Reliability and Validity: Complex Issues Concerning the Applicability of Intelligence IQ Tests
With the development of statistical and other quantitative tools andmethods that quantify abstract and qualitative information, the late 19thcentury, where subsistence to empiricism is evident, have led to theproliferation of quantifiable measures, called tests, that seek to state insimpler terms an individual's skills, knowledge, and characteristics(personal attributes). One prominent example of these measures areintelligence tests, which is a measure used to determine an individual's"general mental capability to reason, solve problems, think abstractly,learn and understand new material, and profit from past experience" The development of intelligence tests originated way back in the late19th century, when Sir Frances Galton introduced the eugenics movement,which attempts to discriminate between 'superior' and 'inferior'physiological and psychological characteristics of people. Methods andconcepts concerning intelligence testing had improved in the 20th century,when Alfred Binet formulated the first intelligence test and was laterrefined by William Stern's intelligence quotient (IQ) test, defined as "anindividual's mental age divided by chronological age (multiplied
can have deleterious effects for individuals withSLD. Furthermore, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's book, The BellCurve, serves as evidence that indeed, there is a strong relationshipbetween heredity and intelligence, attesting that within large groups, IQtesting is efficient and "apparent"; however, "predictions about anyindividual based exclusively on the person's IQ is virtually useless. Addressing this issue, "culture fair tests" weredeveloped, which is an intelligence test that is not "culturally biased,"or takes in consideration the individual's cultural/ethnic orientation. he thinks we can breed for intelligence"(301). Contemporary studies on culture fair intelligence tests, such as Warner et. Although IQ tests have been considered as accurate indetermining individual mental capacity, there are also contentionsregarding intelligence tests' ability to accurately determine anindividual's mental capacity regardless of his/her culture and environment. Other tests of intelligence developed thereafter are theWechsler scale, developed by David Wechsler, which is an intelligence testthat involves both verbal and non-verbal IQ of an individual. Arthur Jensen's study on the level of intelligence showed that"lower intelligence probably was the reason that African Americans do notperform as well as Whites. " Indeed, the history of intelligence tests and an analysis ofcontemporary studies on intelligence testing across cultures, show howexternal factors, such as the cultural, social, and even biological(genetic) environment must be acknowledged in formulating measures thatseek to determine and assess intelligence levels of individuals, whatevertheir cultural/ethnic membership is. Jensen's study onAfrican-Americans vis-A -vis white Americans' intelligence is one case inpoint, where cultural differences may abound, influencing the person'slevel of intelligence. 's (2002) study on Specific Learning Disability (SLD) tests acrossethnic groups, show this dilemma of the culturally-biased IQ tests.
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