The Legacy of Arthur Jensen's IQ Research

This assignment delves into the controversial research of Arthur Jensen, focusing on his assertions about the influence of genetics on intelligence (IQ) and the limitations of environmental factors. It examines the arguments made by both supporters and opponents of Jensen's work, highlighting the ongoing debate surrounding IQ and its relationship to race and social class. The analysis also considers the potential implications of Jensen's findings for educational policy and societal perceptions.

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Psychology
Essay
30-Nov-17
(Student Details: )

ESSAY 2
The history regarding the race and the intelligence controversy is related to the historical
development of debate which relates to the possible explanation on the differentiations which are
encountered in the race and intelligence study. The IQ testing began around the First World War
and since then it has been observed that there is a difference between the average scores of
population groups (Boucher, 2014). However, till date, there is a lack of agreement upon whether
the same was due to the cultural factors or environmental factors, or possibly through some
genetic factors or a dichotomy between genetic and environmental factors. In 1969, a long article
was published by Arthur Jensen where it was suggested that there had been a failure n
compensatory education owing to the genetic group differences. Jensen implied that there was a
genetic difference in the IQ of black and white people and this was inherently grounded (Jensen,
1969). This articles remains as the most controversial article in the field of psychology till date.
In the following parts, an attempt has been made to go behind this controversy and to establish if
the statements made by Jensen had proper backing and whether these were more of a racial
discrimination.
Arthur Jensen was an education psychologist who lit fire which became a global firestorm with
the publication of his 1969 article in which it was suggested that there was a gap in the IQ test
scores between the white and the black students and this was due to the genetic difference
between these races. His work not only opened the channel gates of claims of racial bias, but also
on the different theories which had an impact over the difference in IQs of different people
(Miele, 2009). In his article, he stated that there were two kinds of learning abilities, level one
was associative ability which covered the role of retaining the facts, and the level two was one
which covered problem solving, and had conceptual ability, which involved abstract thinking.
This type was a rough equivalent to the general intelligence which was denoted through letter ‘g’

ESSAY 3
in psychology. When he conducted the IQ tests on different group of students, he found that
Level one was consistent fairly throughout all the races (Lynn, 2015). However, when level two
was examined, it was found to be more prevalent in the case of white students in comparison to
the black students and was even more prevalent amongst the Asians instead of whites (Gallagher
and Lippard, 2014). These findings led Jensen to make the argument that the general intelligence
was majorly determined on the basis of genes of a person, factored in with the cultural forces
which shape it to a certain extent. This led him to write back in 1969 that the Head Start and
other compensatory programs were bound to fail big (Fox, 2012).
Even though there were observers who did praise the work of Jensen, particularly for being a
scientist who was not afraid to go in the direction which the data led him; however, the majority
deemed Jensen as a racist person. Throughout his speaking engagements in his career, he was
heckled and even his effigies were burnt in some college campuses, along with him receiving
death threats which led him to be accompanied by the bodyguards. Jensen’s idea regarding the
intelligence being cleaved in the racial lines was deemed as Jensenism and this became a source
of heated public discussion. The claims of Jensen were majorly claimed upon by Stephen Jay
Gould through his 1981 book. However, his work was approved by Richard J. Herrnstein and
Charles Murray through their 1994 book (Herrnstein and Murray, 2010). There is also a faction
of psychologists who claim that the work of Jensen had been widely misunderstood. For this,
emphasis is made on the paper which Jensen had actually written where it was stated that there
was a possibility of the genetic differentiation amongst the racial groups. When Jensen wrote the
paper, a large portion of it was based on the hereditary basis for the intellectual ability. This issue
had negligence arguments against it. What made the discussion of Jensen was the difference
between races which continue to be a controversial topic till date (Martin, 2008).

