Educability and Group Differences

by Arthur R. Jensen

Jensen is a controversial figure, largely for his conclusions based on his and other research regarding the causes of race based differences in intelligence and in this book he develops more fully the argument he formulated in his controversial Harvard Education Review article 'How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?'. In a wide-ranging survey of the evidence he argues that measured IQ reveals a strong hereditary component and he argues that the system of education which assumes an almost wholly environmentalist view of the causes of group differences capitalizes on a relatively narrow category of human abilities.Since its original publication the controversy surrounding Jensen's ideas has continued as successive generations of psychologists, scientists and policy-makers have grappled with the same issues.

Genres: Psychology, Genetics, Education, Race, Nonfiction

424 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Arthur Robert Jensen was born August 24, 1923, in San Diego, California, the son of Linda Mary (née Schachtmayer) and Arthur Alfred Jensen, who operated and owned a lumber and building materials company. His paternal grandparents were Danish immigrants and his mother was of half Polish Jewish and half German descent. He studied at University of California, Berkeley (B.A. 1945), San Diego State College (M.A., 1952) and Columbia University (Ph.D., 1956), and did his doctoral thesis with Percival Symonds on the Thematic Apperception Test. From 1956 through 1958, he did his postdoctoral research at the University of London, Institute of Psychiatry with Hans Eysenck.

Upon returning to the United States he became a researcher and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he focused on individual differences in learning, especially the influences of culture, development, and genetics on intelligence and learning. He received tenure at Berkeley in 1962. He has concentrated much of his work on the learning difficulties of students in culturally disadvantaged environments. In 2003 he was awarded the Kistler Prize for original contributions to the understanding of the connection between the human genome and human society. In 2006 the International Society for Intelligence Research awarded Jensen its Lifetime Achievement Award. During Jensen's period in San Diego he spent time working as a social worker with the San Diego Department of Public Welfare.