Criminal Justice
“An Introduction to Hernstein & Murray’s The Bell Curve – A Macat Psychology Analysis”
https://youtu.be/T67Uvx46s4o
( the video on youtube is 3:09 minutes)
Prompt:
Hernstein & Murray evoke the idea of the bell curve to help justify their work. While the video does not explicitly state the underlying critique of “The Bell Curve”, it hints at it by showing that Hernstein & Murray’s theory on intelligence and IQ is primarily dependent on genetics. Moreover, the video goes on to say that individuals with poor genetics tend to live in poor areas, attend poor school, and ultimately have poor life outcomes (see the giraffe example).
Is there any bias in Hernstein & Murray’s theory surrounding why IQ is higher for some individuals and not others?
Your response should be 2 pages in APA format, 12pt font, 1″ margins, references page, etc. Cover page and abstract not required. . While the video can count as one source, this means you need to find additional sources to add detail and support to your answers. Look for real-world examples in the news, peer-reviewed journals, etc.
ANSWER
The Weaknesses of Herrnstein and Murray’s the Bell Curve Theory
Weaknesses of the theory
Herrnstein and Murray’s ideas on the Bell Curve presents a theory suggesting that the level of a person’s intelligence quotient (IQ) is dependent on their genetic make-up. The two scholars argue that it is as a result of this theory that Individuals with poor genetics are set to live in poor areas, attend poor schools and present poor life outcomes eminent in differences the intellectual abilities between whites and blacks. As such, I take to analyze Both Herrnstein and Murray’s ideas in highlighting any information bias that their Bell Curve theory may present.
The theory, supporting the racial differences in the level of IQ human fails to identify the reasons behind this variation. The two scholars present an immature information supported by their own terms. For instance, their reliance on the poor standard conditions that a person may be subjected to, has no direct link with the human intelligence (Siegel, 2017). The intellectual abilities of a person are commonly increasing with their development. Correlating the developmental progress of an individual with their poor environmental condition presents a question on whether the varying trend of educational success at any environment is an independent factor to the success of such a population.
The work of Herrstein and Murray further lacks no data to test how the genotype of a person influences their achievement attributes within in the society. The two scholars presented an information yet to be proven on an experimental basis. For instance, the subsequent studies after their findings pinpoints little to know correlation between the level of intelligence and the genetic make-up of a person (Chamberlain, 2020). An experiment conducted to ascertain whether an assertive mating plays a role in increasing the genotypes associated with the intelligence quotient presents little correlation between these variables. The genotype of a person has been proven to influence their predictive power from their birth throughout their developmental stages (Meisenberg, 2019). However, correlating their predictive power with the environment from where they come from presents little to no link existing between the reductive power of people and their level of living.
In other cases, the effect of educational progress has been seen as stronger among college students as compared to the high school student. This shows the U-shaped pattern of level of IQ with the developmental ages of a person (Ma & Schapira, 2017). This is contrary to Herrnstein and Murray’s ideas that illogically links this level of IQ with the environmental construct of a person. Their qualitative assumption of the quality of life as an accelerating factor to a person’s success does not prove to be true in most social constructs.
The test on the maximally maintained equally predictive of the maximally maintained inequality theory further suggests that at any educational stage students possess varying educational potential with a high saturation point while approaching their universally accessible education. This result suggests that the educational background of a person maters less as compared to their stages of development (Cofnas, 2020). This progression level in education is also known to be accelerating with a person’s age level. However, there is no trace between a person’s social class conditions attributable to their level of IQ. Henstein and Murray’s ideas on the Bell Curve presents a theory suggesting that the level of IQ is indirectly linked to a person’s genetic make-up. This theory lacks a scientific data to prove its fundamental assumptions. The little data provided are also not nationally representative of the entire race. Finally the subsequent data conducted on this topic do not approve of the existence of a direct link between the human genetic make-up and their level of intelligence.
References
Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. CRC Press.
Siegel E. (2017). The Real Problem with Charles Murray and “The Bell Curve”. Retrieved from:
Chamberlain, C. D. (2020). Review of the Mismeasure of Minds: Debating Race and Intelligence between Brown and the Bell Curve by Michael E. Staub. Disability Studies Quarterly, 40(1).
Cofnas, N. (2020). Research on group differences in intelligence: A defense of free inquiry. Philosophical Psychology, 33(1), 125-147.
Fischer, C. S., Hout, M., Jankowski, M. S., Lucas, S. R., Voss, K., & Swidler, A. (1996). Inequality by design: Cracking the bell curve myth. Princeton University Press.
Meisenberg, G. (2019). Book Review Article: On Science, Race and Ideology. Review of” Superior. The Return of Race Science” by Angela Saini. The Mankind Quarterly, 60(1).
Ma, C., & Schapira, M. (2017). An Analysis of Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s The
