Arguments Against IQ Tests!

On the other hand the skeptics are getting more attentions with the passage of time. The major questions arise about validity, predictability and interpretations of the intelligence testing results. Some people start claiming superiority on the bases of their results while some feel themselves inferiors. When the racists attached meanings of the intelligence test results with the races the situation aggravated further. Severe discussions start and often end in futile.

The most important psychological testing disagreement stems from two interconnected issues;

1- Technical faults in test design

2- Moral problems in analysis and application of results.

Some technical flaws exist in all tests. So, the results are merely a kind of information that can be used by psychologists and subsequently by managers and employers. Most disapproval of testing occurs from the over valuation of and unsuitable dependence on test results in making your main life decisions.

The skeptics raise a number of objections on the intelligence tests. A few of the arguments are given here:

Classic Intelligence Tests

The classic IQ tests were not so advanced as IQ tests are today. The advent of computer technology, the speed of internet and use of cell phone IQ tests has brought many changes in the field of intelligence tests. The changes have occurred not only in scoring methods but also in the question setting methods.

On the other hand, the critics are still skeptical of the intelligence tests as they have been criticizing them from 1950s. The problem is that there is a full fledge testing industry behind the supporter of the IQ tests while the opponents rely most upon their individual opinions. It is advisable that the skeptics should rebuild their opinions.

Validity

The merit of this criticism depends on how one defines intelligence. Some theorists consider wisdom, creativity, and social competence aspects of intelligence, but others do not. Psychologists know very little about how to objectively measure these other abilities. Another criticism of intelligence tests is that some people may not perform well because they become anxious when taking any timed, standardized test. Their poor performance may reflect their anxiety rather than their true abilities. However, test anxiety is probably not a major cause of incorrect scores.

Negative Influences

It is also to be interrogated whether society's existing conduct of intelligence tests is really helpful to society, or if society accidentally uses them to select out fresh and increasingly efficient human cognition forms that outdated formulas are not designed to examine

Fatal Effects

Bouchard and McGue say that assumptions about the prenatal effects are contradictory to many previous reports. A complete review published many years ago argued that almost all twins are affected differently not in same manner in pre-natal period.

Intelligence and the brain

Persons with as low IQ scores 70 to 20 are considered mentally retarded. However, there is not any Intelligence-based categorization for developmental disabilities as that condition is considered to be different from mental retardation.

General Points of Criticism

2- Intellectual traits are not mathematical so they can’t be measured as a linear surface.

3- Intelligence is not a fixed entity. The originators of the IQ tests claimed that the people with low IQ scores can improve their scores and capabilities if they are given the due training and assistance.

4- Intelligence tests are disputed psychometrics. Some social scientists challenge psychometrics completely. In “The Mismeasure Of Man” the professor Gould says that intelligence tests are founded on defective suppositions. He demonstrates their history as being used as the basis for scientific racial discrimination.

5- Intelligence is not a single entity. The place of intelligence within the brain, its quantity for each individual, and the exploitation of this quantity to grade people in a single succession of value is not a fair mean to judge a personality. To discover through IQ TESTS that subjugated and deprived groups are naturally second-rate and deserve this status is a false notion.

6- Letter g is simply a mathematical artifact. Professor Gould criticized the concept of IQ by a historical conversation of how the IQ tests were formed. He argues that g is just a mathematical, work. He critics the Bell Curve also. He argues that concept of intelligence can not be based on these test scores alone as in this way many significant feature of mental abilities may be disregarded.

7- IQ tests do not stand on firm grounds. Some of the most prominent studies on group differences in intelligence are made while depending on the outdated methodology. Psychological testing also has a considerable and straight influence on people’s lives. The use of tests in psychiatric analysis or for the selection of employees does not always stand on solid grounds.

8- IQ tests do not test the falsifiability of the deductions of IQ tests against hard science and perpetuate folk psychological legends and false notions.

9- IQ tests discriminate undeservedly. The IQ based selection of the individuals gives them undeserved distinction. The majority of the studies do not put the found exceptions discretely, and the averaged figures pass the relationship tests.

10- The design of the IQ tests is not perfect.

11- There are ethical problems involved in the IQ tests. Psychologists by and large have the same opinion that using tests to hinder young people from educational opportunities, without cautious deliberation of past and present means or inspiration, is unethical. Tests are inclined to draw on those skills connected with white, middle-class performance; they may discriminate against deprived and marginal groups.

12- The IQ test results are over evaluated. Most disapproval of testing crop up from the over valuation and unsuitable reliance on test results in making the most important life decisions. These criticisms are mainly pertinent in the case of intelligence testing.

Subjects dealing with the evaluation of intelligence are often divisive. Critics in these sections look at the soundness and fairness of cognitive testing, as well as the problems in the definition and working of the other dimensions under discussion. In a scientific study, correlations can propose, but not involve causation.

Even if a positive or negative correlation is found between intelligence and other factors as race, religion, maternal background, mental handicaps, and sex it may imply, but doesn't necessarily conclude that one is causing the other.

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