After reading a story on MSN which seemed to me totally fuckin stupid and ignorant, it made me wonder.
The story was that "smart people (what they defined as people with high IQ's)live longer and are healthier."
It said that the higher IQ someone has, the more likely they were to have a good life, because of that they would have better health, and because of that have a longer life span.
it struck me as ignorant because most of the people who have opportunities to be "smart" have that smartness nourished thru a good school system/education, and people around them who encourage them.
Of course people with less education are gonna have shittier lives.
But, that aint my main question here, so try to read that as the intro, not as the topic, or shits gonna get confusing. Thats just what inspired me to post here.
Is the idea of measuring IQ flawed? Like inherently flawed?
I think it is and i will tell you why.
IQ tests do not measure intelligence, the same as the SAT dont measure intelligence.
A IQ test, is a set of questions of "simple knowledge" meant to determine someones intelligence quotient which to me means their mental capacity. the ability their brain has to learn and understand.
BUT
The IQ test is made up of questions that are material learned in schools. it is made of questions that someone would have to have a particular amount of education to answer correctly.
Now, HOW can you say, that someone with no education is STUPID? Their brain itself COULD hold the capacity to amaze people with its abilities, but without the education to unlock that, they would be considered stupid and unintelligent.
This just seems to proove my idea: (from a website on IQ)
"For IQs below 120, IQ is the best predictor of socioeconomic status. People with IQs between 75 and 90 are 88 times more likely to drop out of high school, seven times more likely to be jailed, and five times more likely as adults to live in poverty than people with IQs between 110 and 125. The 75-to-90 IQ woman is eight times more likely to become a chronic welfare recipient, and four times as likely to bear an illegitimate child than the 110-to-125-IQ woman."
Now to me, thats basically saying youre in poverty because youre stupid. or that these things happen to you because you got a low IQ. Which is obviously twisted and untrue.
Did it ever dawn on the people making the study, that the people already in poverty have a SHITTY EDUCATION? that would make the IQ test slanted againt them, since its made up of questions that someone would need a certain amount of education to understand.
It aint measuring someones ability to learn. its measuring their education, and WHAT things they have learned, just like the SAT and other tests.
if you took some African tribesman who never learned any of the shit they teach in schools, and gave him a IQ test, (in his language) he would probably score as mentally retarded. Why, because the questions are based off of the idea that people already have a certain level of education and that "everyone should know that" or that certain shit is hardwired into peoples brains or something. or that everyone had the opportunity to learn something. But,
The fact is, not everyone DOES know this shit, and it aint because they are stupid or unintelligent, its because they werent TAUGHT it yet.
how are you gonna call someone dumb for not understanding something if they never learned it?
How can you gauge someones intelligence by a test that is skewed to favor someone who has learned the questions on it?
Why is "intelligence" measured in math problems? HOW can a test of simple questions mostly made up of information in math, science, and word problems like analogies and shit, which takes instruction to understand, even PRETEND to measure the raw abilities of someones mind?
There could be someone whose gonna discover the cure to cancer scrappin it somewhere in a shitty ghetto with a shitty teacher, reading 3 grades below his age level, and a IQ test would prolly put him in the borderline retarted range. so no one would pay him no attention and all that POTENTIAL, ABILITY, CAPACITY, that the brain has the POSSIBLITY to reach, would never be realized.
For example, one question on a IQ test (not a internet IQ test but one given in a psych. doctors office so yes its 'legit') was "How many senators are there in the US?"
HOW the hell can you say someones INTELLIGENCE, not book learning, but actual ability to learn, is based on if they know how many senators there are? for real.
IMO a IQ test is extremely biased just because of the ridiculous idea that everyone knows certain shit, not beacuse they were taught it but that somehow anyone "smart" would know it.
They gotta have a guideline for SOME way to measure, i know, and most people would see quizzing someone on shit that is considered general knowledge as the logical way to do that, but i really dont think its fair to assume that people automatically know it, OR that it even measures intelligence. intelligence and your mental capacity - that is, just how far your brain is capable of going, has nothing to do with whether you can do long division.
