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The Science Behind The Bell Curve
The science behind The Bell Curve has been denounced by both the American Psychological Association and the Human Genome Project. Its authors were unqualified to speak on either genetics or intelligence, since their expertise lay in other fields. Their project did not rise through the usual system of academic publishing, and in fact the authors ducked the process of peer review. The Bell Curve was ultimately funded by the wealthy, far-right Bradley Foundation, which used its media connections to launch a massive national publicity campaign. And The Bell Curve relies heavily on studies that were financed by the Pioneer Fund, a neo-Nazi organization that promotes eugenicist research.
"The scientific basis of The Bell Curve is fraudulent." (1)
With those words, the American Psychological Association denounced The Bell Curve, the controversial book that claims that blacks generally have IQs 15 points lower than whites. The authors assert that because IQ is mostly genetic and unchangeable, programs promoting equality (affirmative action, welfare, Head Start, etc.) are a waste of money. For those unfamiliar with the American Psychological Association, it is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States, and includes over 142,000 members.
The story of how a scientifically unsound book like The Bell Curve bypassed the usual checks and balances of the scientific community reveals a great deal about how wealthy conservative businessmen are trying to create their own alternate academia.
To begin with, the authors of The Bell Curve were largely unqualified to write a book about genetics and IQ. Charles Murray is a political scientist, whose specialty lies in welfare and affirmative action issues. Richard Herrnstein (who died shortly before publication) was indeed a psychologist, but he spent his career studying pigeons and rats, not genetics and IQ. In fact, Herrnstein never published anything in peer-reviewed journals about genetics and IQ during his entire 36-year career. (He did publish a few articles in popular magazines.) The most that can be said for either of them is that they were familiar with the scientific method and were experts in fields that were distantly related to the topic.
The writing of the book was shrouded in secrecy, but it was launched directly to the American public in a magnificently funded and organized media campaign, one that included cover stories in Newsweek, The New Republic and The New York Times Book Review.
In his article, “None of the Above: What IQ Doesn’t Tell You about Race” journalist Malcolm Gladwell refutes the notion that intelligence is based on genetics and argues that IQ is not just based on an individual’s level of thinking but also on the location where an individual resides. In 1984, James Flynn discovered that over the years, the IQ of people around the world had been increasing by three points per decade. This is now known as the Flynn effect. The IQ fundamentalists around the world believe that IQ score shows an individual’s level of thinking and it is based on genetics. However, Flynn effect disproves this
When this finding infringes on someone’s lifestyle or corporate interests, the reaction to the discovery becomes unfavorable. A contributing factor to the rejection of scientific findings is directly related to political affiliation. Since the 1970s, conservatives have experienced a continuous decay of trust in the scientific community. By 2010, the contrasting trust in the scientific community has become more evident, with liberals retaining more trust in them and conservatives reducing theirs. Climate science has contributed greatly to this conflict.
middle of paper ... ... Through Gottlieb’s experience at the Hunziker Company, Lewis brings to light the argument concerning how much control pharmaceutical companies and research laboratories should have over researchers. Martin seems to find his scientific paradise in the McGurk Institution, but it becomes clear that this institute preaches commercialism, not in profit but in prestige. The conclusion of the novel suggests the only way to truly escape commercialism is to cut all ties with the commercial world and find escape.
Because of the vast amount of Brazil’s resources, its history is veiled in European powers struggling to colonize the country. The last few centuries have been filled with the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch fighting over the control of the land. However in the early 1700 the threat of outside European powers vanished and the colonization of the Portuguese was prominent. However, it wasn’t until the early 1800s that would lead to the nation of Brazil. As Napoeleon’s power spread across Europe, the Portu...
In Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008), Ben Stein travels the world to expose the incarceration in the realm of science. Stein’s goal is to rile up the audience to stir up desire and motivation of the voice of the people to bring down the unjust wall in scientific academia. Ben Stein fails to persuade his active viewing audience that universities have used unfair practices to exclude research and believers in intelligent design from the scientific community, but succeeds in persuading the unpretentious and idle audience. Ben Stein losses his credibility and ultimately his persuasive power through the use of misrepresentation of messages and facts, fallacies of ethos, pathos, and logos, and the digression from the main point of the documentary. The unpretentious audience overlooks these fallacies and is persuaded through the visual tools in the documentary.
