics theory. Howard Hale Long (1888-1948) focused his research on the education advancement of black children. Albert Beckham (1897–1964) opened a clinic to research African American children. One study using 1,100 participants from NYC, DC and BC, revealed that IQ tests were significantly correlated with socioeconomic status so environmental influences the scores; this and other studies also discredited the eugenics theory (Pickren & Rutherford, 2010). Beckman’s wife Ruth Howard was the first black woman to earned her PhD in psychology. She established guidance counseling in schools, a contribution that benefits all

A psychosocial phenomenon known as ‘race’ has the power to bind a group of people together and determine how they are expected to behave (Kendig, 2011). Our behaviour is determined by another phenomenon known as ‘intelligence’ (Colom, Karama, Jung, & Haier, 2010). Since these are both such fundamental aspects of how our society functions, it is crucial for psychologists to understand how these factors interact. However, despite many circulating theories, psychologists have yet to agree upon the extent to which these phenomena affect each other. In this essay, I will explore the reasons for division and ambiguity in the scientific community regarding the definitions and explanations of race and intelligence, and assess whether it is prudent

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”.

In 1904, a French psychologist (Alfred Binet) created the first intelligence test in order to help the French Ministry of Education segregate children that may have difficulty learning in a regular classroom. At that time, he did not know that his test would be the basis for IQ tests administered over 100 years later. He has a Stanford University psychologist, Lewis Terman, to thank for expanding his work and creating the Stanford-Binet intelligence test that took root in the United States in 1916 and is still popular today. However, along with its popularity came criticism. Critics see the current version of the Stanford - Binet test and other intelligence tests, despite attempts to make them culturally fair, as limiting to individuals who are not from the major social norm. They claim that cultural bias in test questions is why certain races do not perform as well as others on the test.

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)

In researching the types of tests that are administered to determine intelligence, it became very clear that there were many differing opinions surrounding the efficacy of intelligence testing. There exists compelling information that suggest there is a lack of ability for any test to clearly identify and measure intelligence. It is very clearly noted that there is a question of the ability for academics based testing to measure a persons intelligence. One of the most noted tests in the United States that is used to measure the potential of students to perform in an educational setting is the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). Through the years this test has undergone many changes in attempts to overcome challenges in correctly

Is ethnicity a component of intelligence. There are many theories on how a person’s race affects their intelligence, like how a genetic factor can influence them or how a social or cultural ethnic background can sway how a person thinks that may not be to the standards of thea dominant ethnicity. That the people who measure the test do not measure the different kinds of intelligence that is valued by that ethnicity maycan be a contributor for the stereotype of ignorance for certain people. The propinquity of race and intelligence has been in dispute since there was a upwelling of intelligence tests, racial prejudice, social and economic status, and genetic variation.

Humans associate with people from all around the world, without a humanizing understanding it is hard to even circumvent from place to place. There are many stereotypes, we aurally perceive them all the time about many different things for example, religion, culture and more. The world has shifted into a global society; having knowledge in many backgrounds is a key to being prosperous. In America specifically, cultural intelligence prepares us daily. Cultural intelligence is consequential because it abstracts stereotypes, prepares people for contributing to a global society, and in America specifically, it prepares people for everyday life. By simply removing stereotypes we could gain a cultural intelligence together. Meeting someone with a

This literature review focuses on the available literature about the barriers for women going into engineering leading to the underrepresentation of women in engineering. “Only 8% of British engineers are women, the lowest proportion in Europe, and well behind Germany (15%), Sweden (25%) and top-performing Latvia (30%)” (Rankin, 2014). Over the last few years, women in engineering has become a major research topic, though a large majority of the research available focuses on STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics) as a whole. This review will mainly be focusing on the barriers of beliefs about intelligence and cognitive abilities, self-assessment, and discrimination by stereotyping.

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