Critically discuss the view that gender is relevant to the study of Essay - 1

Critically discuss the view that gender is relevant to the study of INTELLIGENCE. Ground your answer in theory and illustrate w - Essay Example In further researches, intelligence theory has opened new line of thinking concerning the recognition of a wider range of human intellect (Gardner 2006). Thus, intelligence as a subject matter in many researches and studies is greatly established. Intelligence theories and its implications on other fields like psychology (Piaget 1950), sociology and neurobiology (Gray and Thompson 2004) are also essential in our understanding of human mind and intellect. In this paper, the discussion of human intelligence by exploring its relation to gender, as one of the probable variables of intelligence-difference among humans, will be explored. The discussion of the background and brief history of intelligence test will also be presented in order to understand better the subject matter. Intelligence theories will be analyzed in relation to gender in accordance with the objective to see the correlation between the two. Examples of researches with regards to the said concepts will be investigated t o further substantiate the paper. Significant results will be analyzed and will be integrated in making a conclusion for the paper. Intelligence and gender may both refer to abstract concepts that people made up in order to understand the events and matters related to the concepts (Hacking 1999; Kessler and McKenna 1978). Though this is the case, significant numbers of research are done to analyze and identify the correlation between the two concepts. Consequently, many issues concerning the ethics and moral implications of the studies are raised as the ideas involved are very sensitive matters (Messick 1980). Considering gender issues for instance, we see that the possibility of claiming some basis for discrimination may outpour if certain researches and surveys will be introduced to the public. In the case of the idea of intelligence, some people who are subject to testing and evaluation using intelligence tests might have problems in accepting the results of the assessment as the y might feel insecure and depressed because of it (Zammit et al 2004). Though some claims that intelligence is a construct and can be hardly measured (Humphreys 1979; Scott-Wittenborn 2004), many arguably refer to it as a human feature that can be calculated and quantified (Galton 1883; Binet 1905; Kline 1991). The interests to quantify human intelligence go beyond analyzing the mind functions as theorists and makers of intelligence tests like Galton (1883), Binet (1905), Spearman (1904), and Thurstone (1938) successfully designed an assessment program that will measure and categorize intelligence on the basis of their own definitions of studied subject. Today, intelligence in the way the said theorists defined it in the context of their time has changed its meaning in various ways. The ‘lay conception of intelligence’ (Sternberg 2000) has transformed in terms of how intelligence was defined based on the areas an individual human can be a genius of. Traditionally, intel ligence is measured based on logical and mathematical reasoning and similar assessment. Today, though the traditional one is still being used (Eysenck 2007), fundamental changes in seeing intelligence in a different and a more wide-ranging perspective are being observed. New theories on the subject like the