Week 4 Assignment: Analyze an Article

Statistics: IQ
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Question 3
The essay explores the statistical data found in the study of the Flynn Effect and also discuss why the intelligence quotients of different ethnic groups tend to differ.
The Flynn Effect aims at describing the phenomena of the intelligence of human beings. It has also been described as a long-term trend towards rising scores on intelligence quotient tests resulting to norms obsolescence. The Flynn Effect is attributed to James Flynn, a psychologist who sought to study the growth in the average intelligence quotient scores in various countries like the United States.
Statistical data.
The article “Are We Smarter than Our Parents?” relates back to the year 1800’s when Alfred Binet created a test to help children in need, and it involved taking the child’s mental age and dividing it by 100 so as to define their intelligence quotients. The article also sought to study the awareness of individuals regarding the controversy that was surrounding the reliability of the intelligence quotient scores. The study questions involved whether the intelligence quotient tests measured intelligence or something different and whether the intelligence quotients could be measured by other factors such as education or environmental conditions if at all the intelligence quotient test was able to measure intelligence.
The statistical data that was found in relation to the above questions showed that intelligence quotients could be able to be distributed in the normal curve with a standard deviation of 16 and a mean of 16.

This gives a psychologist a system of classifying whether participants are intellectually deficient or intellectually superior i.e. 70< Intelligence Quotient >130. This is similar to the rule of 68-95-99.7 which states that about 68% of the scores lie within one standard of the mean implying that 100% – 68% = 32% of the scores are more than one standard deviation from the mean. By the use of the 68-95-99.7 rule, a researcher can be able to state that about 68 percent of a population have an intelligence quotient score of 80-120, while 32 percent have an intelligent quotient of 70 to 110.
Intelligence varies among different people, but the most important thing is to understand that all races and ethnic groups have equal abilities in terms of unleashing intelligence and therefore no race is intellectually superior to the other. The argument of a difference existing in the intelligence quotients among different ethnic groups is certainly true only on the basis of the environmental factors that surround them. Such environmental factor may include education opportunities, poverty, and even social, economic factors. According to Kaufman (2010), the use of the Dickens and Flynn’s social multiplier effect can be used to collaborate the intelligence quotient results of ethnic groups. Dickens and Flynn take into account the importance of the culture of people in influencing acumen through educating and nurturing of people. The Flynn Effect links intelligence of various race and ethnicity to environmental factors, and a good example is an athleticism. In fact, athletes will with no doubt score higher in matters relating to athleticism, an attribute that has been influenced by the environment and genetics. With more generations to come and with increased training for the sport, in an increase in the mean scores in the tests of athletics will be observed. Finally, in light of the Flynn effect, there is no convincing evidence of the claims of ethnic groups being a variable of concern in evaluating the difference in IQ.