Intelligence Testing Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man seeks

Stephen Jay Gould's The Mismeasure of Man seeks to demonstrate both the scientific weaknesses and political contexts of biological determinist arguments. As a side argument, Gould attempts to show that science is objective only if performed properly, like anything else. In order for scientists to obtain this all essential objectivity, he shows that they must first "shuck the constraints of their culture, and view the world as it really is" (21).

The primary focus of The Mismeasure of Man is intelligence testing. Long shrouded in pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo, IQ testing has been used to culturally oppress the mental underdogs who occupy the lower rungs of the social ladder. The essential tragedy of such thinking is that biological determinist arguments with regard to IQ are limiting to the individual. As Gould states, "biological determinism is ... 'a theory of limits.' It takes the current status of groups as a measure of where they should be and must be ... " (28).

Finally, Gould explains that he is not a professional debunker, or one who gets pleasure out of tearing down the edifice of biological determinism without replacing it with another classification scheme. However, Gould argues, the proponents of biological determinism have based their structure on major fallacies which can not, and should not, be expected to support the premise that genes matter more than culture.

Cultural change, and our adaption to it, is contrasted sharply with evolutionary change,

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ectivity is almost comical now, given that we have a safe distance from such "research." In an effort to explain the larger than expected sizes of some criminal brains, Broca had a yarn to spin. Gould recounts this fabrication: The large size of many criminal brains was a constant source of bother to craniometricians and criminal anthropologists. Broca tended to dismiss it with his claim that sudden death by execution precluded the diminution that long bouts of disease produced in many honest men. In addition, death by hanging tended to engorge the brain and lead to spuriously high weights. (94) As craniometry lost its appeal in the 1900s due to its sheer inability to "work," determinists switched their allegiance to intelligence testing. The IQ test brings Gould to his most conspicuous target. Although the intelligence test is currently out of favor, it has not been abandoned entirely. In 1904, Alfred Binet was commissioned to develop a set of tasks that would rank children according to their potential need for special education. His scale was based on practical tasks that the children might be expected to perform at certain ages. Gould tells us that Binet's work was not a scientific threat in itself, because Binet r

Category: Psychology - I