Arthur Jensen
Encyclopedia
Arthur Robert Jensen is a Professor Emeritus of educational psychology
at the University of California, Berkeley
. Jensen is known for his work in psychometrics
and differential psychology, which is concerned with how and why individuals differ behaviorally from one another.
He is a major proponent of the hereditarian
position in the nature versus nurture
debate, the position that concludes genetics
play a significant role in behavioral traits, such as intelligence and personality
. He is the author
of over 400 scientific papers published in refereed journals and currently sits on the editorial boards of the scientific journals Intelligence
and Personality and Individual Differences
.
While he has been rated as one of the top-50 eminent psychologists of the 20th Century, Jensen remains a controversial figure, largely for his conclusions based on his and other research regarding the causes of race-based differences in intelligence
.
and half German. He studied at University of California, Berkeley
(B.A. 1945), San Diego State College (M.A., 1952) and Columbia University
(Ph.D., 1956), and did his doctoral thesis on the Thematic Apperception Test
. From 1956 through 1958, he did his postdoctoral research at the University of London
, Institute of Psychiatry.
Upon returning to the United States
, he became a researcher and professor at the University of California
, Berkeley, where he focused on individual differences in learning, especially the influences of culture
, development, and genetics on intelligence and learning. He received tenure
at Berkeley in 1962 and was given his first sabbatical in 1964. He has concentrated much of his work on the learning difficulties of culturally disadvantaged students. In 2003, he was awarded the Kistler Prize
for original contributions to the understanding of the connection between the human genome
and human society
. In 2006, the International Society for Intelligence Research
awarded Jensen its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jensen has had a lifelong interest in classical music and was, early in his life, attracted by the idea of becoming a conductor
himself. At 14, he conducted a band
that won a nationwide contest
held in San Francisco. Later, he conducted orchestras and attended a seminar
given by Nikolai Sokoloff
. Soon after graduating from Berkeley, he moved to New York
, mainly to be near the conductor Arturo Toscanini
. He was also deeply interested in the life and example of Gandhi, producing an unpublished book-length manuscript on his life. During Jensen's period in San Diego he spent time working as a social worker with the San Diego Department of Public Welfare.
Later, Jensen was an important advocate in the mainstream acceptance of general intelligence factor
, a concept which was essentially synonymous with his Level II conceptual learning. General intelligence factor, or g, is an abstraction that stems from the observation
that scores on all forms of cognitive tests correlate positively with one another.
Jensen claimed, on the basis of his research, that general cognitive ability is essentially an inherited trait, determined predominantly by genetic factors rather than by environmental conditions. He also contended that while associative learning, or memorizing ability, is equally distributed among the races, conceptual learning, or synthesizing ability, occurs with significantly greater frequency in Asians than in whites. He suggested that from the data one might conclude that, on average, Asian Americans are more intelligent than white Americans.
Jensen's most controversial work, published in February 1969 in the Harvard Educational Review
, was titled "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?" It concluded, among other things, that Head Start programs designed to boost African-American IQ scores had failed, and that this was likely never to be remedied, largely because, in Jensen's estimation, heritability of IQ was over 0.7 of the within-race IQ variability, and the 0.3 left over was due to non-shared environmental influences.
The work became one of—if not the most—cited papers in the history
of psychological testing
and intelligence research
. It sparked a huge academic controversy. Although his paper was widely cited, a random selection of 60 of these citations revealed that 29 of the papers were direct rebuttals or criticisms of Jensen's arguments, 8 cited the paper as an "example of controversy," 8 used it as a background reference. Only 15 citations of Jensen's paper were in any way supportive of his theories, and 7 of these 15 were only in relation to minor points.
After the paper was released, students and faculty staged large protests outside Jensen's U.C. Berkeley
office. Jensen was denied reprints of his work by his publisher and was not permitted to reply in response to letters of criticism—both extremely unusual policies for their day. Many colleagues at the time felt that even if Jensen's work contained no scientific merit, his treatment was itself against the spirit of science and the free exchange of ideas.
In a later article, Jensen argued that his claims had been misunderstood:
Thomas Sowell
wrote:
However, Jensen's 1998 The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability
gives his position suggesting a genetic component is implicated in the white-black difference in IQ. In Chapter 12: Population Differences in g: Causal Hypotheses, Jensen writes:
In 1994 he was one of 52 signatories on "Mainstream Science on Intelligence
," an editorial written by Linda Gottfredson
and published in the Wall Street Journal, which declared the consensus of the signing scholars on the meaning and significance of IQ following the publication of the book The Bell Curve
.
