Controversies Over Intelligence Tests

A great deal of educational thought and research has been devoted to the study of intelligence quotient, or IQ. All research points to the fact that all intelligence tests are designed to do one thing: differentiate people. In addition, since IQ tests differ widely, it can be said that they differentiate people according to different measurements. Therefore, intelligence is not one static construct, invariable across all populations. Ultimately, intelligence has to be seen as the measurement defined by a particular intelligence test. One can be sure that differentiation is the basis for the test, and the test may even be a valid predictor of future academic or vocational success; however, one cannot be sure that the test will ultimately be good for the individual taking it, or society in general.

In fact, IQ tests may be detrimental to individuals and society, if they are used to perpetuate the inequities of the dominant culture, or status quo, over minorities. The controversy continues in the behavioral and social sciences over whether differences in IQ test scores among students of different classes (or cultures, or social groups) are the result of genetic deficits (nature) or of cultural deprivation (nurture). Advocates of each position take for granted the importance of IQ tests.

A conclusion based on a review of current IQ literature combines both the importance of the IQ test with a cultural reality, and such a conclusion has pragmatic consequences: Even if a

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nd performance items that were infused for the most part with what Spearman (1904) already had begun to identify as a 'general' intelligence factor (subsequently labeled 'g'), and such items still make up today's tests for the measurement of intelligence" (1009). Conceiving of intelligence as a single entity, whether general or specific (Spearman also thought each specific task required a specific intellectual ability as well, called "s" factors), is bad science, yet a current journal article is advocating the notion. If IQ is as perplexing and variable as we know it to be, logic would dictate that singling out one factor would be misguided. Finally, Matarazzo betrays a naivety not in keeping with what we know about the psychological and social sciences--he believes that a single theory of intelligence will bring the theories of many different camps together. As Matarazzo states, "I do not believe it is anticipating too much to expect, that, in the next several decades, one may see an integration into a single model of brain functioning . . . the work of [those] proposing new theories of intelligence with . . . biological substrates of intelligence" (1013). One of the warnings given about the misuse of IQ data appears as a

Category: Psychology - C