Question

Answer the following questions in a minimum of 500 words total.  

Define Intelligence. Describe the influence of nature and nurture on intelligence: what is heritability? What do twin studies tell us about the importance of genetics on intelligence? What about how children who have been adopted and how their intelligence scores relate to their biological parents?

What are some environmental influences on intelligence?

Discuss gender differences in intelligence: do men or women have higher verbal memory? Nonverbal memory? Emotion-detecting ability? Math aptitude? Spatial ability? What does it mean to say men have greater variability in intelligence?

Finally, discuss stereotype threat and how that might affect scores on intelligence tests and in school.

Answer 1

Intelligence is the capacity and skill to acquire knowledge, planning, problem- solving, self-awareness, learning, emotional understanding, and reasoning.

The influence of nature and nurture on intelligence-

Heritability- It is a measure of how much genes and genetics influence variability in a trait.

Nature explains an individual's innate qualities in determining traits such as intelligence, as described by nativism. Nurture explains environmental factors and personal experience in determining behavioral traits, as described by approaches such as empiricism or behaviorism.

There was always a debate between the nature-nurture aspects of intelligence and other behavioral traits of an individual. Some philosophers such as Plato and Descartes argued that some traits are inborn have no influence of environment and nativists said that all the traits and behaviours are the result of inheritance. such Noam Chomsky said all children are born with an instinctive mental capacity that allows them to both learn and produce language.

Some philosophers such as John Locke suggested a concept of tabula rasa, which means a blank slate. This means people acquire everything through their experiences. This concept supported by empiricists and behaviorists that behaviors and attributes are the results of learning. Such as Watson explained that people can do anything regardless of their genetic constitution. So, there is no clear picture of the influence of nature or nurture. Many researchers said that behaviour is the product of genetics and the environment.

Twin studies tell us about the importance of genetics on intelligence-

Twin studies showed that correlation of intelligence among identical twins who reared together is approximately 0.80 to 0.90

The correlation of intelligence between identical twins who reared apart is approximately 0.70 -0.80.

The correlation of intelligence between fraternal twins of same-sex apart is approximately 0.50 -0.60.

The correlation of intelligence between fraternal twins of opposite sex apart is approximately 0.45 -0.50.

The correlation of intelligence among siblings who reared together is approximately 0.40 -0.45.

The correlation of intelligence among siblings who reared apart is approximately 0.20 -0.25.

The correlation of intelligence between parents and children who live together is approximately 0.40.

The correlation of intelligence between foster parents and children is approximately 0.20.