In 2005, Jensen's article, co-written with J. Philippe Rushton
, named "Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability", was published in the APA
journal Psychology, Public Policy and Law
. They present ten categories of evidence in support of the notion that IQ differences between whites and blacks are partly genetic in origin.
wrote in the notes to his book The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit:
Many studies that purport to be both science-based and attempt to influence public policy have been accused of scientific racism. Konner wrote:
Lisa Suzuki and Joshua Aronson of New York University
wrote in 2005 that Jensen has largely ignored evidence that fails to support his position that IQ test score gaps represent a genetic
racial hierarchy unwaveringly for over 30 years. During this time, Jensen has received more than one million dollars from the sometimes controversial Pioneer fund
.
Paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould
, attacked Jensen's work in his 1981 book The Mismeasure of Man
. Gould writes that Jensen misapplies the concept of "heritability
", which is defined as a measure of the variation
of a trait due to inheritance within a population (Gould 1981: 127; 156-157). According to Gould, Jensen uses heritability to measure differences between populations. Gould also disagrees with Jensen's belief that IQ tests measure a real variable, g, or "the general factor common to a large number of cognitive abilities" which can be measured along a unilinear scale.
This is a claim most closely identified with Charles Spearman
. According to Gould, Jensen misunderstood the research of L. L. Thurstone to ultimately support this claim; Gould, however, argues that Thurstone's factor analysis
of intelligence revealed g to be an illusion (1981: 159; 13-314). Gould criticizes Jensen's sources including his use of Catharine Cox
's 1926 Genetic Studies of Genius, which examines historiometrically the IQs of historic intellectuals after their deaths (Gould 1981: 153-154).
In 1980 Jensen published a detailed book in defense of the tests used to measure mental abilities, entitled Bias in Mental Testing. Reviewing this book, psychologist Kenneth Kaye
endorsed Jensen's distinction between bias and discrimination. The purpose of tests is to discriminate (that is, reveal actual differences) on the basis of ability; bias constitutes error. Jensen defined any test as biased for a particular group if that group differs significantly from the majority group in the slopes, intercepts, or standard error of the estimates of their regression lines. Most studies found no difference in the regression lines between black and white groups, but those differences that had been found to be biased had overpredicted rather than underpredicted the minority group's performance (for example, grades in Officer Candidate courses). Jensen's conclusion:
Pointing out that "many of Jensen's opponents allowed their scientific conclusions to be far more biased by their political views than he did, Kaye quoted 18th-century David Hume
: "There is no Method of Reasoning more Common, and yet none more blameable, than in philosophical Debates, to endeavor the Refutation of any Hypothesis, by a Pretext of its dangerous Consequences to Religion and Morality."
In a 1982 review of The Mismeasure of Man, Jensen gives point-by-point rebuttals to much of Gould's critique, including Gould's treatment of heritability, the "reification" of g, and the use of Thurstone's analysis. Gould responded to Jensen's rebuttals in a revised edition of the book, published in 1996.
While Jensen recognizes the validity of some of Gould's claims, in many places, he criticizes Gould's general approach
Jensen adds that Gould made a number of misrepresentations, whether intentional or unintentional, while purporting to present Jensen's own positions
(g). The book deals with the intellectual history of g and various models of how to conceptualize intelligence, and with the biological correlates of g, its heritability, and its practical predictive power.
(MC), and covers a variety of techniques for measuring the speed with which the brain processes information. Whereas IQ merely represents an interval (ranking) scale and thus possesses no true ratio scale properties, Jensen argues mental chronometry represents a true natural science of mental ability.
Educational psychology
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. Jensen is known for his work in psychometrics
Psychometrics
Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement...
and differential psychology, which is concerned with how and why individuals differ behaviorally from one another.
He is a major proponent of the hereditarian
Hereditarianism
Hereditarianism is the doctrine or school of thought that heredity plays a significant role in determining human nature and character traits, such as intelligence and personality. Hereditarians believe in the power of genetics to explain human character traits and solve human social and political...
position in the nature versus nurture
Nature versus nurture
The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus personal experiences The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences...
debate, the position that concludes genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
play a significant role in behavioral traits, such as intelligence and personality
Personality psychology
Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its areas of focus include:* Constructing a coherent picture of the individual and his or her major psychological processes...
