Sunday, July 19, 2020

IQ Test is Not Accurate Psychology Essay

IQ Test is Not Accurate Psychology Essay Intelligence tests are standardised measurement tools used across different field, including education, business and psychology, to assess and predict individual performance. Developed by psychologists, IQ test measures different mental functions, namely comprehension, reasoning and judgment as indicators of individual mental efficiency and intellectual potential. The central idea of all IQ tests is to calculate the score of person’s responses to a set of stimuli. In this vein, psychologists offer multiple IQ tests, such as Weschler Adult Intelligence scale and Stanford-Binet test that pose different types of tasks to examine and assess different abilities (Burnett, 2013). The existing IQ tests are subject to regular revision and update, which, however, does not always contribute to the test validity. The 2002 nation-wide assessment conveyed by BBC revealed a too general nature of tests tasks, which aroused a concern for the test insufficiency to identify talented and gifted, as mo st questions addressed general knowledge (Lightfoot, 2002). Since the diversity of IQ tests is high, there is no unified assessment of individual learning capabilities and intellectual potential. Different IQ tests measure different mental functions and stimuli, which results in the incompatibility of their findings. Though being the mostly used method of intellectual assessment, IQ tests are heavily criticised by scholars and the public. The central argument of IQ criticism refers to the wrong perception of intelligence as a fixed quantitative notion. In other words, intelligence measurement using standardised tests ignores the possibility of its change (Roche, 2014). Labelling individual intellectual potential with a single score, IQ tests assign a person to a single scenario, as if one cannot improve intellectual capabilities or change them an outward way. Besides, standardised assessment is not sensitive to various situational and emotional circumstances that may affect individual performance in a test. Such objectivity of IQ tests facilitates social segregation and discrimination of disadvantaged groups strengthening social tensions and labelling (Scaife, 2013). Therefore, IQ tests are criticised in terms of their social outcomes. Socialisation based on the intelligence measurement results i n a strict assignment of activities and roles based on a standardised assessment conducted in a single point of time. Environmental factors like school systems and the quality of education are claimed to shape individual performance and assessment score. As such, measurement results of persons exposed to distinct environmental factors are different. Another critical point of standardised IQ tests concerns the impact produced by socio-cultural factors on individual learning, comprehension and demonstration of intellectual abilities. Precisely, family income, cultural background and societal norms influence individual perception and motivation to education (Heffner, 2002). Thus, empirical evidence illustrates that race/ethnicity plays a vital role in one’s test performance. Compared to white children, black students are less motivated to prove their intellectual potential, which negatively affects their test outcomes. Besides, racial/ethnic disparity between the tester and the test maker is another influential factor, as it creates a child’s opposition to the tester (Tinker, 1972). These scholarly and popular media arguments against the accuracy of IQ tests have been recently recognised by the UK authorities and policy-makers. As such, the UK Qualification and Curriculum Authority supported the argument of potential bias and incomplete assessment of intelligence by IQ tests. The government agency illustrated its point by recalling the challenge of determining most talented and gifted students by a single measurement set. This question of IQ test UK relevance relies on the fact that the “talented” characteristic implies success in specific academic subjects, while one’s giftedness is identified by success in other set of subjects (Long et al., 2011). To sum up, validity and reliability of IQ tests assessment of individual intelligence currently occupies a significant portion of the UK policy-makers, practitioners and researchers’ agenda. References Burnett, D., 2013. Online IQ tests: Are they valid? The Guardian, 29 Nov., [online] Available at:

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