DAVID, Jhanine V.

August 2, 2016

BS PSY 4-2

Educational Psychology

INTELLIGENCE

1. To what extent is intelligence genetic?

When defined, intelligence is the capacity to learn. It is also the
capacity of an individual to acquire knowledge and to adapt to changing
environment. But, it was never defined by any psychologist if intelligence
purely genetics or environmental in nature. Thats why it became very
controversial because of the nature and nurture issue.
Nature proponents argue that intelligence of an individual is purely
inherited. It is through genes, unit of heredity by which a biological trait is
passed down through generations of human beings, that intelligence can be
determined. Several studies concluded that the IQ of a child, 50-70% of it
came from his/her parents. The nature part of intelligence covers the
cognitive functioning of an individual like attention, memory, and perception.
Researchers have conducted many studies to look for genes that influence
intelligence. Many of these studies have focused on similarities and
differences in IQ within families, particularly looking at adopted children and
twins. These studies suggest that genetic factors underlie about 50 percent of
the difference in intelligence among individuals. It was also concluded that
intelligence involves multiple genes. It is through genes that learning
disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and neural disorders are
experienced by other people. Down syndrome, for example, is a genetic
syndrome marked by intellectual disability, and has implications for the ways
in which children with Down syndrome learn. While experts believe the
genetic cause for Down syndrome is a lack of genes in the 21st chromosome,
the gene(s) responsible for the cognitive symptoms have yet to be
discovered. These mutations can be inherited from one generation to

another, which only supports the claim that genes have very important job in
intelligence of an individual.
2. To what extent is intelligence stable?
As an individual grows, his/her knowledge acquired increases and
expanding. In each stage of human development, there are specific things
that someone may learn first before jumping to next stage where another
knowledge is going to be acquired. Intelligence is changing as an individual
adapts from the environment and learns fro the past experiences. It is only
stable on a specific stage or span of time until another information comes in
and stored in the memory that will help in increasing the knowledge and
improve the intelligence of a person. Through the interaction of genes and
the environment, an individuals intelligence may change, either upward or
downward movement depending on the factors present.

3. How do cognitive abilities interact with other aspects of functioning?

Cognition has to do with how a person understands the world and acts
in it. It is the set of mental abilities or processes that are part of nearly every
human action while we are awake. Cognitive abilities are brain-based skills
we need to carry out any task from the simplest to the most complex. They
have more to do with the mechanisms of how we learn, remember, problemsolve, and pay attention, rather than with any actual knowledge.

These cognitive abilities interact with daily functioning of an individual

that let us perform activities necessary for every day. For example, answering
the telephone involves perception (hearing the ring tone), decision taking
(answering or not), motor skill (lifting the receiver), language skills (talking
and understanding language), social skills (interpreting tone of voice and

interacting properly with another human being). It also involves how

information are stored in our brain (memory) and our ability to concentrate
and focus to a specific stimuli (attention).

4. Are there true sex differences?

Several researches have long held that females score higher on test of
verbal abilities than do males, but the males score higher on test of
mathematical skills and spatial skills. This is through these findings that
females were labeled to be expert in verbal performance and talking thats
why courses such as Mass Communication and Broadcasting are famous for
females. Males, on the other hand are expert when it comes to engineering,
problem solving and visual images and patterns.

In present time, the supposed differences in math abilities between

males and females have now been shown to be more in the effect of girls
lack of confidence rather than biological differences on the working of brain.
These discrepancies in findings has begun to view both genders as more
equal in ability that led to a more equal treatment for them in the society. For
me there is no sex differences when it comes to cognitive functioning of male
and female. This is where environmental factors can come in that can play a
huge role in cognitive abilities of both genders.

5.

Is intelligence a global capacity (similar to good health) or can it be

differentiated into various dimensions (called factors or aptitudes)?

Using the findings of Howard Gardner and Joy Paul Guilford about
intelligence, it can be differentiated into different dimensions or types that
varies from different people. These dimensions or factors focused on specific
type of intelligence which an individual may possess or not. These factors
should all be considered and be given attention in order to improve and excel
more.

6. Are there a number of intelligences?

Intelligence tests contain different subjects that measure different

abilities of an individual. Intelligence does not focus on one general aspect
only. An individual can be intelligent in terms of intellectual capacities or
academic aspects or intelligent in terms of talents. Inclined with the Howard
Gardners eight intelligences, I can say that there are a number of
intelligences. Gardners intelligences, linguistic, spatial, body-kinesthetic,
mathematical, etc. describes different mental abilities of an individual. It only
proves that even though a person does not excel on one aspect, he/she can
excel on other aspect where he/she can manifest his/her skills.

References:

Articles

Bailey, M. J., & Revelle, W. (1991). Increased heritability for lower IQ

levels? Behavior genetics, 21,397-404.
Bessman, S. P., Williamson, M. L., & Koch, R. (1978). Diet, genetics, and
mental retardation interaction between phenylketonuric heterozygous mother and
fetus to produce nonspecific diminution of IQ: Evidence in support of the justification
hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 78, 1562-1566.
Cherny, S. S., Cardon, L. R., Fulker, D. W., & DeFries, J. C. (1992). Differential
heritability across levels of cognitive ability. Behavior genetics, 22, 153-162.
Detterman, D. K., Thompson, L. A., & Plomin, R. (1990). Differences in
heritability across groups differing in ability. Behavior genetics, 20, 369-384.

Website

Boundless. Genetic and Environmental Impacts on Intelligence. Boundless

Psychology.

Boundless,

26

May.

2016.

Retrieved

02

Aug.

2016

from https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology
textbook/intelligence-11/introduction-to-intelligence-61/genetic-and-environmentalimpacts-on-intelligence-243-12778/