Bell curve squeed9/6/2023 Is the existence of g upon which IQ is based a given reality? Herrnstein and Murray do not even attempt to justify their assumption that Spearman’s g has construct validity, i.e. This is referred to as the “Flynn effect’ and is not well understood. the IQ scores of poor black children adopted into affluent and intellectual homes, and the well documented observation that IQ scores have steadily risen (in the US and other technologically advanced countries) at a rate of 3 points per decade since 1940 (i.e. However, these authors down play the strong circumstantial evidence for the malleability, as opposed to immutability, of IQ scores, e.g. Herrnstein and Murray acknowledge the empirical fact that one can not prejudge any one black person because so many blacks score higher than the average white IQ score. By analogy, the well documented 15 point IQ difference between American whites and blacks permits no automatic conclusion that truly equal opportunities for blacks would not equal or surpass the white IQ average. As Gould suggests, there is no question but that the average height of Indian males from a nutritionally deprived village would significantly increase in a few generations with improved nutrition. Let us consider body height (a much more inheritable trait than IQ). within a white population) to between groups differences (e.g., differences between whites and blacks). Much in the way that a genetically based hearing defect could be altered by a hearing aid.Īll researchers in this area (including Herrnstein and Murray) acknowledge the problems of generalizing from within group differences in intelligence (i.e. Thus even if one were to accept premises 1-3 as true but 4 is false then programs, contrary to Herrnstein and Murray’s view, designed to boost IQ would be quite reasonable. If any of these premises are false then their entire argument disintegrates (Gould, 1994). (2) capable of rank ordering people in a linear order Herrnstein and Murray’s assessment of race and class differences, while not inherently illogical, rest on 4 very questionable premises which they simply do not discuss much less defend. Rather than critique Miller’s deeply flawed review, I will direct my criticism towards a few of the main flaws in the Bell Curve itself and invite readers to review the primary source material themselves. I think it premature to discuss such social policy in the absence of a more careful consideration of the assumptions driving such social policy. Miller, a professor or finance and economics, evidences no understanding of the logical and statistical flaws, or questionable assumptions upon which the Bell Curve is based and yet is willing to engage in a discussion of eugenics etc. Miller’s (1997) review and his extension of the arguments offered in the Bell Curve reflect quite deeply this “depressing temper of our time”. As Stephen Jay Gould points out in the November, 1994 New Yorker (based on his book The Mismeasure of Man) that “the Bell Curve holds no new arguments or compelling data but cashes in on the depressing temper of our time.” I would suggest the E. It has been seized upon by those with a predisposition to belief that heredity is the central and determining factor in explaining race and class differences. Herrnstein and Murray’s Bell Curve (1994) obtained a fair amount of publicity upon its release.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |