Social Psychology Lecture 5 Stereotypes Intelligence and Intelligence Tests Intelligence the ability to learn adapt to the environment solve problems and control one s mental abilities It can be general or specific there are multiple types of intelligence Differences can be due to genetic biological or environmental influences Francis Galton was the first to suggest that intelligence could be measured He believed that not everyone had the same abilities There are innate differences between individuals Most people are average some are exceptional and some are impaired The differences could be tested and measured Alfred Binet began developing test to determine metal retardation He wanted to distinguish between the inability to learn and the unwillingness to learn Specialized schools could be used to teach children with impaired cognitive abilities Intelligence Quotient IQ first IQ test developed at Stanford and were inspired by Binet s tests Through testing large amounts of children it was possible to determine what was normal The test measured how children scored compared to other children their age It was standardized so the average score is 100 IQ scores are normally distributed most people are in the middle and less are at the top or bottom Gardner s Theory of Multiple Intelligence he did not believe that there was a unified type of intelligence Different human abilities had different intelligences Types of intelligences logic and mathematics linguistic interpersonal intrapersonal spatial musical and physical and athletic The G factor the two factor theory of intelligence a general intelligence and specific intelligence Spearman s factor analysis analyzed data from many different types of intelligence tests measuring different abilities Different factors of intelligence were the results o S factor specific forms of intelligence like verbal and math ability o G factor general form of intelligence that was related to all other abilities Heritability extent to which variations in abilities are due to genes and can estimate heritability by studying family differences Twin studies Identical twins 100 genetically identical same genes same environment Fraternal twins 50 identical on average same environment different genes Identical twins separated at birth same genes different environment Fraternal twins separated at birth different genes different environment Nature vs Nurture intelligence is heritable Identical twins raised together are the most similar Identical twins raised apart are the next most similar Identical twins raised apart are more similar than fraternal twins raised together Results show that differences in intelligence are heavily influenced by genes Race and Intelligence in the 1990s a group of researchers argued for racial differences in intelligence due to genetics Evidence by consistent racial differences in scores on standardized testing example IQ archives of military test data SAT GRE Differences in IQ are not due to genetic differences between races Examples Biracial children from black or white soldiers in WWII no difference in IQ between children with black vs white fathers Biracial children raised by black vs white mothers children raised by white mothers had higher IQs than those raised by black mothers IQ differences suggest environment rather than genetics Shared environment no differences between black white and mixed children raised in same enriched environment Environmental Influences IQ scores have increased over time worldwide Since 1918 the worldwide IQ has gone up 25 Flynn Effect Black and white IQ gaps have gotten smaller over time probably because changes in environment Black children in affluent homes and or adopted by white families show no IQ gap Race biologically there is not such thing as race Genetically there is too much overlap between groups No distinct racial groups Differences in physical feature due to a minimal proportion of your genes As a social construct Racial differences are salient and visible Beliefs about racial differences are easily perpetuated Environmental influences may be mistaken for genetic differences which is the Fundamental Attribution Error Stereotypes highly accessible because they are automatically activated and implicit attitudes pervasive because most people are aware of stereotypes even if they do not support them persistent because it is hard to unlearn stereotypes and may separate people if they do not fight the stereotype and they have social consequences because they influence how we see other groups and how groups see themselves Stereotype threat knowledge of negative stereotypes about group threat of confirming the negative stereotype and impacts performance Domains of threat academic ability of African Americans math ability of females math ability of whites compared to Asians and the athletic ability of whites Steal and Aronson aptitude test of black and white students racial differences are salient because race is indicated before taking an exam Half were told it was a test of intelligence and half were told it was a laboratory exercise Black students performed more poorly in the diagnostic condition and in the non diagnostic condition there was no difference Racial minorities sometimes reinforce the negative stereotypes about their group by punishing members that disprove the stereotype Among whites popularity increases with academic success Among minorities popularity begins to decrease with more academic success Spencer et al male and female students with equal math background gender is made salient Half were told nothing and hald were told the test had no gender bias The tests were the same but women performed better when they were told the test had no gender bias Aronson et al white male college students half were told the test was to gauge math ability and the other half were told the test was to determine why Asians outperform whites White performance was lower in the stereotype threat condition Stereotype threat in sports performance whites performed better on a golf exercise when told it was a test of sports intelligence but worse when they were told it was a test of natural athletic ability Blacks showed opposite pattern