Investigating racial differences in intelligence: the minnesota case article review

Article Summaries

According to Scarr and Richard, the influence of intelligence is due to genetics and environmental variables that are difficult to segregate. Psychologists often argue about the nature and the nurture of genetic variation fixes in the human behavior (Scarr and Richard 262). Some offer that genetic differences are negating to change in behavior. This belief has limitation since it fails to distinguish the environmental and the genetic sources of individual differences in behavior. In this case, one is not in a position to assess the impact of heredity in behavioral domains since all people have a gene complement expressed over development.
Children from adoptive families demonstrate correlation that is genetically unbiased from the environments they belong. This provides psychologists with an opportunity to measure the impact of the environment on the well-being of the children. The adoption case of Minnesota tends to measure Intelligence Quotient of different adopted children to access their development. In another related case, psychologists could assess different environments impact on the children development. The black and the interracial results reveal a high sore than white counterparts in disregard on the period of adoption. The assessment uses education level to test the intelligence in the various groups of adopted children.
This result shows a correlation between the parents and their adopted children in the selective placement by the agencies. There is also a resemblance in intelligence measured in this group. The use of selective placement enhances correlation between the natural parents and their adopted children. There is a 40 to 70 percent variances in intelligence quotient observed that is due to genetic differences (Scarr and Richard 264). The adoption case performs a test on the adolescent children that displays a low correlation as compared to young children. There is no genetics resemblance in this group since at this age group there is peer influence and liberty to make own decisions. In conclusion, young children resemble each other intellectually and share the same rearing environment. Adolescents are free to select their own environments.

Social Learning Theory: Karl Smith Case

Karl is a patient who attends therapy to cure his ailing intellectual problem. The practitioner carries out the therapy in trial and error to the problem’s unique nature. Diagnostic test carried out include Incomplete Sentences Blank (ISB), Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT), and the Rorschach to gain some idea on Karl’s background. These tests prove that the patient has poor communication and mental skills (Phares and James 23). The psychologist was in a quagmire on the kind of treatment to administer since psychologically the patient could not express himself. The patient was stressed and sad who had passion to accomplish something worthwhile in his life.
According to the psychologist, the patient was not suffering from psychotic or neurotic. Karl could not vividly recall his past life. There was indiscreet communication between Karl and other family members. He joined the military vaguely to fulfill a noble cause in his life. Apart from communicating with his mother, Karl had a poor social interaction (Phares and James 25). Some psychologist offer that this problem emanates from people desire for recognition is higher than their behavior in life. Karl’s life demonstrates a failure to receive affection and recognition as demanded by other people in the society. To avert this problem the psychologist has to perform therapy to assist the patient’s behavior. The psychologist has to support the patient appropriate behavior and to stimulate his social interaction. This therapy has the potential of solving this problem it entails a learning process of the patients behavior and feelings.
The psychologist suggested that Karl had to be responsive in the social world. He had to learn to initiate a conversation and develop acquaintances. This could create self-confidence in Karl and in every level; the psychologist had to encourage the patient (Phares and James 27). In an ideal situation, Karl could achieve success in creating social interaction and securing employment. His success had limitation since there was an inherent stalemate in the progressive behavior. In conclusion, the learning theory demonstrates that maintaining personal control is vital in a person’s life.

Curing Ills in the Society

The government focus in 1960 was predominantly poverty eradication to alleviate human suffering (Winter 132). The government sought to improve the minority groups’ way of living by creating new opportunities for them. Psychologists chose to conduct a research to investigate how hunger influences the behavior of people in the society. In the research, a group of people experienced food deprivation of certain meals throughout the day. This research attest to the fact that people rate themselves as hungry as they ought to just before the mealtime. Psychologists apply the ego involvement system to investigate the arousal of motives in people and its influence in behavior. This system proves that people remain earnest in their effort to achieve their objective in life.
Highly motivated people perform better at challenges and develop tactical skills of doing things. High achievement motivation is the key that drives innovation in the society in the realization of a better product or service in the society (Winter 140). Motivated people have the interest to alleviate their own suffering that will generate wealth and stimulate the economic growth. Motivated people need appropriate training to access success. Education equips people in the face of daunting tasks to develop strategies to counter the problems. For people to achieve their objective they need empowerment in form of training that acts as a motivation.
The power motive syndrome drives people to suppress the entire workforce since they act impatiently and erupt in anger in case of frustrations. This syndrome is closely associated with cardiovascular diseases since they release stress hormone that damages the immune system.

