A Question of Intelligence: The IQ Debate in America

by Daniel Seligman

A look at the inequality in human intelligence addresses the sensitive issue of ethnic and national differences in IQ, outlining correlations between IQ levels and economic achievements, arguing for the continuation of the IQ tests many consider biased. 20,000 first printing.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Race

239 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 1992

Reviews

[Mansoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

بحث بهره‌ی هوشی در واقع متشکل از این‌گونه پرسش‌های به‌هم‌پیوسته است

آیا آزمون‌های سنجش بهره‌ی هوشی به‌راستی می‌توانند هوش را اندازه‌گیری کنند؟

چرا بعضی افراد بهره‌ی هوشی بالاتری از دیگران دارند؟ آیا دلیلش برخورداری از سوابق بهتر است یا این مزیت ریشه در ترکیب ژنتیکی آن‌ها دارد؟

چرا برخی از گروه‌های جمعیتی (طبقاتی و نژادی) به طور متوسط بهره‌ی هوشی بالاتری از سایرین دارند؟

چرا شماری از کشورها ظاهرا بهره‌ی هوشی بالاتری از دیگران دارند؟

آیا بهره‌ی هوشی را می‌توان افزایش داد؟ اگر می‌توان، تا چه حد؟

تفاوت در بهره‌ی هوشی - در سطح فردی، گروهی یا ملی - تا چه اندازه اهمیت دارد؟ بهره‌ی هوشی بالا چه مزایایی را به دنبال دارد؟

تمام این پرسش‌ها فوق‌العاده بحث‌انگیزند و اکثر افراد هنگام مواجهه با آنها به شدت احساساتی می‌شوند. به‌علاوه، بسیاری از کسانی که دانش چندانی در این موضوع ندارند پاسخ این پرسش‌ها را پیشاپیش در آستین دارند. اینان نسبت به اعتبار آزمون‌های سنجش بهره‌ی هوشی شکاکند. همچنین معتقدند تفاوت در بهره‌ی هوشی عمدتا بازتاب‌دهنده‌ی تفاوت در برخورداری از مزایای اجتماعی است

با این حال، کتاب حاضر تصویر متفاوتی به دست می‌دهد. در حقیقت، نظرات متخصصان این حوزه در باب پرسش‌های یادشده اغلب نقطه‌ی مقابل تصوراتی است که در فرهنگ عمومی رواج دارد

مسلما بعد روانی قضیه هم نقش مهمی به عهده دارد. همه دوست دارند به بچه‌هایشان بگویند "تو می‌توانی هر حرفه‌ای را که دوست داری پی بگیری،" ولی ابدا تمایل ندارند که پشت‌بندش بگویند "البته اگر بهره‌ی هوشی کافی داشته باشی." 0

[John Devlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1980 California banned IQ tests for blacks bc they did on average poorly…just today I saw that Washington state has banned the bar exam for lawyers bc people or color perform poorly on that test….

iQ is the dirty little secret know one wants to discuss…IQ has huge explanatory powers over the continued gaps in schooling, income, and success in modern life.

Seligman notes this as Murray did in the Bell Curve….IQ is real…racial groups have different average IQs…deal with that truth or continue to blame racism, infantilize blacks by pretending they can’t handle the truth, and hurt the lowest folks on the intelligence spectrum by denying them the help they need…

[Emily Domitrovic hamburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, balanced explanation of the IQ test and its history that helped me try to make sense of the two extremes I’ve heard over the years (IQ is a good indicator of success on a variety of levels vs. IQ is a biased, useless number). It really is viewed as a far more controversial issue than it needs to be in my opinion.

I think the last line of the book is beautiful:

“One major message of the IQ data is that groups are different. A major policy implication of the data, I would argue, is that people should not be treated as members of a group but as individuals.”

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great.

[Steven H · Rating 1 out of 5]

A JOURNALIST PRESENTS A "POPULAR" SUMMARY (circa 1992)

Seligman states in the Preface of this 1992 book, "this book... will argue that IQ tests do indeed measure mental abilities that might collectively be thought of as intelligence. Also, that intelligence testing is a worthwhile enterprise and that data generated by the tests have enormous social value and explanatory power... The experts overwhelmingly believe... that the tests can be thought of as good measures in intelligence. They believe that genetic factors play a major role in explaining IQ differences between individuals..." (Pg. viii-x)

But he also admits, "I am not an academic scholar; certainly not a psychometrician. I am a journalist... here in the role of popularizer, not authority... There is no theoretical barrier telling us that IQs cannot be lifted by environmental intervention... everybody agrees that variability in IQ is substantially affected by environmental differences, and there is every reason to keep searching for programs that work... Psychologists today do not know how to effect permanent and significant increases in intelligence levels via programs of cultural enrichment." (Pg. x-xi)

He notes a "statistical phenomenon": "the so-called regression to the mean. This phenomenon tells us that the single most likely IQ for the child of above average intelligence is a figure somewhat below theirs but still above the population mean of 100. In other words, the child's IQ will have `regressed' some distance toward the mean... Regression toward the mean is not a biological imperative: It is merely reflecting the correlations we are working with here are less than perfect." (Pg. 88-89) He adds, "the fact of a highly heritable IQ does not guarantee high IQs to all the progeny of high-IQ families." (Pg. 91)

He concludes, "A major policy implication of the data... is that people should not be treated as members of groups but as individuals." (Pg. 204)

This view of a 'popularizer, not [an] authority' is pretty much outdated.

[Johnnelle Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with the author, he was just too wordy in some chapters.