IQdebateh

4. Synthesis and extensions

By unpacking the debate between Lewontin and Jensen, the following themes should emerge: 1. There are no simple explanation about genetics and socially significant traits, especially regarding average racial differences. Therefore: be skeptical of anyone who proposes such an explanation (i.e., scrutinize where they are coming from). 2. There are researchers who have detailed often technical cases to make (even if their conclusion is quite simple, e.g., Jensen believes it is plausible that genes account for (average) racial differences), and their case can be teased out into its components (in this case, with help from Lewontin, who can handle the technical side and has views about the political/social implications and underpinnings of the science). 3. What can we do (on the basis of the science) is worth asking of all sides. (Jensen thinks we have tried and failed to equalize education so educate people according to their innate capacities [actually, educate people according to the typological generalization about the average differences between the races]; Lewontin thinks educational professionals have not tried very hard and when society is committed to equalizing education ways will be found.)

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 * At many places in the genes & intelligence debate assumptions have to be made which are not dictated by what natural reality is like. E.g. conceiving of intelligence as one thing vs. a diversity of types of intelligence; measuring intelligence on one scale vs. a diversity of scales vs. not measuring it at all.
 * Many definitions of intelligence(s) exist; they differ along many dimensions: innate <-> trained; unchangeable <-> changeable; single <-> multiple; testable <-> not; can be used to enhance life possibilities <-> to restrict; predictive of socially valued outcomes <-> not; inside person <-> in relationships. If you choose one, e.g., what IQ tests measure, and study its heritability or its alterability, you then have to show whether and how this extends to other definitions of intelligence.

5. Connections and resources, e.g., annotations to additional readings American Psychological Association (2001). "New model of IQ development accounts for ways that even small environmental changes can have a big impact, while still crediting the influence of genes." [|www.apa.org/releases/iqmodel.html] (Apr. 15). > Introduces a model that allows for both the increase in average IQ test scores each generation (the Flynn effect) and the high heritability of IQ test scores.

Taylor, P. J. (2014) Nature-Nurture? No: Moving beyond the gaps in the sciences of variation and heredity" Arlington, MA: The Pumping Station—from page 41: > [Lindman says] “the observed differences between schools” when referring to the observed differences between averages for schools. It is still commonplace to hear typological expressions of the kind “men are taller than women,” “men tend to be taller than women,” or “men are, on average, taller than women.” Some might dispute the label typological, saying that the implicit variation is understood. They might see little to be gained by wordier statements that make the variation explicit, such as, “the variation among men’s heights centers at a point that is greater than the center of the variation among women’s heights,” or “the variation among men’s heights and the variation among women’s heights overlap, but some of the men’s variation lies to the right of the women’s variation and some of the women’s lies to the left of the men’s.” However, can we be sure that it is simply linguistic convenience to use simple expressions that put group or class membership first and deviation as implicit or secondary? If not, the wordier, non-typological alternatives help keep in view the possibility that the factors underlying the pattern in the data could vary among men and women and need not include factors solely possessed by one sex or the other..."

Woodhead, M. (1988). "When psychology informs public policy." American Psychologist 43(6): 443-454. > Where Jensen concluded that early childhood education had not boosted IQ test scores in the 1960s, subsequent research showed that in the longer term many other socially desirable measures, such as high school graduation, did improve.

5b. [|Online forum], through which students can provide suggestions and resources for revising the chapter 5c. Adaptation of themes from the chapter to students' own projects of engaging your audience in learning or critical thinking about biology in its social context: Suggestions for how to do that:
 * 1) Identify writing where people speak about differences between groups as if everyone in each group can be treated as if they were at the group average.  (See examples above from Taylor 2014.)
 * 2) Brainstorm with instructor