History and Controversies of Intelligence Testing

Intelligence testing was first introduced in the early twentieth century after the French government passed a law requiring that all children have to attend school. The French government was worried about how children’s ability to learn would be affected by their teacher’s bias. In 1904, Alfred Binet was authorized by the French government to study this situation and come up with a potential solution. Binet and his colleague Theodore Simon started to theorize questions that would assess a child’s learning success. These questions were based on cognitive skills such as attention, memory, and problem-solving. Through these questions, Binet and Simon came up with a theory that all children follow the same course of intellectual development, but some develop more quickly than others.

A few years later, Stanford professor, Lewis Terman, discovered that the questionnaire the French used to determine their student’s learning success was nearly incompatible with students in California. In response, Terman created his own intelligence test known as the Stanford-Binet. The Stanford Binet assessed all ages of intelligence, overriding Binet’s test which only tested younger children.

Intelligence tests were first introduced by Terman, to the United States during World War I. The tests were introduced with the purpose of evaluating the mass amounts of immigrants arriving into the United States and assessing the World War I army recruits. The tests used in World War I helped determine specific positions in the army for men.

There are many limitations to intelligence testing. Better test takers score better on IQ tests than poor test takers. Due to this, it can be hard to accurately know a person’s IQ. IQ tests do not test every type of intelligence. They only focus on logic and memory. So, while a person may have a low IQ logically, that does not mean that they do not excel in the arts or other forms of intelligence. A major downfall to intelligence testing is the tests only give a single numerical score to define intelligence. A person’s intelligence cannot be defined merely by a number, as there is a myriad of things that make up one’s intelligence. That number can inhibit a person’s motivation, as they may feel they will never do better than the score they are labeled with. People who score higher on IQ tests will not necessarily have a more successful future than those who score lower on the test. Although people who score high can have the motivation and skill to become successful, so can the lower scoring people. Lastly, due to IQ tests having a very western view and focus on intelligence, people from countries such as Africa and Asia, where intelligence is viewed differently, tend to perform poorer than their white, American counterparts. Intelligence is emphasized differently in different countries which makes creating an unbiased test hard. However, scientists are continuing to familiarize themselves with more cultures, increasing the hopes of an unbiased test.

While there are many disadvantages to intelligence testing, there are also advantages too. Intelligence tests can be beneficial in predicting what type of classroom setting a child would be best in. A child that scored poorly on an intelligence test would be able to be placed in a classroom that is more suited to their learning style, whereas a child that scored highly could be placed in an accelerated learning program. While intelligent tests are not entirely accurate, they do provide a general outline of how successful a child may be academically and what his mental strength may be. Intelligence tests are a non-complex way of providing cultural and biological similarities and differences among people. Lastly, intelligence testing is an easy way to score intelligence as opposed to rigorous testing.

David Weschler was a Roman psychologist whose work was first used during the 20th century. Weschler became interested in intelligence after his army experience brought him to the conclusion that academically defined “intelligence” was in no way applicable to “real life” situations. In 1938, Weschler developed the Weschler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale, which was first intended to measure an adult’s intelligence. Rejecting the idea that there was a specific age in which intelligence should be measured, Weschler advocated for the definition that “intelligence is a personal aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment”(Weschler, 1940). Soon after the Weschler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale became the most popular intelligence test in the United States, Weschler published the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children in 1949. This test was directed towards children between the ages of six and sixteen and was divided into 4 categories: verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. His last intelligence test for adults was published in 1955, the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale. The Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale had the same structure as the Weschler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale but included 10-nonwhite population groups to attempt to include all races. Weschler’s final intelligence test, published in 1967, was the Weschler Primary and Preschool Scale of Intelligence. This test was an intelligence test for very young children. David Weschler left an everlasting impression on the world after his initial creation of the Weschler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale. His innovations have opened doors for everyone and made it easier for many people to receive an education that is best suited for them.

Content validity is “when the items on the test represent the entire range of possible items the test should cover”(Cherry). A tester may use content validity when they are concerned with how behavior may affect test results. Predictive validity is the success in which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict. It is assessed by establishing the correlation between the test scores and the criterion behavior. Validity is important when taking an intelligence test because without it, the results are not very accurate.

Christopher Langan was born in 1952 in San Fransico, California to a widowed mother. After Langan was born, he and his mother spent time moving around Montana, often being one of the poorest families in town. In school, Langan’s intelligence was not noted, for he spent much of his time sleeping in class claiming that he “grew increasingly resistant and unresponsive to the Pavlovian conditioning on which much educational methodology is based”(Langan). Applying to colleges in the 10th grade proved to be quite challenging for Langan, due to the colleges wanting him to pursue a certain major instead of him choosing his own. The adversity Langan faced drove him to the belief that one does not need to be academically involved to seek out knowledge and that learning should be held responsible to the individual. Unlike other “geniuses” who went to college and studied rigorously with acclaimed scholars, Langan spent his early 20’s and upward working in the US Forest Service and as a bouncer. In the early ’90s, Langan developed the “Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe”, which argues that “reality is a self-modeling universal language”(Langan). His theory is based on his belief that scientific language is too limiting and “self-normative”. Unfortunately, due to Langan being perceived as “unqualified”, his theories have not been recognized in the academic world. Despite being obstructed in his academic endeavors, Langan founded the Mega Foundation to “create and implement programs that aid the development of extremely gifted individuals and their ideas”. The Mega Foundation assists highly intelligent children who are struggling academically due to the educational system’s prejudice. In order to join the Mega Foundation, one’s IQ level has to be over 164, Langan’s intelligence is believed to be between 190-210. Langan hopes to continue the Mega Foundation by helping children and also assisting adults who find themselves being ostracized for their intelligence.

Natalie Portman was born in 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel. When she was three years old, due to her father’s advancing medical career, her family moved to Washington DC where they stayed for the next fifteen years. As a child, she pursued an acting career and was also a straight ‘A’ student who graduated with honors from high school. Her success in high school helped her to be accepted into Harvard where she majored in psychology. Post college, Portman became a member of Mensa, after scoring a 140 on an intelligence test. Today, Portman is a notable actress and humanitarian who divides her time between the movie screen and several philanthropic causes. Portman is a spokesperson for the charity FINCA, a microfinance group that based on the concept of “village banking”. FINCA helps women in impoverished countries start banks which in turn lead to businesses. Besides FINCA, Portman is a strong advocate for women’s rights organizations and climate change.

The debate to whether we owe our intelligence to our environment or to our genetics has been ongoing between psychologists for many years. Psychologists such as Charles Spearman have had beliefs that rely primarily on genetics asserting that “intelligence is natural in you, either you have the g-factor or not”(). Contrary to Spearman, psychologist such as Robert Sternberg has argued that “while intelligence in a human being is natural, they also have parts of their intelligence that they developed by themselves”(Spearman). Although these psychologists differ in opinions, they both agree that genetics do play a role in intelligence. Besides genetics, one’s environment is also believed to be a factor in determining intelligence. Although the idea of “individuals with intelligent family members often tends to be intelligent themselves”(Lumen) is often true, this idea does not always elaborate on the importance of environment in regards to intelligence. A child may be born with intelligent genes, but if subjected to abuse, neglect, and lack of an educational setting, he may not score well on intelligence testing. Although the child was born with the genes he needed, the impact his environment had on him deterred those genes from ever taking effect