IQ Tests Don't Test Intelligence

718 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of environment in intelligence

Why IQ Tests Don't Test Intelligence

The task of trying to quantify a person’s intelligence has been a goal of psychologists since before the beginning of this century. The Binet-Simon scales were first proposed in 1905 in Paris, France and various sorts of tests have been evolving ever since. One of the important questions that always comes up regarding these tools is what are the tests really measuring? Are they measuring a person’s intelligence? Their ability to perform well on standardized tests? Or just some arbitrary quantity of the person’s IQ? When examining the situations around which these tests are given and the content of the tests themselves, it becomes apparent that however useful the tests may be for standardizing a group’s intellectual ability, they are not a good indicator of intelligence.

To issue a truly standardized test, the testing environment should be the same for everyone involved. If anything has been learned from the psychology of perception, it is clear that a person’s environment has a great deal to do with their cognitive abilities. Is the light flickering? Is the paint on the walls an unsettling shade? Is the temperature too hot or too cold? Is the chair uncomfortable? Or in the worst case, do they have an illness that day? To test a person’s mind, it is necessary to utilize their body in the process. If everyone’s body is placed in different conditions during the testing, how is it expected to get standardized results across all the subjects? Because of this assumption that everyone will perform equally independent of their environment, intelligence test scores are skewed and cannot be viewed as standardized, and definitely not as an example of a person’s intelligence.

It is obvious that a person’s intelligence stems from a variety of traits. A few of these that are often tested are reading comprehension, vocabulary, and spatial relations. But this is not all that goes into it. What about physical intelligence, conversational intelligence, social intelligence, survival intelligence, and the slew of others that go into everyday life? Why are these important traits not figured into intelligence tests? Granted, normal standardized tests certainly get predictable results where academics are concerned, but they should not be considered good indicators of general intelligence because of the glaring omissions they make in the testing process. To really gauge a person’s intelligence, it would be necessary to put them through a rigorous set of real-life trials and document their performance.

Show More
Related

  • Genocide Persuasive Essay

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    The word genocide was derived from the Greek root genos (people) and the Latin root cide (killing), and did not exist in the English language until 1944, which was the end of World War II (Power). According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” Such violence occurred during the Holocaust and during the separation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The problems of ethnic cleansing and repression have become so prevalent in the last century that they have contributed to two world wars, over fourteen million deaths, and a new word. United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said, “Far from being consigned to history, genocide and its ilk remain a serious threat. Not just vigilance but a willingness to act are as important today as ever.”

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'The Bell Curve'

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bell Curve is a book originally published in 1994. It was written by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray to explain the variations of intelligence in American Society. They accomplished this by using statistical analysis, for the purpose of raising warnings regarding the consequences of the intelligence gap. This was also made to propose a national social policy with the goal of mitigating bad consequences that have been attributed to this intelligence gap. Much of the information is widely considered controversial. An example of this is the low African-American scores compared to whites and Asians, and genetic factors in intelligence abilities. The introduction of the book starts with a brief history of intelligence theory and recent developments in intelligence thought and testing. The author creates six assumptions that has to do with the validity of the “classical” cognitive testing techniques.

    Read More

  • After Hitler: Genocides since World War II

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    Genocide: The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular group or nationality. When people think of this forbidding word, their mind immediately flashes to images of concentration camps and Adolf Hitler’s army raising their arms, saluting to swastikas used during the Holocaust in WWII. But what people don’t realize is that genocide is not such a rarity. Thousands, even millions of civilians die each time genocide strikes. Genocides have been committed since the beginning of humanity, but three massacres since Hitler’s reign left the world shocked again at its own cruelty.

    Read More

  • One Hundred Days Of Massacre: The Rwandan Genocide

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    History contains horrific periods of time that which people suffer and are murdered. This period of time is known as genocide. The legal definition of genocide is “the international destruction of a group of people as such, a crime so severe that it demands immediate and total condemnation” (Rothenberg 395 ). The most well known genocide is the Holocaust, a genocide in which six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany. After World War II and the Holocaust, the word genocide was originated by Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin coined the word “genocide” by combining Greek genos, meaning race or group, with Latin cidere, meaning to kill or murder.

    Read More

  • Cultural Perceptions of Intelligence in Japanese and American Indian Societies

    1284 Words  | 3 Pages

    The field of psychology has continuously endeavored to find an appropriate method in evaluating intelligence. The Stanford-Binet intelligence test is one of pioneering tests created to measure facets of intelligence, and it is still being utilized today (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997). Weschler created several intelligence tests focusing on age range in relation to intelligence (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997). While these tests are staples in the psychological testing community, there are many criticisms of intelligence testing. One such criticism is the absence of race and culture as influential factors of intelligence (Carroll, 2010).

    Read More

  • The Case Against Standardized Tests

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    Standardized testing assesses students, teachers, and the school itself, which puts a great deal of pressure on the students. High scores show that the school is effective in teaching students, while low test scores make teachers and schools look as though they are not teaching the students properly. This is not always the case. There are teachers who do teach students what they need to know to pass the test, but their students are still unprepared. Although teachers try to improve instruction, student performance is still variable to other factors that the school cannot control.

