Implications of IQ

The American educational system certainly emphasizes Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, telling kids that they can be smart in one area and not so much in other areas and still be okay. But there is a preoccupation with intelligence testing that also pervades our society. People want to quantify intelligence, and that testing is typically finding one number to represent a person's intelligence level.

Over the years, scientists have developed intelligence tests to measure general mental abilities. As intelligence tests have evolved, they have become more scientifically acceptable, although there are still reasons to be skeptical of a test's ability to accurately determine intelligence.

Achievement vs. Aptitude

Achievement tests are those that are designed to measure what you have learned: your knowledge or accomplishments in a certain area. The final exam at the end of this course is an example of an achievement test because it measures what you have learned. Aptitude tests, on the other hand, aim to measure or assess a person's potential for learning. People entering medical school and the military take aptitude tests to discover their potential for these special jobs.

What makes a good intelligence test?

Standardization:

A good test needs to be standardized. This means that if the test is given to a large number of subjects it must first be piloted with a smaller, representative subgroup under the same conditions. Once scores have been received, standards are established and analysts create a normal distribution so future test-takers can know if they are above or below average.

Reliability:

Reliability refers to the ability of a good test to consistently produce similar scores on different occasions. There are a couple of ways to achieve this, including test-retest and split-halves methods.

Validity:

Validity in a test means that the test measures what it is supposed to measure. Does the test measure just my reading ability or just my math ability? Then it is not a valid measure of overall intelligence.

The two most common intelligence tests in the USA today are the WAIS and the Stanford-Binet. On both tests, the average score is 100 and 68% of people score between 85 and 115.

IQ curve

The two groups that fall into the top 2% and the bottom 2% differ noticeably.

The low extreme describes individuals whose test scores fall at 70 or below. A person with a low score has difficulty adapting to the normal demands of life. These people are labeled as having an intellectual disability. In the past, the term mental retardation was used, but today it is considered appropriate to label the low-scoring people as intellectually disabled. The modern educational system offers special education classes for intellectually disabled people that help with life skills so they can be successfully independent, if possible.

The high extreme describes individuals with IQ scores of 130 or above. High-scoring people tend to be healthy, well-adjusted, and academically successful. The modern educational system calls these children gifted, and often attempts to give them special learning challenges because typical schooling can be boring for them, leading to behavioral issues.

While the modern American educational system typically labels and organizes children into like groups, many psychologists note the negative effects of labels. If a child is not placed in the gifted class, does that decrease the child's motivation? Does it make the child less likely to succeed because it plants doubt in the child's mind about his own abilities? Do gifted children get an unfair advantage because they find out they are labeled smart and then begin to believe in their own abilities?

Using IQ scores also gives researchers an opportunity to investigate the effects of nature vs nurture on intelligence. According to studies of identical twins (who share identical genes) who were raised together or apart, researchers have determined that the most significant contributor to intelligence is heredity; several genes exert an influence on intelligence. However, identical twins raised apart do show slightly more differences in intelligence levels than ones raised in the same environment, indicating that environment does play a small part in determining IQ. Children who are raised in impoverished environments with little social interaction show lower IQ's than children in rich social environments. But even the best environment cannot create a genius.

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