ESSAY 4
The work of Jensen has been notably opposed by Professor Flynn who has argued that the IQ
gap between black and white was merely because of the difference in the environment of origin.
Due to these environmental factors, the academicians have maintained that the work of Jensen
did not take into consideration the environmental factors (Byrd and Clayton, 2015). In terms of
Sonja C. Grover, who is a Lakehead University’s education psychologist, socioeconomic status
was the best indicator for the IQ score of a person. The socioeconomic status was related to the
quality of teacher and quality of schooling which a person is exposed to. A number of people
who did poor on the IQ tests had poor funds of knowledge; but this was not an indicator of such
individuals not being intelligent. Jensen’s work has also been opposed by Professor Grover who
stated that there was a need to construct such tests of general intelligence which were free of
cultural bias, which makes the isolation of heredity as a source of intelligence, a possibility (Fox,
2012).
The social scientists have stressed on the environmentalist view of intelligence. Sandra Scarr and
Richard Weinberg had studies the difference between the African American children growing up
in adopted families and those growing up in their biological families. They came to the
conclusion that the environment effects outweighed the heredity effects. The IQ scores of
different ethnic groups between 1920 and 1970 were examined by Thomas Sowell who found
that the scores of some groups had improved in a key manner (Sowell, 2010). There have been
other studies which have stated that the scores for other groups have also increased with
improvements in living conditions and teachings. After reviewing large data, Torste Husen
concluded with his colleagues that the improvements in social and economic conditions, along
with the availability of schooling produced major gain in the average IQ between two

ESSAY 5
consecutive generations. Thus, this view showed that the educators were able to improve upon
the scores of low-achieving students (Ornstein et al. 2013).
Even with so much controversy surrounding his views, Jensen never recanted his views and
continued with the claim of his work having been misunderstood. However, the critics still
continued on the lack of clear evidence, which could be scientifically satisfactory, to show that
the difference between IQ of two groups was due to their classification as black and white
people. The only thing which is agreed upon by the individuals is that this difference is an open
question due to the idea of inherited general intelligence (The Telegraph, 2013).
There have been culture-only theorists who point out that the white have an advantage in the
shared family environment and these are the key reasons for their high IQ. Though, this theory
fails in predicting the research results over last decades. This is established through the reverse
digit test where the subjects are made to listen to strings of numbers, which have to be repeated
in reverse order, which becomes harder task in comparison to repeated the same in the order in
which they were made (Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian, 2013). Repeating numbers is a part of
“culture” but reverse repeating is not. So, where the whites have cultural advantage over the
black people, why is it that there is a big ability gap in the reverse rest, which tests nothing in the
environment, which the whites are prepared for. The scientists have thus depicted that the
demanding tests are more heritable in comparison to the easier tests, which disproves the
environment theory. Performance over the reverse digit test was a matter of native ability, which
cannot be improved through fancy environment. The culture only theory also fails in explaining
the reason for the children of high income black groups scoring lower than children of low
income whites. Where the IQ scores could improve with the help of good surroundings, such rich

ESSAY 6
black kids should have boosted IQs in comparison to the poor white kids (Rushton and Jensen,
2005).
There is also a fact that wealthy people are wealthy as they are smart and they are aware of the
means to make money and this trait is found in their children, not because they are rich but
because they get the genes from their smart parents. Where it happens that the whites and blacks
are matched in economic and social status, the IQ gap is reduced just by one third, and the black-
white gap for children of the wealthiest parents continues to be higher in comparison to the gap
for poorer parents’ children. A regression towards the mean, which is a genetic phenomenon
strictly, explains this in the best manner. Nature has the tendency of tempering extremes, so tall
people have tall children but not as tall as themselves and the same is true for short people.
Studies have also shown that the children of blacks and whites are also regressing towards their
means, which is 100 for whites and 85 for blacks. This is the reason for holding Jensen as a
pioneer in the field on the basis of the reaction time tests (Rushton and Jensen, 2005).
A middle position has also been attained by certain sects. The synthesizer’s view has been
adopted by some social scientists who have synthesized the position on this controversy. This
view of intelligence of the synthesizers provides that in the measuring of intelligence there is a
need to consider the role of both heredity and environment for measuring intelligence. In this
regard, Christopher Jencks reviewed large chunk of data and came to the conclusion that the
heredity has 45% responsibility for variance in IQ and the environment holds 35% responsibility,
and 20% is due to the interaction between these two factors. This data, along with other data had
been reviewed by Robert Nichols and he concluded that the true value of heredity was between
40-80%, though the exact value did not hold significance for policy. It has been maintained in
general by the synthesizers, including Nichols that heredity determines a fixed limit of range and

