Thinking, Language, and Intelligence 3 Flashcards
intellectual disability/intellectual developmental disorder
neurodevelopment disorder, defined in several ways:
1. person exhibits deficits in mental abilities, typically associated with IQ score approx two standard deviations below the mean on the normal curve
2. person’s adaptive behavior is severely below a level appropriate for the person’s age
3. limitations begin in developmental period
occurs in about 1% of population
adaptive behavior
skills that allow people to live independently, such as being able to work at a job, communicate well with others, and grooming skills
DSM
diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
levels of severity based on level of adaptive functioning and level of support the individual requires
disability based on deficits in intellectual functioning, determined by standardized tests of intelligence and clinical assessment, which impact adaptive functioning across three domains
three domains
conceptual, social, and practical
removes specific age criteria
mild intellectual disability
may not be recognized as having deficits in the conceptual domain until reach school age, need some social and living assistance
most people with mental disabilities are this
profound intellectual disability
limited ability to learn beyond simple matching and sorting tasks
poor communication skills
totally dependent on others
physical or sensory impairments
categorizations of intellectual disabilities
milk, moderate, severe, profound
causes of intellectual disability
unhealthy living conditions, inadequate brain development, poverty health risks, down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, fragile X syndrome, lack of oxygen, damage in womb, accidents during childhood, etc
fetal alcohol syndrome
condition that results form exposing a developing embryo to alcohol
intelligence levels range from below average to levels associated with intellectual disability
fragile X syndrome
individual (more frequently male) has a defect in a gene on the X chromosome of the 23rd pair, leading to a deficiency in a protein needed for brain development
mild to severe or profound disability
gifted
individuals who fall on the upper end of the normal curve, above IQ 30
geniuses
if IQ falls above 140-145
less than 0.5% of the population
terman
1921 study of the termites
study gifted/genius kids
early findings show gifted kids average physically and socially
not more susceptible to mental illness, more resistant in fact
highest IQs had some adjustment problems as kids
termites later results
typically successful adults
more successful termites more consistent sense of self and vice versa
termites
first truly longitudinal study
successful adults more goal oriented, more persistent in pursuing goals, and more self confident
flaws in termite study
acquired participants by getting recommendations from teachers—not random selection, mostly white, urban, middle class kids merman interfered in lives of his kids also difference in parents of smarter kids
joan freeman
gifted children grown up
similar longitudinal study, book
finding was that gifted kids who are pushed to achieve more at younger ages grow up to be disappointed and unhappy
being gifted does not always lead to success
emotional intelligence
accurate awareness of and ability to manage one’s own emotions to facilitate thinking and attain specific goals, and the ability to understand what others feel
first introduced by salovey and mayer, popularized by goleman
not same as having high self esteem or being optimistic
self-control and empathy , persistence, motivation, etc
emotional intelligence study
better ability to guess what person was feeling when wrote passage, higher SAT score, more emotional intelligence
higher emotional intelligence = smarter, better social relationships, more success
natural experiments
circumstances existing in nature that can be examined to understand some phenomenon
twin studies
natural experiments studying twins to see if intelligence is nature or nurture
more genetic relatedness
stronger correlation between IQ scores of those people
genetically identical twins
correlation of 0.86
means environment plays some role in determining intelligence
heritability
proportion of change in IQ within a population that is caused by genetic factors
for intelligence is around .5 or 50%
impact of genetic factors
increases with age, set of genes or genetic factors stay same
effects of same set of genes become larger with increasing age
similar environmental influences
become less important over time
20% of variance in intelligence by age 11 or 12
important about heritability
estimates of heritability apply only to changes in IQ within a group of people, not to the individual people themselves
can only apply within a group not across groups
flynn effect
theory that IQ scores are steadily increasing over time, from generation to generation, in modernized countries
the bell curve
1994 herrnstein and murray
say IQ inherited, people from lower economic levels are poor because they are unintelligent
but made statistical errors and ignore effects of environment and culture, and assumed intelligence highly influenced by genetics
stereotype threat
just being aware of negative stereotypes can result in an individual scoring poorly on intelligence tests
studies contradicting bell curve
no significant relationship between ethnicity and IQ
