Bias In Mental Testing

by Arthur R. Jensen

Illuminating detailed methods for assessing bias in commonly used I.Q., aptitude, and achievement tests, Jensen argues that standardized tests are not biased against Englishspeaking minority groups and describes the uses of such tests in education and employment

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

800 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

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.

Reviews

[Gwern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moved to gwern.net.

[Emil O. W. Kirkegaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for any student of psychometrics.

[Akbar Madan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tests for intelligence (IQ) depend on developing the capabilities available in the individuals tested, although it is preferable for these measurements and tests to explore the deep and indirect capabilities of the individuals themselves, because it is an area worthy of research and measurement, and because capabilities are linked to the cultural and scientific environment and to social class, unlike the capabilities that are linked to the human cerebral nature regardless of Regardless of its environment, cultural and scientific principles. What is important in discussing intelligence tests and the biases they contain is whether these tests (as well as all school and university standards and tests in determining students’ levels in general) achieve justice in society, justice that gives opportunities to all individuals, regardless of their academic, cultural and social background, to discover their potentials and abilities equally. This is when the paths of educational opportunities and the paths of achievement opportunities are unified, all of which reveals discrimination based on racism and the socio-political stratification of groups.

[Steven H · Rating 1 out of 5]

JENSEN GIVES A "POPULAR" EXPOSITION OF HIS VIEWS

Jensen wrote in the Preface to this 1981 book, "This book is for those of the general public who want to learn more about mental testing and its controversies. It presupposes no background in the specialized terminologies or mathematical underpinnings of psychometrics, statistics, or quantitative genetics that make up most of the serious literature on the `IQ controversy' so inaccessible to the educated public who are not professionals in the field of mental measurement... I do not view my role as that of a defender of tests, least of all of the `testing establishment.' I am essentially an outsider, a critic of tests, of their uses and abuses. I have published no tests and I have no connections with test publishers. For all I know, I may be anathema to them, for rocking the boat...

"Finally, I should mention that I have intentionally abstained from playing the role of social philosopher. The broader educational and social implications of research in psychometrics and differential psychology certainly demand full discussion. But I am much less interested in my own rumination on these matters than in the basic facts that an informed public must know if it is to think intelligently about their broader implications." (Pg. ix, xi, xiv)

He observes, "In general, the validity of IQ for predicting academic achievement DECREASES at higher levels of schooling... This decrease in the validity of IQ (or similar tests) for predicting achievement at higher levels of education does not imply that intelligence becomes any less important at these levels. Quite the contrary. The explanation for the decreasing validities is the narrowing `range of talent' (as it is called) as we ascend the educational ladder." (Pg. 30)

He acknowledges, "Given the environmental factors that do, in fact, contribute to the 25 percent environmental variance in IQ, how much room does that give us for changing IQ by environmental means? Assuming that we could identify and control all of the environmental factors that are responsible for the 25 percent nonheritable variance in IQ---a very unrealistic assumption indeed---we could make some fairly dramatic changes in people's IQs... If we could take the 20 percent of the population who experienced the least favorable environments for the development of intelligence, and give them instead the environments of the 20 percent of the population who grew up in the most favorable environments, their average IQs would be about 20 points higher." (Pg. 111)

While most of us do not find Jensen's work at all persuasive, one can still read his arguments and decide for oneself.