IQ tests are not an accurate measure of a person's intelligence.
I will be analyzing the reasons why I think that IQ tests are not an accurate measure of the intelligence. These reasons will be accompanied with solid proven facts that will discount the accuracy that is falsely considered to be a part of IQ tests. Today IQ tests are a part of many instances where intelligence is being judged.
Not an accurate measure
The test that has today evolved as the IQ test was initially designed by Sir Francis Galton. He had designed it to differentiate between the “abnormal” and “normal” intellectual growth in children at that time. The capacities that he tested or that are generally tested today have not been established as to have any sort of relation with the mental growth of the individual or chance of success that he has in his life.
It has been generally seen that people who belong to low income strata or to areas with lower economic growth score lower on the tests. Their lower scores do not necessarily imply that they have low IQ, it’s just that the setup of the test, the language used (in most cases) is not the one they are familiar with. The high scores in test can also be achieved if you have had better schooling and early grooming. There are evidence where children who are made to “open” their minds in the early stages of life by being made to play mind games and puzzles have a general tendency to think “out of the box”, they grasp things like puzzles or mind boggling questions easily and can comprehend and answer them far more easily than others who haven’t been exposed to such activities. (Sternberg, & Grigorenko, 2000) . The reason is that their minds have been made to look at the...
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...just intelligent” person because he knows how to act and when to act. IQ tests may judge a part of the level of intellectual present but fails to do it on the whole basis.
Works Cited
Sternberg, R. J., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2000). Teaching for successful intelligence: To increase student learning and achievement. Arlington Heights, IL: Merrill-Prentice Hall.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Plucker, J. A. (1998). Is gifted education still viable? Education Week, 17, 33-34.
Atherton J S (2011) Learning and Teaching; Piaget's developmental theory [On-line: UK] retrieved 5 May 2011 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm
BBC NEWS. (2011,April 26). IQ tests measure motivation - not just intelligence
. Retrieved 5 ,4, 2011 , from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13156817
Kamphaus, R. W., Winsor, A. P., Rowe, E. W., & Kim, S. (2005). A history of intelligence test
In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell makes the claim that IQ does not have an accurate correlation to success after a certain point. Specifically, he says, “The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage.” IQ tests and other talent assessments have long been used to enroll students in gifted education initiatives. It has been argued that not only are IQ tests inaccurate, but gifted programs are detrimental to a child’s education. While I concede that IQ tests are not the best way to determine intelligence, I still insist that gifted programs are beneficial for children that show a special aptitude in different school subjects. Without advanced programs to challenge children with unique abilities, these students are unable to reach their full potential.
Before answering the questions let find out what intelligence test is. It is a test consisting of a series of tasks requiring people to use various verbal and non verbal skills to measure the individual’s intellectual ability. Now that we know what an intelligence test is we can now answer the question better. Three important short comings of intelligence test that have nothing to do with intelligence are: having low motivation or high anxiety which can greatly influence the performance on the test, also IQ test may contain cultural biases in their language and or tasks that may place people of one background above people of another back ground, and members of minority groups may have little experience with this kind of test or may be uncomfortable with examiners of a different ethnic back ground than them (Comer, 2013, pp.107).
Intelligence tests have been developed by scientists as a tool to categorize army recruits or analyze school children. But still discussing what intelligence is, academics have a difficult time defining what intelligence tests should measure. According to the American researcher Thorndike, intelligence is only that what intelligence tests claim it is (Comer, Gould, & Furnham, 2013). Thus, depending on what is being researched in the test and depending on the scientist’s definition of intelligence the meaning of the word intelligence may vary a lot. This essay will discuss what intelligence is in order to be able to understand the intelligence theories and aims of intelligence tests.
Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including ones capacity for logic, abstract thought, creativity, and problem solving. Standardized tests play a major role in education systems today. Although these tests do exemplify a student’s ability to read and write English, this test promotes “teaching to a test.” I have first handedly experienced this in my own life. Standardized tests undermine critical thinking and innovation and are not the best example of intelligence.