The Role of Language in gender Development

In the recent past, the Feminist movement cited sexual bias in language use and advocated for equal payment. Students’ essays that contain characters often have sexism in language (Parks and Roberton 235). Male tend to write about male subjects and females as well. “ His” is widely accepted grammatical as gender –neutral but psychologist refutes this claim. Language virtually ignores the gender-role development.
Psychologists suggest a model of sex role in learning. This model consist a set of sex-role schemas. In the first instance, the child learns to label different labels in the society such as mother and father. The child can learn these terms between the ages of 18 to 24 months (Parks and Roberton 236). The embodiment of features such hairstyles, games, and clothing are fundamentally taught at this stage. Some psychologist critic this model in that it organizes a perception that affects processing of information in the society. In this regard, children between the age of 5 and 6 years distort sex-oriented pictures (Parks and Roberton 237).
Experiments carried out by psychologists in schools cite that majority of children perceive “ he” and “ his” as grammatically correct. In gender-neutral instances, “ he” can refer to both males and females. The first, third, and fifth graders offer that “ he” denotes male. Only a small percentage stated otherwise in this group. The elementary school children use “ he” in gender-neutral context and do not offer reasons for doing so. Majority of these children do not comprehend that “ he” can refer to both male and female genders. The grade girls have less confidence than boys do and this phenomenon contributes to language use. The first graders normally use “ he” unconsciously shaped by the sexist language. This group of children has stereotype ideas about adult occupation such as firefighters or mechanics. In conclusion, there is a tendency for people to think of male in the use of the “ he” term in the gender-neutral context.

Human Attachment: The Case of Primates

Scientist has been in pursuant of different hypothesis that lead to arguments and counter arguments that divert any objective. Scientists have undertaken research more than 40 years in their earnest effort to understand the rhesus monkeys (Suomi et al 356). The research involves learning the abilities of monkeys since birth through adolescence to adult life. The scientists have instituted a breeding program for rearing the subjects that is separate from their mothers. The monkeys have diapers in their cages and they develop strong attachment to it. Upon removal of the diaper, the monkeys are greatly disturbed. This program encompasses the surrogate mother to measure the relative strength of body contact. Baby monkeys could cling to their mothers in assurance of total support and social attachment. This fact illustrates that human crave more affection and not only milk as they grow and develop.
The scientific experiment later on permitted more variables and held the contact comfort constant to make observations. The infant rhesus monkey prefers a warm surrogate than a cool surrogate. The comparison between the real and the surrogate mother proves the following: The real mother can supply milk and eliminate non-nutritional sucking (Suomi et al 356). The real mother trains infants to comprehend communication and responds to her infant needs. The real mother is efficient in the regulation of infant play that generates age-mate love. Maternal love demonstrates a crucial antecedent to the development of peer love. The female monkeys exhibit a lot of interest in the infants and establish contact with the babies. Normal monkeys achieve learning performances that is better than those in the laboratory are. In conclusion, normal monkeys portray evidence in self-confidence, self-assured and fearless than their counterparts.

The Knowledge about Intelligence

Norman Frederiksen began his carrier in psychology early in life. Before studying the course in college, he had read some manuscripts related to the topic. Norman learnt sources of motivation for various kind of behavior and the flow of instinct such as hunger. He was in pursuant of educational psychology and was keen to learn intelligence facts. Joy Paul (JP) mentored Norman in various disciplines he had interest in such as attention, affection, and psychological judgment. JP main focus was intelligence; he contributed to the model of intelligence (Frederksen 446). Norman got permanent employment in Princeton University and was in the faculty of social psychology. This faculty attracted a high competition and Norman moved to intelligence tests.
During World War II, Norman had his first opportunity to learn intelligence tests (Frederksen 446). The Navy contacted the intelligence department to make for them proper assignments of recruits to service schools. Additionally this department could improve the instruction on the service schools. Norman later landed in the gunners mate and that department of the navy had various challenges. This is because one must not only make adjustment to improve the guns performance but also assembling and disassembling guns. Norman later on travelled to BuPers to assist in the development of test taught in that institution. From this institution, Norman got involved in another military project in Alabama. In this institution, Norman had to make assessment recommendation on the instruction at the Command and Staff school.
Norman had to assess principal’s work in the elementary schools. This entailed listening to the school board meetings recordings. Norman together with his team formulated multiple version of formulating hypotheses in institutions. In conclusion, Intelligence testing contains restrictions to problems presented on paper and scored by a machine.

Works Cited

Frederiksen, Norman. ” Toward A Broader Conception of Human Intelligence.” American Psychologist 41. 4 (1986): 445-452
Parks, Janet, and Roberton Mary Ann. ” Attitudes toward Women Mediate the Gender Effect on Attitudes toward Sexist Language1.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 28. 3 (2004): 233-239.
Phares, E. Jerry, and James T. Lamiell. ” Internal-External Control, Interpersonal Judgments Of Others In Need, And Attribution Of Responsibility.” Journal of Personality 43. 1 (1975): 23-38.
Scarr, Sandra, and Richard A. Weinberg. ” The Minnesota Adoption Studies: Genetic Difference and Malleability.” Child Development 54. 2 (1983): 260-267.
Suomi, Stephen J., Frank C. P. Van der Horst, and René Van der Veer. ” Rigorous Experiments on Monkey Love: An Account of Harry F. Harlow’S Role in the History of Attachment Theory.” Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science 42. 4 (2008): 354-369.
Winter, David. ” The Contributions of David Mcclelland to Personality Assessment.” Journal of Personality Assessment 71. 2 (1998): 129-145.