culture, race and intelligence

Question 1

what does Tomasello (2001) define culture as?

Answer 1

“the differentiate between human and animal intelligence”

Question 2

simply put, do cultural differences impact our intelligence?

Answer 2

yes.

Question 3

‘intelligence cannot be discussed without including cultural factors.’ - who said this and when?

Answer 3

Sternberg (2002).

Question 4

what are the issues with western conceptions? (2)

Answer 4

• most research is based on this which excludes other cultures
• test taking bias - western cultures are used to taking tests in the way that we test intelligence, other cultures are not.

Question 5

what is culture? (Barnouw, 1994)

Answer 5

“a set of attitutes, beliefs, values and behaviours shared by a group of people, communicated from one generation to the next”.

Question 6

what cross culture variations are there about what intelligence is? (US, Africa, Buddhust/hindu)

Answer 6

US - practical problem solving, verbal ability and social competence.
Africa - cooperativeness, social responsibility and obedience.
Biddhism - waking up, recognising and realising, determination, mental effort and even opinion.

Question 7

what test was once considered to be culture-fair but is now seen to be flawed?

Answer 7

Raven’s progressive matrices.

Question 8

what did lynn and vanhanan (2002) find in terms of international differences?

Answer 8

• international differences in IQ
  europe: croatia = 90, italy and the netherlands = 102.
  hong kong = 107, india = 81, south africa = 72.

Question 9

how valid are the findings of lynn and vanhanan (2002) of international differences?

Answer 9

• 104/185 countries did not provide data so data from neighboring countries were used to predict scores. this makes the data less reliable.
• a positive correlation exists between IQ and national income which could be a contributing factor in the differences in national income and economic growth

Question 10

why do international differences exist? (3)

Answer 10

• genetic predisposition?
• environment
• test bias

Question 11

what are the downsides of western tests?

Answer 11

• intelligence should be thought about as thinking ability independent of culture
• tests are good at showing differences across people that live similar lives, but less meaningful at comparing individuals with different life experiences.

Question 12

what does wober (1969) say about giving western tests to other cultures for testing?

Answer 12

any comparison can mean ‘how well can they do our tricks’.

Question 13

what race/ethnicity IQ differnences have been shown?

Answer 13

east asians = 106
white westerners = 100
african americans = 85
sub-saharan africans = 70

Question 14

what is race?

Answer 14

the term is difficult to define.

is it a biological fact? is there a genetically pure race?

Question 15

why might the idea of a genetically pure race be outdated now?

Answer 15

there has been so much migration that this might not exist anymore. the development of regional differences has occured.

Question 16

how can the idea of a pure race be criticised?

Answer 16

• all human beings belong to a single species
• ignores the role of migration
• there is no rationale for what determines race

Question 17

what might race be defined as

Answer 17

• a biological feature
• geographic distribution
• nationality
• a group linked by common descent or origin
• social construct

Question 18

what would anthropologists say that race is?

Answer 18

a socio-political phenomenon that is used to perpetuate differences

Question 19

what did massey (1980) find in terms of self-identification issues?

Answer 19

conducted a national study. found that 80% of participants who categorised themselves as another race were said to be white by the researcher

Question 20

what is the main issue with the concept of race?

Answer 20

there is no scientific basis for the concept of race - people do not agree on what classifies different races.

Question 21

what information did the bell curve (Herrstein and Murray, 1994) provide about racial differences in IQ in america?

Answer 21

• they found evidence of a cognitive elite.
• asian americans scored higher than white americans
  white americans scored higher than african americans by 15IQ points
  immigrants scored lower than residents

Question 22

what does the bell curve tell us?

Answer 22

that intelligence can be influenced by social, educational and economic factors?

Question 23

what does daley (2011) say to sum up the relationship between culture, race and intelligence?

Answer 23

a strong relationship between two weak constructs.

Question 24

what research is needed to move forward our understanding of this relationship?

Answer 24

• need to look further into stereotypes and environmental influences
• there is still an unclear understanding of why ID’s exist
• there is little biological basis for race which makes genetic explanations weak