There have been many studies of IQ measurement. Some believe in testing and then looking at biology or heritage of the child. These people also like to use statistics to try to put some sort of explanation on IQ levels. Then there are other groups that use cultural ecology. They study IQ by what effect the environment has on a child, and feel testing it is unfair to the child. The problem is that these two groups rarely come together to help each other. So there are big questions as to what IQ really is and how it should be measured.
...ctors, not environment. Nomothetic approach suggests that this is because everyone is generally the same. Yet intelligence is poor when environment is poor - idiographic explain this as it stress social influence, but nomothetic would ignore this factor.
In this world, there are many different individuals who are not only different in demographics but also different neurologically. Due to an immense amount of people it is important to first understand each individual, in order, to better understand them and to help them when it comes to certain areas such as education, the work force, and etc…. For this reason psychologists have aimed to further understand individuals through the use of psychological assessments. This paper aims to examine a particular assessment tool, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (Fifth Edition), which measures both intelligence and cognitive abilities (Roid, 2003). This assessment is usually administered by psychologists and the scores are most often used to determine placement in academics and services allotted to children and adolescents (despite their compatibility for adults) (Wilson & Gilmore, 2012). Furthermore before the investigation dives into the particulars of the test, such as its strengths and weakness’, it is best to first learn more about the intelligence scales general characteristics.
Most researchers believe that we are born with a certain intelligence or potential intelligence. They also believe that the intelligence we are born with is difficult to change. Psychologists use short-answer tests to assess one’s intelligence (Gardner papers). It was believed that intelligence was a single inherited thing. Human beings start out initially as a blank slate and could be trained to learn anything, provided that it was presented in an appropriate way (Multiple Intelligences and Education). Currently an “increasing number of researchers believe the opposite. Gardner defined intelligence as: “the ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in culture; a set ...
Verbal Intelligence; Non-verbal Intelligence; Concrete Reasoning; and Abstract Reasoning are several of the mental abilities that have been identified by psychologists (Santrock, 2013). Spearman’s thoughts were that intelligence is general cognitive ability that can be numerically expressed and measured.
Dictionaries add still more definitions: Funk & Wagnall’s defines intelligence as “The faculty of perceiving and comprehending meaning; mental quickness; active intellect; understanding” , while Webster’s defines it as “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations; the skilled use of reason.” While some of these definitions are similar, none of them are exactly the same.
I do not think this on-line IQ test is a good predictor of a person’s future achievements. However, I do feel like they can be used in a positive way because they can help identify a persons strengths and weakness. Using the results of an IQ a teacher can help build on a child’s strengths or help a child be brought up to a certain level by using various teaching methods that the test helps identify (Myers p. 471). Therefore because of this an IQ test is a poor indictor of future achievement because a child can work to improve what...
While the IQ test is generally used and widely accepted they have been criticized for several different reasons. One is that the test by its nature measures how well a person does answering questions on paper. However it is well-known that not all forms of intelligence involve memorizing words or solving equations. Recently there has been a movement in psychology regarding something called EQ or emotional quotient. What this is saying that there should also be a rating for people that are particularly able to deal with other people and social situations. While someone that is very good at dealing with people and real world situations is generally not regarded as being intelligent in a stereotypical manner there hasn’t been any definition of intelligence proposed which have ruled out this particular form of intelligence.
The study of IQ and how it operates in the education field has been argued through various theories. Theorist such as Howard Garner, R...
On the ‘nature’ side of the debate is the psychometric approach, considered to be the most dominant in the study of intelligence, which “inspired the most research and attracted the most attention” (Neisser et al. 1996, p. 77). It argues that there is one general (‘g’) factor which accounts for intelligence. In the 1880s, Francis Galton conducted many tests (measuring reaction times to cognitive tasks), (Boundless 2013), in order to scientifically measure intelligence. These tests were linked to the eugenic breeding programme, which aimed to eliminate biologically inferior people from society. Galton believed that as intelligence was inherited, social class or position were significant indicators of intelligence. If an individual was of high social standing, they would be more intelligent than those of a lower position. However he failed to show any consistency across the tests for this hypothesis, weakening his theory that social class correlated with intelligence. Nevertheless, his creation of the intelligence test led many to continue to develop...