Intelligence and how to Get it: Why Schools and Cultures CountWho are smarter, Asians or Westerners? Are there genetic explanations for racial differences in test scores? What makes some nationalities excel in engineering and others in music? Will math and science remain a largely male preserve. From the damning research of The Bell Curve to the more recent controversy surrounding geneticist James Watson's statements, one factor has been consistently left out of the equation: culture. In the tradition of The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, world-class social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett takes on the idea of intelligence as something that is biologically determined and impervious to culture--with vast implications for the role of education as it relates to social and economic development. Intelligence and How to Get It asserts that intellect is not primarily genetic but is principally determined by societal influences. Nisbett's commanding argument, superb marshaling of evidence, and fearless discussions of the controversial carve out new and exciting terrain in this hotly debated field. |
Contents
Varieties of Intelligence | 1 |
Heritability and Mutability | 21 |
Getting Smarter | 39 |
Improving the Schools | 57 |
Social Class and Cognitive Culture | 78 |
IQ in Black and White | 93 |
Mind the Gap | 119 |
Advantage Asia? | 153 |
Raising Your Childs Intelligence and Your Own | 182 |
What We Now Know about Intelligence and Academic Achievement | 193 |
Informal Definitions of Statistical Terms | 201 |
The Case for a Purely Environmental Basis for BlackWhite Differences in IQ | 209 |
Notes | 237 |
References | 257 |
Credits | 283 |
| 285 | |
Other editions - View all
Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count Richard E. Nisbett Limited preview - 2010 |
Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count Richard E. Nisbett Limited preview - 2010 |
Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count Richard E. Nisbett No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
ability academic achievement African ancestry Asian Americans average IQ Bell Curve better black children black/white gap blacks and whites brain chapter child Chinese Chinese Americans cognitive control group correlation crystallized intelligence culture degree Development Developmental psychologist difference in IQ East Asians economic effect effect size environment estimate European Americans European genes evidence fact fluid intelligence Flynn g loadings genetic grade hereditarians Herrnstein and Murray high school higher IQs higher-SES improve inbreeding depression increase intel intellectual IQ difference IQ gap IQ scores IQ tests Jewish Jews kids KIPP schools large number learning less lower-class lower-SES children math measure ment middle-class minority mothers Nisbett Ogbu parents percent percentile performance points poor population problems Raven Progressive Matrices reason Rushton and Jensen Scarr self-selection siblings skills smarter social class standard deviation Stoolmiller substantially subtests teachers teaching tion twins upper-middle-class variables versus WISC working-class