INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT

INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT
Matt Ridley’s book (1999), 6th chapter gives some insights on measurement of the IQ as a basis for determining who is smart and who is not. The chapter focuses primarily on ways of measuring IQ developed over years since 1920 and their fallacies, predisposing the said investigative ideas to excuses of creating avenues for discriminating one individual from the next. The chapter discusses heavily the suitability of using IQ to determine the kinds of treatment an individual receives such as education, jobs as in the case of people serving in militaries among other platforms from the other individual (Ridley).
Since that time, science has undergone evolution as human beings, mostly through genetic studies continue to discover more about the human body. It remains true, however, that the gene expressing intelligence in humans may occur at chromosome six. Recent studies still find it challenging to locate the most specific gene or genes associated with intelligence as it is purported to be a complex trait that varies greatly from one individual to the other (Oommen).
Factors influencing intelligence have however been expanded since 1999. It had been determined since 1920 that intelligence was not only a trait affected by genes but also by other factors such as the womb and the general environment after birth (nature and nurture). The studies by 1999 conclude that intelligence is influenced on a huge percentage genetically and there were numerous tests on twins across the years conducted to prove this point.

This percentage has however decreased as more learned discoveries about the human behavior is continued to be studied. Factors influencing intelligence have thus taken over the larger share despite genes being one of the factors determining intelligence (Ridley).
Intelligence tests in the years up to 1999 focused primarily on people from the same families, where there was hardly any kinds of mixed marriages and fewer cases of inter-racial adoption (unless it was a targeted scientific experiment). This further proved the level ignorance of preconceived ideas of doctors that the genetic make-up of an individual had much to do with the person’s level of intelligence. There are thousands of mixed race people that are more intelligent than their mono-race parents (Hadley 943).
In the recent years, there have been studies that show genes of intelligence in a human being are teased out by the kinds of the environment an individual is exposed to. Matt Ridley brings into attention development of the human brain, hence a factor influencing intelligence; begins in the womb of a mother. In so far as development is concerned, the pioneers of measuring intelligence were right. More recent studies however further explain a point not defined by these pioneers; that while true the mother during her pregnancy has a job to supply nutrients for the growing child in her. If this child is deprived of certain nutrients then this impacts negatively on the brain of the developing child, the genes might be passed on, but development is inhibited. Expression of the intelligence gene is therefore hampered despite the presence of genes. The same studies go beyond this into the after-birth period during breastfeeding, where they maintain that brain further development is solely more dependent on the nutrients a baby obtains from its mother (Hadley 943).
Right through nurturing begins as nature takes its course. A child’s cognitive abilities are actively stimulated by the environment the child is exposed to in addition to how its brain developed. Since it cannot be said by how a mother cared for her pregnancy, it is true that variations as concerns the brain development begin as early as that stage. This idea disapproves the notion that all children are born the same with the same kind of brain development as was supported by Frank Galton, the kind of assumption that led to the creation of a standardized IQ test (Hadley 943).
In the recent years, education has become the first rite of passage for any individual. In former years, right when the debate on intelligence quotient started, those educated were perceived to be smarter than those who were not educated. This formed a basis for segregation as is seen in Matt Ridley’s chapter on intelligence. African individuals were disadvantaged than their white counterparts when this became a basis of smart someone was. The kinds of intelligence tests completely ignored the fact that while a group of individuals may be more educated, their cognitive abilities more expressed, some individuals may not have the same abilities due to varying stages of development. This does not necessarily equate that the educated ones are more intelligent that the uneducated ones, unless of course one defined intelligence by the level of education obtained and completely disregards the genes inherited by the uneducated individual (Oommen).
In as far as the Social Economic Status is concerned; Matt Ridley’s chapter on intelligence is accurate that the social class an individual is predisposed to affect how intelligent an individual turns out to be. Tests done on individuals from different social, economic backgrounds have acutely proven that those from much higher social, economic statuses are more intelligent than those from lower social, economic backgrounds, which is not always the case. This is because individuals in higher social classes may be exposed to factors that tease out their cognitive abilities such as video games, Television, and toys during early development than those from lower social, economic backgrounds. It should, therefore, be maintained that while designing ways of measuring intelligence levels, there are variables that should be considered while choosing a suitable IQ test as per the population under study (Oommen).
Works cited
Hadley, Ernest C. “Examinations and Intelligence Tests.” The Lancet 222.5747 (1933): 943. Web.
Oommen, Arun. “Factors Influencing Intelligence Quotient.” JNSK 1.4 (2014): n. pag. Web.
Ridley, Matt. Genome. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Print.