. He is the author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of over 400 scientific papers published in refereed journals and currently sits on the editorial boards of the scientific journals Intelligence
Intelligence (journal)
Intelligence is a peer-reviewed academic journal of psychology that covers intelligence and psychometrics. It is published by Elsevier and the official journal of the International Society for Intelligence Research.The journal was established in 1977 and the editor in chief is Douglas K. Detterman...
and Personality and Individual Differences
Personality and Individual Differences
Personality and Individual Differences is a scientific journal published bi-monthly by Elsevier and founded in 1980. PAID is the official journal of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences ....
.
While he has been rated as one of the top-50 eminent psychologists of the 20th Century, Jensen remains a controversial figure, largely for his conclusions based on his and other research regarding the causes of race-based differences in intelligence
Race and intelligence
The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early 20th century...
.
Biography
Jensen was born August 24, 1923, to a father of Danish ancestry and a mother who was half Polish JewishHistory of the Jews in Poland
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...
and half German. He studied at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
(B.A. 1945), San Diego State College (M.A., 1952) and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(Ph.D., 1956), and did his doctoral thesis on the Thematic Apperception Test
Thematic Apperception Test
The Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, is a projective psychological test. Historically, it has been among the most widely researched, taught, and used of such tests...
. From 1956 through 1958, he did his postdoctoral research at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, Institute of Psychiatry.
Upon returning to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, he became a researcher and professor at the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
, Berkeley, where he focused on individual differences in learning, especially the influences of culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, development, and genetics on intelligence and learning. He received tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
at Berkeley in 1962 and was given his first sabbatical in 1964. He has concentrated much of his work on the learning difficulties of culturally disadvantaged students. In 2003, he was awarded the Kistler Prize
Kistler Prize
The Kistler Prize is awarded annually to recognize original contributions "to the understanding of the connection between human heredity and human society," and includes a cash award of US $100,000 and a 200-gram gold medallion....
for original contributions to the understanding of the connection between the human genome
Genome
In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA....
and human society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
. In 2006, the International Society for Intelligence Research
International Society for Intelligence Research
The International Society for Intelligence Research is a scientific society for researchers in human intelligence.Founded in 2000, ISIR hosts an annual conference offering an opportunity for those interested in intelligence to meet, present their research, and discuss current issues...
awarded Jensen its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jensen has had a lifelong interest in classical music and was, early in his life, attracted by the idea of becoming a conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
himself. At 14, he conducted a band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
that won a nationwide contest
Competition
Competition is a contest between individuals, groups, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or a location of resources. It arises whenever two and only two strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same environment. For...
held in San Francisco. Later, he conducted orchestras and attended a seminar
Seminar
Seminar is, generally, a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is...
given by Nikolai Sokoloff
Nikolai Sokoloff
Nikolai Sokoloff , was a Russia-American conductor and violinist. He was born in Kiev, and studied music at Yale. From 1916 to 1917 he was musical director of the San Francisco People's Philharmonic Orchestra, where he insisted on including women in his orchestra and paying them the same as men...
. Soon after graduating from Berkeley, he moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, mainly to be near the conductor Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
. He was also deeply interested in the life and example of Gandhi, producing an unpublished book-length manuscript on his life. During Jensen's period in San Diego he spent time working as a social worker with the San Diego Department of Public Welfare.
IQ and academic achievement
Jensen's interest in learning differences directed him to the extensive testing of black, Mexican-American, and other minority-group school children. The results led him to distinguish between two separate types of learning ability. Level I, or associative learning, may be defined as retention of input and rote memorization of simple facts and skills. Level II, or conceptual learning, is roughly equivalent to the ability to manipulate and transform inputs, that is, the ability to solve problems. Statistical analysis of his findings led Jensen to conclude that Level I abilities were distributed equally among members of all races, but that Level II occurred with significantly greater frequency among whites and Asian-Americans than among African-Americans and Mexican-Americans.Later, Jensen was an important advocate in the mainstream acceptance of general intelligence factor
General intelligence factor
The g factor, where g stands for general intelligence, is a statistic used in psychometrics to model the mental ability underlying results of various tests of cognitive ability...
, a concept which was essentially synonymous with his Level II conceptual learning. General intelligence factor, or g, is an abstraction that stems from the observation
Observation
Observation is either an activity of a living being, such as a human, consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during this activity...
that scores on all forms of cognitive tests correlate positively with one another.