Board of Education outlawed educational segregation, the Illinois School District had created a completely different gifted program for Hispanic students, separate from the White students’ gifted program. Ford found that in 2009 and 2001, the RDCI (The Relative Difference in Composition Index) researched and concluded “at least one half million African American and Hispanic students combined are not identified as gifted” (Ford 145). While African American Students are rising to be the majority race in public education, the percentage of African Americans even being recognized as gifted or academically accelerated, is not proportionally increasing (Ford). Society hold precedents with people who have superior intelligence over those who do not, but how can superiority even be concluded when all people are not given the opportunity to have an enriching education? African Americans are not able to increase their percentage of gifted students because African American students are not given the chance to be even recognized as worthy or capable of such achievements. As society advances further academically and leaves African Americans with an unquail education, the percentage of African Americans attending college and entering professional careers
Many people view economics as a dry and uninteresting subject. In the book Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, co-authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner shows that the tools of economic research can be put to use in the study of almost anything. Levitt explains, “ since the science of economics is primarily a set of tools, as opposed to a subject matter, then no subject, however offbeat, need be beyond its reach.” (Levitt & Dubner 14) In Freakonomics, Levitt and co-author, Stephen Dubner, show how “Freakonomics” can be applied to some of the most interesting research topics that Levitt has tackled during his career. The authors
Most scientists want to be able to share their data. Scientists are autonomous by nature. Begelman (1968) refutes an argument made by I. L. Horowitz, a scientist who believes that the government is in “gross violations of the autonomous nature of science”. Begelman believes, however, that there is a system of checks and balances in the government regulation system, and that this system is in place to protect citizens.... ...
In Joel Spring?s book American Education, he uses several examples of the politics and economics surrounding education. Spring discusses the decade of the 1970s, in which businesses put such a demand on the educational system to create educational opportunities in the fields of science and engineering. During this decade, the nation was in an ?educational inflation pe...
The Standford-Binet Intelligence Test is the most commonly used standardized test to measure intelligence. Schools are using these standardized tests as a benchmark to place a child’s cognitive ability but these tests have been highly criticized for failing our children. These tests are both biased and subjective and teachers are being forced to “teach to the test”. Standardized tests are an unreliable form of measurement because the standards were originally based on educated white men. They were ethnically biased towards those that are non-white and non-English speaking. For example, when African Americans were first integrated into the school system during the 1950’s, they were looked down upon because they did not meet the standards set forth by the “white man”. From the sample of the population tested, a normal curve is used to determine where a child measures within the linear symmetry. Most children, approximately 50%, will fall within the median of the curve which is normal distribution. The issue is that not everyone can be linearly measured and such measures then act as a disservice towards children that do not fit the mold. The children that score below the norm are commonly labeled with a disease or are identified as special needs. It is not fair to use a “cookie cutter approach” to determine a child’s strengths and
In the end, the reader can see how good has triumphed in the form of
Urwick, L. F. and E. F. L. Brech (1966). The making of scientific management: Pitman.
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...
Professor Bigot argues that intelligence is only influenced by nature, meaning it is entirely based in genetics, and that one's environment or surroundings can't influence it. However, Dr. Bigot's argument does have some truth to it. With the purpose of investigating the role of genetics in intelligence, researchers have approached twin studies. According to Bouchard and McGue (1981), the closer the biological relationship, the higher the IQ correlation is. This idea was the result of a meta-analysis of 111 studies of IQ correlations between siblings from research studies on intelligence. The Minnesota Twin Study (Bouchard et al. 1990) studies identical twins raised together and identical twins raised apart. Bouchard et al (1990) concluded that 70% of intelligence is associated to genetic inheritance. Therefore, 30% of intelligence may be attributed to other factors. Although the Minnesota Twin Study has been one of the most impressive twin studies carried out, there are several criticisms that test its validity. One of its greatest criticisms was the "equal environment assumption", which states that it can't be assumed that twins reared together are exposed to the same environment.
Taylor, Frederick Winslow (1911). The Principles of Scientific Management. New York, NY, US and London, UK: Harper & Brothers. Print. 8 Feb. 2014.