Asian Americans: Achievement Beyond IQ

by James R. Flynn

This authoritative book shows how the gap between a group's mean IQ and achievement can be precisely measured, and then partitioned between two factors -- an important methodology with potential application for all ethnic groups. In this case, the author shows that Chinese Americans' occupational achievements are generally far beyond their IQ -- as if they had a mean IQ 21 points higher than they actually do. This unique approach to explaining group achievement emphasizes non-IQ factors such as historical origins, family, work ethic, educational tradition, personality traits, and social institutions.

184 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

James Robert Flynn, PhD, aka Jim Flynn, is Emeritus Professor of Political Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, researches intelligence and is famous for his publications about the continued year-after-year increase of IQ scores throughout the world, which is now referred to as the Flynn effect. The Flynn Effect is the subject of a multiple author monograph published by the American Psychological Association in 1998. Originally from Washington DC and educated in Chicago, Flynn emigrated to New Zealand in 1963.

Reviews

[Damian · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Flynn, a persistent and long-time critic of the racial theories of intelligence, put forth his case for the socio-cultural explanation for racial differences in achievements and IQ. Flynn compellingly argues that, contrary to the racialist perspective, Asian Americans possess lower IQ than white Americans on average. The reason for such mis-measure and false perception of Asian group IQ being the product of unrepresentative and/or poor sample of Asian population, and the use of white American data that are either outdated or incomparable to the Asian sample. However, Flynn also points out that Asian Americans accomplish more than white Americans even with a lower group IQ. He credits the over-accomplishments of Asian Americans with greater capitalization of their ability and a strong work ethics. Flynn admits that it is possible that there may be a genetic basis for Asian superiority in visuospatial ability but dismiss it as being unimportant to Asian accomplishments. In addition, Flynn also proposes the reasons for differences in achievements in other minority groups in America (African American, Irish, Jew, etc.) and argues that socio-cultural factors are the main reasons for the existent discrepancies. Overall, a pretty neat and detailed work on the achievement and ability of Asian Americans that makes a strong case against the racialist theories of Asian innate superiority in intelligence. One reservation about this book is that most information in it are pretty outdated. It would behoove the interested party to check out the more recent data on Asian American accomplishment and performance in intelligence test (or proxy of it) to see whether Flynn’s hypothesis holds up.