What yall think about all this?
The story was that "smart people (what they defined as people with high IQ's)live longer and are healthier."
It said that the higher IQ someone has, the more likely they were to have a good life, because of that they would have better health, and because of that have a longer life span.
it struck me as ignorant because most of the people who have opportunities to be "smart" have that smartness nourished thru a good school system/education, and people around them who encourage them.
Of course people with less education are gonna have shittier lives.
But, that aint my main question here, so try to read that as the intro, not as the topic, or shits gonna get confusing. Thats just what inspired me to post here.
Is the idea of measuring IQ flawed? Like inherently flawed?
I think it is and i will tell you why.
IQ tests do not measure intelligence, the same as the SAT dont measure intelligence.
A IQ test, is a set of questions of "simple knowledge" meant to determine someones intelligence quotient which to me means their mental capacity. the ability their brain has to learn and understand.
BUT
The IQ test is made up of questions that are material learned in schools. it is made of questions that someone would have to have a particular amount of education to answer correctly.
Now, HOW can you say, that someone with no education is STUPID? Their brain itself COULD hold the capacity to amaze people with its abilities, but without the education to unlock that, they would be considered stupid and unintelligent.
This just seems to proove my idea: (from a website on IQ)
"For IQs below 120, IQ is the best predictor of socioeconomic status. People with IQs between 75 and 90 are 88 times more likely to drop out of high school, seven times more likely to be jailed, and five times more likely as adults to live in poverty than people with IQs between 110 and 125. The 75-to-90 IQ woman is eight times more likely to become a chronic welfare recipient, and four times as likely to bear an illegitimate child than the 110-to-125-IQ woman."
Now to me, thats basically saying youre in poverty because youre stupid. or that these things happen to you because you got a low IQ. Which is obviously twisted and untrue.
Did it ever dawn on the people making the study, that the people already in poverty have a SHITTY EDUCATION? that would make the IQ test slanted againt them, since its made up of questions that someone would need a certain amount of education to understand.
It aint measuring someones ability to learn. its measuring their education, and WHAT things they have learned, just like the SAT and other tests.
if you took some African tribesman who never learned any of the shit they teach in schools, and gave him a IQ test, (in his language) he would probably score as mentally retarded. Why, because the questions are based off of the idea that people already have a certain level of education and that "everyone should know that" or that certain shit is hardwired into peoples brains or something. or that everyone had the opportunity to learn something. But,
The fact is, not everyone DOES know this shit, and it aint because they are stupid or unintelligent, its because they werent TAUGHT it yet.
how are you gonna call someone dumb for not understanding something if they never learned it?
How can you gauge someones intelligence by a test that is skewed to favor someone who has learned the questions on it?
Why is "intelligence" measured in math problems? HOW can a test of simple questions mostly made up of information in math, science, and word problems like analogies and shit, which takes instruction to understand, even PRETEND to measure the raw abilities of someones mind?
There could be someone whose gonna discover the cure to cancer scrappin it somewhere in a shitty ghetto with a shitty teacher, reading 3 grades below his age level, and a IQ test would prolly put him in the borderline retarted range. so no one would pay him no attention and all that POTENTIAL, ABILITY, CAPACITY, that the brain has the POSSIBLITY to reach, would never be realized.
For example, one question on a IQ test (not a internet IQ test but one given in a psych. doctors office so yes its 'legit') was "How many senators are there in the US?"
HOW the hell can you say someones INTELLIGENCE, not book learning, but actual ability to learn, is based on if they know how many senators there are? for real.
IMO a IQ test is extremely biased just because of the ridiculous idea that everyone knows certain shit, not beacuse they were taught it but that somehow anyone "smart" would know it.
They gotta have a guideline for SOME way to measure, i know, and most people would see quizzing someone on shit that is considered general knowledge as the logical way to do that, but i really dont think its fair to assume that people automatically know it, OR that it even measures intelligence. intelligence and your mental capacity - that is, just how far your brain is capable of going, has nothing to do with whether you can do long division.
What yall think about all this?
