The Naturist And Theoretial Intelligence : The Importance Of Intelligence

Nature Vs Nurture is often the huge debate in psychology when it comes to determining and understanding individual’s characteristics traits. Nature is hereditary to our behavior while nurture is based on our environmental influences. Although most argue whether or not nature or nurture defines our characteristics, I believe both have an impact on we are.

Theorists argue over which plays more of an influence on our cognitive ability. Nativists believe our intelligence is pre-determined at birth from our genetic inheritance although it cannot be seen until the child becomes older, as babies are cognitively immature. This is maturation. Environmentalists do not believe this. They believe children's intelligence is a result of what they have learned, from their interaction with the environment and at birth the human mind is a ‘blank state’ that experiences slowly fill.

In the "nature vs nurture" debate, nature refers to an individual's innate qualities (nativism). Nature is your genes. The physical and personality traits determined by your genes stay the same irrespective of where you were born and raised. Nature factors that trigger an individual to commit crime are influences by biological and family factors. The nature method suggests that individuals are born with qualities, abilities and characteristics that determine the kind of person that individual will become.

The history of the Nature vs. Nurture began with Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection. At one time, entire cultural groups were considered to be inferior or superior by nature and ethnicity. During the late Middle Ages, philosophers began to recognize differences among groups dependent on their socialization or nurture. Nature vs. Nurture began to be controversial in the 20th Century when the Nazis began to destroy humans of a certain nature to develop the perfect human race. This prompted psychological debate on whether human identity was by nature or subject to socialism by nurture. (Prien, Pitts, & Kamery, 2003, p. 51)

Intelligence by definition is “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills” (Oxford Dictionary, 2014). However, many psychologists argue that there is no standard definition of ‘intelligence’, and there have been many different theories over time as psychologists try to find better ways to define this concept (Boundless 2013). While some believe in a single, general intelligence, others believe that intelligence involves multiple abilities and skills. Another largely debated concept is whether intelligence is genetically determined and fixed, or whether is it open to change, through learning and environmental influence. This is commonly known as the nature vs. nurture debate.

For many years psychologists have been researching behaviour patterns from birth. This is where the ‘Nature’ vs ‘Nurture’ debate begins. Nativists believe that humans are born with various skills needed to survive, where as Empircist believe that humans acquire all or almost of all their behavioural traits from "nurture".

The debate concerning the nature of the relationship between race and intelligence has been highly contested by psychologists for many years. With the emergence of genetic research in recent times, some clarity has been provided, however, many unanswered questions still remain. This essay discusses the implications of IQ test scores and the potentially misleading information they generate when administered to non-Western individuals. Although it is argued that race is a dynamic social construct and therefore not scientifically sound, this essay will explain why considering context-specific information about an individual is vital when assessing their intelligence due to the substantial roles environmental factors play in the learning

A study published by the National Academy of Sciences, compared the IQ of 436 Swedish twin brothers. One brother raised by the biological parents and the other raised by his adopted parents. During the study they found that the adopted brother's who didn’t grow up with the biological parents had a 4.4 higher IQ’s. The author, Sarah Griffiths says that, “Researchers found that children raised in wealthier and more educated households grow up to be smarter than those brought up in poorer homes.” (Griffiths 2). Adoptive parents most times will be more educated and wealthier, this creates the environmental part of a child’s intelligence. Part of a wealthy family is the parents involved in

“Blacks still score below 75 percent of American whites on most standardized tests” (Jencks and Phillips). The belief that intelligence and aptitude are innate seems to be especially important in discussions of racial differences (Jencks and Phillips 6). White Americans score closer on IQ tests to other white populations across the globe than to the worldwide black average (Saletan 1). An important question that may come to mind is whether intelligence tests biased. Intelligence tests are likely to be culturally biased when a standardized test reflects what is learned through experience in a culture that does not regard to another race as highly (Young). For instance, if a standardized test result represented an ingroup preference exclusively than it may only measure a specific part of intelligence; for example the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, WAIS, is more verbal while the Raven's Progressive Matrices, RPM, is more visual (Young). This may cause a majority of individuals with autism to do better on the RPM due to autistic students connecting with images rather than words. Young has stated that intelligence tests that only focus on certain neurological criterias and are not well indicators of intelligence due to it not equally indicating all types of intellect. Yet a majority of psychologists now agree that intelligence tests measure developed

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

intelligence is determined by environment or genetics. The fact that human DNA is nearly identical across

When examining the human development, considering the input of both environmental influence and biological inheritance is significant. Empiricists believe that development is influenced by social factors and environmental experiences. On the other hand nativists view development as predisposed and defined by the genetic codes of an individual, including those that subsequently mature with age (Keating, 2011, P1).

According to Hannah Richardson, intelligence tests measure the ways people respond to their environment but they do not measure genetic predispositions.

This refers to all those characteristics and abilities that are determined by your genes. This is not the same as the characteristics you are born with, because these may have been determined by prenatal environment. In addition some genetic characteristic only appear later in development as a result of the process of maturation. Supporters of nature have been called natavist.

Intelligence is used by everyone to help them in everyday life. Where people get their intelligence, however, is debatable. A person is born with an amount of inherited intelligence; this intelligence is considered nature, genetic, or heredity. Then there is intelligence that comes from the ability to learn from experience; this intelligence is impacted by nurture or the environment. It is known that both genetic and environmental factors determine intelligence, but the subject is controversial among professionals. Does nature or nurture have a bigger impact on intelligence? Is it true that some people are born with high intelligence, but are limited by their environment? Given the proper tools, can a person increase their intelligence? How accurate are IQ tests?