ESSAY 7
in these limits, the heredity and environment react wand yield the actual intelligence of a person.
Through recent case studies, this view has been supported and has shown that in impoverished
families, the majority of variations in IQ were related to the quality of environment; whilst in the
case of wealthier families, where it is presumed that more adequate environment is provided
heredity puts a major influence over the intelligence of children. As a result of this view, even
when there is an interaction between environment and heredity, and the same limits the ability of
specifying exactly how much of the intelligence of a person is reflected in the environmental
factors, the parents and teachers would have to provide every child with the productive
environment for realizing their maximum potential (Ornstein et al. 2013).
Thus, from the discussion carried on in the previous segments, it becomes clear that with the
article published by Jensen, the floodgates were opened against his theory being a wrong one.
His reasoning of difference in the IQ as a result of the difference in race of people was deemed
as a racial discrimination and had been widely criticized by different scholars. The opponents
stated that there were environmental factors or other reasons which resulted in difference in the
IQs of different people. However, Jensen was adamant on his work and proved that
environmental factors had little effect over the IQ of people, by collaborating with other authors.
Even with these explanations, the controversy continues, and time and again things are stated by
proponents and opponents. This has even led to amalgamation of the different views being
attained by different scholars, where they have shown interconnectivity between the
environmental and the heredity factors as the reasons for the difference in IQ. Nevertheless, the
view of the writer supports the view of Jensen and denies the allegations of Jensen’s work being
discriminatory in any sense.

ESSAY 8
References
Boucher, E. (2014) Empire's Children: Child Emigration, Welfare, and the Decline of the British
World, 1869–1967. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Byrd, W.M., and Clayton, L.A. (2015) An American Health Dilemma: Race, Medicine, and
Health Care in the United States 1900-2000. 2nd ed. Oxon: Routledge.
Fox, M. (2012) Arthur R. Jensen Dies at 89; Set Off Debate About I.Q. [Online] The New York
Times. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/science/arthur-r-jensen-who-set-
off-debate-on-iq-dies.html?
module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Science&action=keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=
article [Accessed on: 30/11/17]
Gallagher, C.A., and Lippard, C.D. (2014) Race and Racism in the United States: An
Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic [4 volumes]. California: ABC-CLIO.
Herrnstein, R.J., and Murray, C. (2010) Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in
American Life. New York: Free Press Paperbacks.
Jensen, A.R. (1969) How much can we boost IQ and scholastic achievement? Harvard
Educational Review, 39(1), pp. 1-123.
Lynn, R. (2015) Race Differences in Intelligence: An Evolutionary Analysis. 2nd ed. Whitefish,
Montana: Washington Summit Publishers.
Martin, G.N. (2008) Psychology: A Beginner's Guide. Oxford: Oneworld Publications.

ESSAY 9
Miele, F. (2009) Intelligence, Race, And Genetics: Conversations With Arthur R. Jensen. New
York: Avalon Publishing.
Ornstein, A.C., et al. (2013) Foundations of Education. 12th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Plotnik, R., and Kouyoumdjian, H. (2010) Introduction to Psychology. 10th ed. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth.
Rushton, J.P., and Jensen, A.R. (2005) Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in
Cognitive Ability. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 11(2).
Sowell, T. (2010) Black Rednecks and White Liberals. New York: Encounter Books.
The Telegraph. (2013) Arthur Jensen. [Online] The Telegraph. Available from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9774459/Arthur-Jensen.html [Accessed on:
30/11/17]