Introduction to Psychology

(Axel Boer) #1

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general population. Another study of young adolescents who had even higher IQs found that
these students ended up attending graduate school at a rate more than 50 times higher than that in
the general population (Lubinski & Benbow, 2006). [9]


As you might expect based on our discussion of intelligence, kids who are gifted have higher
scores on general intelligence (g). But there are also different types of giftedness. Some children
are particularly good at math or science, some at automobile repair or carpentry, some at music
or art, some at sports or leadership, and so on. There is a lively debate among scholars about
whether it is appropriate or beneficial to label some children as “gifted and talented” in school
and to provide them with accelerated special classes and other programs that are not available to
everyone. Although doing so may help the gifted kids (Colangelo & Assouline, 2009), [10] it also
may isolate them from their peers and make such provisions unavailable to those who are not
classified as “gifted.”


Sex Differences in Intelligence

As discussed in the introduction to Chapter 9 "Intelligence and Language", Lawrence Summers’s
claim about the reasons why women might be underrepresented in the hard sciences was based in
part on the assumption that environment, such as the presence of gender discrimination or social
norms, was important but also in part on the possibility that women may be less genetically
capable of performing some tasks than are men. These claims, and the responses they provoked,
provide another example of how cultural interpretations of the meanings of IQ can create
disagreements and even guide public policy. The fact that women earn many fewer degrees in
the hard sciences than do men is not debatable (as shown in Figure 9.9 "Bachelor’s Degrees
Earned by Women in Selected Fields (2006)"), but the reasons for these differences are.

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