1. Culture and the Individual
Intelligence

2. Psychological Approaches: Intelligence
Spearman’s General Intelligence “g” = positively intercorrelated set of cognitive abilities that allow an individual to see relationships between things and to manipulate those relationships to solve problems.
Derived from giving people a lot of different achievement tests and finding that the scores were highly correlated, indicating that the abilities being tested were related to one another

3. Psychological Approaches: Intelligence
Cattell’s Dual Intelligence Model
Agrees with Spearman’s general definition of intelligence
Argued that g was actually made up of two types of abilities
Fluid Intelligence: The power to reason and use information
Peaks at around age 20 and then remains fairly constant until old age, when it declines
Crystalized Intelligence: Acquired skills and knowledge including knowledge about the best approaches for solving problems and the application of knowledge to specific domains. Continues to increase as we grow older.

4. Psychological Approaches: Intelligence
Gardiner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Intelligence = the ability to do things that other people value.
Seven Independent Types of Intelligence
Linguistic
Logical-Mathematical
Musical
Body/Kinesthetic
Spatial
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Individuals may be very good at some of these skills while not at
others.

5. Psychological Approaches: Intelligence
Vernon’s Vertical Levels of Intelligence Factors
Intelligence A = genetic potential for “g”
Intelligence B = phenotypic* demonstration of “g”
Intelligence C = performance on a specific test
Question: Is Intelligence C a predictor of
Intelligence A?
*The actual expression of genetic potential in individual traits and abilities.

6. Psychological Approaches to Cognition
Tests for Intelligence C
May not target important factors of Intelligence B
May be affected by cultural biases such as:
Language
Item content and format
Motivation
Speed
Testing context

7. Intelligence Testing Stanford/Binet Test: Alfred Binet in France.
The problem: to come up with a test that would distinguish between normal kids who were not doing well in school and those who were mentally retarded
Adapted in the United States by Lewis Terman at Stanford University.
Testing vocabulary knowledge, comprehension, recognition of absurdities, the ability to reproduce visual patterns etc.
Normed by age (as are all intelligence tests).
give the test to large numbers of students of different ages
determine at which age a typical student could answer it
IQ stands for intelligence quotient = 100 X Mental Age/Actual Age
So someone performing just at the level of the typical person of their age
has an IQ of 100.
Designed to predict school performance.

8. Wechsler Intelligence Tests
Three main types
Wechsler Pre-school and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) years
Wechsler Intelligence scale for Children (WISC) years
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) - 16 years and over
First version was in 1939, revised in 1955, 1981, 1997.
Standardised (1997) on a sample of 1,800 U.S. subjects,
ranging from 16 to 74 years of age,
9 different age groups,
equal numbers of men and women
white and non­white subjects in line with census figures.
four geographic U.S. regions
six occupational categories.
balance of urban and rural subjects.
The mean I.Q. for each age group on this test is 100
There are different adaptations of the scale by country, eg. Australian adaptation of WAIS-R (1989). 

9. Content of the Weschler
Verbal WAIS scales (6 subtests)
1. Information: 29 questions - a measure of general knowledge.
2. Subjects are given sets of digits to repeat initially forwards then backwards.
3. Vocabulary: Define 35 words. It correlates very highly with Full Scale IQ
4. Arithmetic: 14 mental arithmetic brief story type problems.
5. Comprehension: 16 questions which focus on issues of social awareness.
6. Similarities: Subjects are asked to say how two seemingly dissimilar items might in fact be similar.

10. Content of the Weschler
Performance WAIS scales (5 subtests)
7. Picture Completion: 20 small pictures that all have one vital detail missing.
8. Picture Arrangement: 10 sets of small pictures to be arrange them into a logical sequence.
9. Block Design: putting sets of blocks together to match patterns on cards.
10. Digit Symbol: Involves copying a coding pattern.
11. Object Assembly: Four small jig-saw type puzzles.

11. Kinds of Intelligence Tests
Culture Bound – this is most tests
EG Prologue is to epilogue as soup is to __________.
2. When you go to the store for bread and the grocer says they are out, what do you do next?
Culture Fair – do not allow for comparison
Intelligence should be measured by how well people solve problems in their own environments
EG. Micronesian seamen can navigate extremely accurately using only stars and sea currents
Culture Free – is this possible?
In the 1960’s & 70’s Alternate Racial IQ
The Chitling Intelligence Test
Native American Intelligence Test
The Original Australian Test of Intelligence

12. Racist Use of IQ Tests Racial differences in brain size
Forced sterilization of women with “low IQ’s” until 1972 in California
Jensen, Hernstein, Murray, Rushton
Use ethnic differences in IQ scores to argue that people from different races have different intelligence potentials
The belief that IQ is 80% hereditary
Rushton Ranks Races (Asian, European, African )
Hernstein and Murray - The Bell Curve
Underprivileged are so because of lower IQ’s which are genetically determined
IQ is going down in the U.S. because of higher birth rates among individuals with lower IQ’s
Social Darwinism

13. Rejection of Racist IQ Theories
Within group differences genetically determined, but between group differences environmentally determined
IQ is more affected by environmental factors in some groups than others
Environmental factors that depress IQ are more prevalent in groups with lower IQ’s
Negatively biased items apply to those who score lower IQ’s
Interindividual differences in genetics are larger than intergroup differences in genetics

14. Rejection of Racist IQ Theories
Clearly environmental factors are extremely influential.

15. Deficiency vs. Difference
Deficiencies cause the failure of intellectual development to meet some kind of external standard (eg. IQ scores, school achievement, middle class values and standards)
Kinds of deficiences:
Genetic potential
Nutrition and physiological development
Family structure/support
Standard language forms
Exposure to stimulation, problem-solving
Schooling
Social disruption
Focus on performance and content rather than competence and process

16. Theories about Deficiencies
Amounts and types of mothering
Types of play
The Culture of Poverty (Oscar Lewis)
Blaming the victims
Perpetuating powerlessness and dependence by making outside standards the goal

17. Deficiency Interventions
What do you do about deficiencies?
The missing things must be provided from outside the group.
Programs to correct deficiencies Head Start Programs
School nutrition programs
Social service programs
School programs
Attempt to get children middle class experiences so that they will not be “deficient” in those areas
Homogenizing diversity

18. Deficiency Interventions
In the U.S.:
25% of Children below the poverty line
25-30% of children in single parent households below the poverty line
Programs that last 2-3 years are less effective in long term change than those lasting 6-7 years
Most effective are strong educational emphasis, trained teachers, low student-teacher ratio.

19. Differences Differences do not imply better or worse
Different experiences result in different kinds of abilities
Perceptual experiences
Kinesthetic experiences
Magical beliefs
Linguistic/Conceptual experiences
EGs Hawaiian children learn better in groups
2. Black English is a full language with its own grammar

20. Traditional Ethnotheories about Intelligence
Cross Cultural Studies point to two kinds of intelligence
1. Technical intelligence
Performance on individualized tasks
2. Social intelligence
Ability to get along with others
Kinds of contributions that are made to the group
Sense of responsibility and self-motivated social contributions
Information learned at school is only intelligent if it is practically useful in a group setting

21. Culture-Specific Definitions of Intelligence
Lakkal, West Africa
Given by God at birth
Shows itself at 7 or when can count to 10
Understands many things
Has a good memory
Is obedient
Does what is expected
Displays respect for elders
Obugeze, West Africa
Wisdom
Social Skills
Slowness
Stability
Cautiousness
Friendlieness
Swiss Alps (Traditional Rural)
Same as above but add modesty