    Read More

  • Examining Intelligence: Definitions, Theories and Testing

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    Intelligence tests have been developed by scientists as a tool to categorize army recruits or analyze school children. But still discussing what intelligence is, academics have a difficult time defining what intelligence tests should measure. According to the American researcher Thorndike, intelligence is only that what intelligence tests claim it is (Comer, Gould, & Furnham, 2013). Thus, depending on what is being researched in the test and depending on the scientist’s definition of intelligence the meaning of the word intelligence may vary a lot. This essay will discuss what intelligence is in order to be able to understand the intelligence theories and aims of intelligence tests.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Standardized Intelligence

    445 Words  | 1 Pages

    Standardized tests are the opposite of a test of intelligence. The goal of this test is not to find out how well you think through problems, the goal is to find out what you are able to memorize. Standardized tests are rather killing our creativity and our desire to ask questions, which are the roots

    Read More

  • Genocide

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    The analysis of this empowering term is fairly self-explanatory when the time is taken to break it down. Linda Jacobs Altman author of Genocide The Systematic Killing of a People claims that in 1944 the Greek word genos, meaning “race” or “tribe” and the Latin cide, which means “killing” were combined to result in the title of genocide. Altman states that today’s definition recognizes genocide as “Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such”. A similar description has genocide as “A form of one-sided mass killing in which a state or other authority intends to destroy a group, as that group and membership in it are defined by the perpetrator”(Altman). Due to genocide being a worldwide issue, definitions have been known to cause controversy. Countries that represent perpetrators of past genocides often argue, on ridiculous terms, that their actions did not constitute a formal genocide. The breakdown of the word is helpful in the decision making process when determining if acts truly are those of genocide.

    Read More

  • Genocide My opinion

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    Genocide is the mass killing of a large population conducted by another population. It is more complicated than that sentence though. Genocide is varied in each instance that it has been carried out. Genocide can be a means of asserting dominance over a rival nation or ethnic group, it can be a political maneuver or genocide can be conducted to cleanse out an ethnic or religious group.

    Read More

  • What Is the True Meaning of Genocide?

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    Genocide has been affecting many people; one event that became well known was the Holocaust. The term Genocide was made in 1944 by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who combined the Greek words geno (race) with the Latin word cide (kill). Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention of and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members in a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to member of a group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical or destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” (Overview: Defining Genocide). Genocide is is made up of individual acts and individual choices to perform them. The Holocaust was one of the most noticed genocides, the holocaust started in 1933 when adolf hitler came to power. The holocaust is an example of genocides because it specifically targeted jewish people. Overall 6 million jews were killed, the holocaust also targeted other groups because of their racial inferiority, political, ideological, and behavioral grounds including the: Gypsies, the disabled, and some of the Slavic people. On September 1941 more than 33,000 jews were killed in just two days. Although many people believe...

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition

    1693 Words  | 4 Pages

    In this world, there are many different individuals who are not only different in demographics but also different neurologically. Due to an immense amount of people it is important to first understand each individual, in order, to better understand them and to help them when it comes to certain areas such as education, the work force, and etc…. For this reason psychologists have aimed to further understand individuals through the use of psychological assessments. This paper aims to examine a particular assessment tool, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (Fifth Edition), which measures both intelligence and cognitive abilities (Roid, 2003). This assessment is usually administered by psychologists and the scores are most often used to determine placement in academics and services allotted to children and adolescents (despite their compatibility for adults) (Wilson & Gilmore, 2012). Furthermore before the investigation dives into the particulars of the test, such as its strengths and weakness’, it is best to first learn more about the intelligence scales general characteristics.

    Read More

  • Intelligence: Nature or Nurture?

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    On the ‘nature’ side of the debate is the psychometric approach, considered to be the most dominant in the study of intelligence, which “inspired the most research and attracted the most attention” (Neisser et al. 1996, p. 77). It argues that there is one general (‘g’) factor which accounts for intelligence. In the 1880s, Francis Galton conducted many tests (measuring reaction times to cognitive tasks), (Boundless 2013), in order to scientifically measure intelligence. These tests were linked to the eugenic breeding programme, which aimed to eliminate biologically inferior people from society. Galton believed that as intelligence was inherited, social class or position were significant indicators of intelligence. If an individual was of high social standing, they would be more intelligent than those of a lower position. However he failed to show any consistency across the tests for this hypothesis, weakening his theory that social class correlated with intelligence. Nevertheless, his creation of the intelligence test led many to continue to develop...

    Read More

  • Genocide Essay

    2179 Words  | 5 Pages

    Genocide is the intentional killing of groups with the purpose of eliminating the existence of the group. The term "genocide" was created in 1944 to describe the systematic elimination of Jews under the Nazi regime. The word combines the Greek suffix, "geno-", meaning race, and "-cide", meaning "killing". According to Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, genocide refers to the following acts that are meant to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group by causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (directly or through actions causing death), deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e.g. forced sterilization), or forcibly transferring children (persons under the age of 14 years) of the group to another group. Article III of the convention defines "genocide, the conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, and complicity in genocide" as punishable acts. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the he Genocide Convention on 9 December 1948, and the Convention was commenced on 12 January 1951. The Genocide Convention has been ratified by over 130 nations and over 70 nations have made provisions for the punishment of genocide in domestic criminal law. Article 6 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court includes the content of Article II of the Genocide Convention as a crime. (http://www.genocidewatch.org/genocide/whatisit.html)

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Intelligence Testing

    953 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the first scientist man has been attempting to categorize, understand, define, and manipulate intelligence. What began as one man or woman being less intelligent than another slowly evolved with psychology under the efforts of Alfred Binet, Theodore Simons, Robert Yerkes, David Wechsler, Howard Gardner, Robert Sternberg, and countless others who studied and attempted to decipher the mysteries of intelligence or lack thereof behind the human mind and spawned the current beliefs, meanings, social ideologies, and definitions of intelligence. These beliefs and understandings has led to an ever evolving and changing was to test intelligence. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with an intelligence test or an assessment of overall intelligence potential (IQ), but the problem comes in when these tests are applied to children and students around the world and then are revealed to

    Read More

More about IQ Tests Don't Test Intelligence

Open Document