Intelligence And Society Essay Research Paper IntelligenceIn

Intelligence And Society Essay, Research Paper

Intelligence

In society, people base their life on intelligence. They do everything possible to get ahead in life. To get ahead, they cheat each other, back stab, and commit many sinful acts. Also, they educate themselves so they are capable of doing whatever is required of them. Society is trying to always make themselves smarter. Are they trying to change something that they have no control over though. Intelligence is something that everybody has, but is something that is developed over time. The development of intelligence has many items that play a factor. For instance, environment and heredity both play a role in developing a person’s I.Q.

“Each of us are born with intelligence” (Lawler 15). With one’s intelligence, one finds outside issues exist in playing a role in their I.Q. For instance, the moment a baby is born factors are affecting that child’s I.Q. The baby does not have control over these factors, but they

still take an affect. The factors can range from the baby’s birth weight to the order in which the child was born. Loehlin, Lindzey, and Spuhler state that a child with “low-birth weight tend to have a lower I.Q.”(212). This is true because it is believed that if the child’s birth weight is low then the child must be slower at developing. Since a child is slow at developing, he will therefore have a lower I.Q. On the other end, “If you come from a large family, your I.Q. may go hand in hand with the position you were born. If you are the youngest your intelligence tends to be higher than the first born”(Pinter 530).

After the issues that one can’t control take effect, one needs to concentrate on his parental role in developing a child’s intelligence. “Parental education has no effect on a child until the ages of 2-5” (Lewis 107). When a child reaches this age point, the parents play a large role in the development of his intelligence. For instance, a child that comes from an environment that is uncaring, unlovable, and abusive tends to score lower on an I.Q. test. Put that same child into a different situation, by either adoption or foster care, or just a change of parental support, and that child performance increases. “I.Q. could be based on a range of environments, or lowered by lack of positive environmental feedback” (Loehlin, Lindzey, and Spuhler 103). Without positive feedback a child gives up. He gives up because he feels like he is a failure at what he is doing.

While the main focus on a child’s intelligence comes from the home, other influences also play a role. Pinter stated “By environmental influences we way mean very specific and narrow changes or else those factors of home and school” (94). At school, children learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. In addition to classes, school offers a good place to fellowship with others. During the fellowship, one is able to gain knowledge from other people. That fellowship though isn’t always a good thing. For example, suppose that everything the child hears throughout the day is not true. Then, that child becomes ignorant to the truth. All this happens because the child is bombarded with false information throughout the day. At some time the child will start believing that everything he hears is true.

With children balancing out each other’s intelligence in conversation, the need for it to be built up increases. “Children who get special attention tend to have higher I.Q.” (Loehlin, Lindzey, and Spuhler 112). This is where a child’s teacher plays a role in developing his intelligence. A teacher has the opportunity to “work and train a student by giving help [causing him to] be smarter” (Loehlin, Lindzey, and Spuhler 112). If teachers do not interact with their students, how can one expect the students to gain anything; by teachers helping, it shows love. That love closely relates to the parents’ role in child development. In addition, the child is with the teacher for the majority of the day. How the teacher and the child interact is a decisive factor in that child’s intelligence.

In addition to the teacher’s nature, the classes the teacher teaches takes a part in developing intelligence. Throughout one’s entire school career, the courses taken get more rigorous as one goes on. That should mean that when they finish their schooling, their intelligence should be at it’s highest. Pintner agrees when he stated “While schooling, the harder the courses taken are responsible for higher intelligence” (273). So why does not everyone just keep going to school so that everyone becomes a genius. That assumption only works in a fantasy world, because “the older you get the dumber or lower your I.Q. tends to be” (Pintner 307). This happens because with old age comes a lack of keen mental ability. This is seen in a familiar situation today. Take for instance elderly drivers, their ability is lacking in the their reflexes. This shows that when you increase in age things aren’t as good as they once were.

When one speaks about the topic of intelligence a question surfaces, that question is, are whites smarter than blacks. “ “Race” and “I.Q.” are terms which seemingly posses a clear and well defined meaning for millions of people” (Montague 1). When these two words are combined into “Race I.Q.” it causes people to do things they normally would not. A case in point, if one questions race I.Q. what keeps him