Jensen claimed, on the basis of his research, that general cognitive ability is essentially an inherited trait, determined predominantly by genetic factors rather than by environmental conditions. He also contended that while associative learning, or memorizing ability, is equally distributed among the races, conceptual learning, or synthesizing ability, occurs with significantly greater frequency in Asians than in whites. He suggested that from the data one might conclude that, on average, Asian Americans are more intelligent than white Americans.
Jensen's most controversial work, published in February 1969 in the Harvard Educational Review
Harvard Educational Review
The Harvard Educational Review is a peer-reviewed academic journal of opinion and research dealing with education, associated with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and published by the Harvard Education Publishing Group. The journal was established in 1930.Since 1945, editorial decisions...
, was titled "How Much Can We Boost IQ and Scholastic Achievement?" It concluded, among other things, that Head Start programs designed to boost African-American IQ scores had failed, and that this was likely never to be remedied, largely because, in Jensen's estimation, heritability of IQ was over 0.7 of the within-race IQ variability, and the 0.3 left over was due to non-shared environmental influences.
The work became one of—if not the most—cited papers in the history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
of psychological testing
Psychological testing
Psychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess psychological construct, such as cognitive and emotional functioning, about a given individual. The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics...
and intelligence research
Psychometrics
Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement...
. It sparked a huge academic controversy. Although his paper was widely cited, a random selection of 60 of these citations revealed that 29 of the papers were direct rebuttals or criticisms of Jensen's arguments, 8 cited the paper as an "example of controversy," 8 used it as a background reference. Only 15 citations of Jensen's paper were in any way supportive of his theories, and 7 of these 15 were only in relation to minor points.
After the paper was released, students and faculty staged large protests outside Jensen's U.C. Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
office. Jensen was denied reprints of his work by his publisher and was not permitted to reply in response to letters of criticism—both extremely unusual policies for their day. Many colleagues at the time felt that even if Jensen's work contained no scientific merit, his treatment was itself against the spirit of science and the free exchange of ideas.
In a later article, Jensen argued that his claims had been misunderstood:
...nowhere have I "claimed" an "innate deficiency" of intelligence in blacks. My position on this question is clearly spelled out in my most recent book: "The plain fact is that at present there exists no scientifically satisfactory explanation for the differences between the IQ distributions in the black and white populations. The only genuine consensus among well-informed scientists on this topic is that the cause of the difference remains an open question." (Jensen, 1981a, p. 213).
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective...
wrote:
Professor Jensen pointed out back in 1969 that black children's IQ scores rose by 8 to 10 points after he met with them informally in a play room and then tested them again after they were more relaxed around him. He did this because "I felt these children were really brighter than their IQ would indicate." What a shame that others seem to have less confidence in black children than Professor Jensen has had.
However, Jensen's 1998 The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability
The g Factor
The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability is a book by Arthur Jensen on the general factor of human mental ability .-External links:* , Psycoloquy, Volumes 10, 1999 and 11, 2000...
gives his position suggesting a genetic component is implicated in the white-black difference in IQ. In Chapter 12: Population Differences in g: Causal Hypotheses, Jensen writes:
The relationship of the g factor to a number of biological variables and its relationship to the size of the white-black differences on various cognitive tests (i.e., Spearman's hypothesisSpearman's hypothesisSpearman's hypothesis states that the magnitude of the black-white difference in tests of cognitive ability is entirely or mainly a function of the extent to which a test measures general mental ability, or g...
) suggests that the average white-black difference in g has a biological component. Human races are viewed not as discrete, or PlatonicPlatonismPlatonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism...
, categories, but rather as breeding populations that, as a result of natural selection, have come to differ statistically in the relative frequencies of many polymorphic genes. The genetic distances between various populations form a continuous variable that can be measured in terms of differences in gene frequencies. Racial populations differ in many genetic characteristics, some of which, such as brain size, have behavioral and psychometric correlates, particularly g.
In 1994 he was one of 52 signatories on "Mainstream Science on Intelligence
Mainstream Science on Intelligence
Mainstream Science on Intelligence was a public statement issued by a group of academic researchers in fields allied to intelligence testing that claimed to present those findings widely accepted in the expert community...
," an editorial written by Linda Gottfredson
Linda Gottfredson
Linda Susanne Gottfredson is a professor of educational psychology at the University of Delaware and co-director of the Delaware-Johns Hopkins Project for the Study of Intelligence and Society. Gottfredson's work has been influential in shaping U.S...
and published in the Wall Street Journal, which declared the consensus of the signing scholars on the meaning and significance of IQ following the publication of the book The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve is a best-selling and controversial 1994 book by the Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray...
.
In 2005, Jensen's article, co-written with J. Philippe Rushton
J. Philippe Rushton
Jean Philippe Rushton is a Canadian psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario who is most widely known for his work on racial group differences, such as research on race and intelligence, race and crime, and the application of r/K selection theory to humans in his book Race,...
, named "Thirty Years of Research on Race Differences in Cognitive Ability", was published in the APA
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...
journal Psychology, Public Policy and Law
Psychology, Public Policy and Law
Psychology, Public Policy and Law is a quarterly multi-disciplinary scientific journal published by the American Psychological Association . It publishes original empirical papers, reviews and meta-analyses on the contribution of psychological science to law and public policy...
. They present ten categories of evidence in support of the notion that IQ differences between whites and blacks are partly genetic in origin.
Criticism
Melvin KonnerMelvin Konner
Melvin Konner, MD, PhD, is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at Emory University. He studied at Brooklyn College , CUNY , where he met Marjorie Shostak, whom he later married and with whom he had three children. He earned his PhD...
wrote in the notes to his book The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit:
Statements made by Arthur Jensen, William Shockley, and other investigators in the late 1960s and early 1970s about race and IQ or social class and IQ rapidly passed into currency in policy discussions. Many of these statements were proved wrong, but they had already influenced some policymakers, and that influence is very difficult to recant.
Many studies that purport to be both science-based and attempt to influence public policy have been accused of scientific racism. Konner wrote:
What of the latest currents of thought? Are they likely to lead to, or at least encourage, further distortions of social policy? The indications are not all encouraging. Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray published a book in 1994 clearly directed at policy, just as Jensen and others had in the 1960s and 1970s. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (New York: Free PressFree Press (publisher)Free Press is a book publishing imprint of Simon and Schuster. It was founded by Jeremiah Kaplan and Charles Liebman in 1947 and was devoted to sociology and religion titles. It was headquartered in Glencoe, Illinois, where it was known as The Free Press of Glencoe...
, 1994) teamed a psychologist with a conservative policy advocate to try to prove that both the class structure and the racial divide in the United States result from genetically determined differences in intelligence and ability.
Their general assertions about genes and IQ were not very controversial, but their speculations on race were something else again.
Lisa Suzuki and Joshua Aronson of New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
wrote in 2005 that Jensen has largely ignored evidence that fails to support his position that IQ test score gaps represent a genetic
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
racial hierarchy unwaveringly for over 30 years. During this time, Jensen has received more than one million dollars from the sometimes controversial Pioneer fund
Pioneer Fund
The Pioneer Fund is an American non-profit foundation established in 1937 "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences." Currently headed by psychology professor J. Philippe Rushton, the fund states that it focuses on projects it perceives will not be easily funded due to...
.
Paleontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation....
, attacked Jensen's work in his 1981 book The Mismeasure of Man
The Mismeasure of Man
The Mismeasure of Man , by Stephen Jay Gould, is a history and critique of the statistical methods and cultural motivations underlying biological determinism, the belief that “the social and economic differences between human groups — primarily races, classes, and sexes — arise from inherited,...
. Gould writes that Jensen misapplies the concept of "heritability
Heritability
The Heritability of a population is the proportion of observable differences between individuals that is due to genetic differences. Factors including genetics, environment and random chance can all contribute to the variation between individuals in their observable characteristics...
", which is defined as a measure of the variation
Variation
- Physics :* Magnetic variation, difference between magnetic north and true north, measured as an angle* Variation , any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon- Mathematics :* Bounded variation...
of a trait due to inheritance within a population (Gould 1981: 127; 156-157). According to Gould, Jensen uses heritability to measure differences between populations. Gould also disagrees with Jensen's belief that IQ tests measure a real variable, g, or "the general factor common to a large number of cognitive abilities" which can be measured along a unilinear scale.
This is a claim most closely identified with Charles Spearman
Charles Spearman
Charles Edward Spearman, FRS was an English psychologist known for work in statistics, as a pioneer of factor analysis, and for Spearman's rank correlation coefficient...
. According to Gould, Jensen misunderstood the research of L. L. Thurstone to ultimately support this claim; Gould, however, argues that Thurstone's factor analysis
Factor analysis
Factor analysis is a statistical method used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of unobserved, uncorrelated variables called factors. In other words, it is possible, for example, that variations in three or four observed variables...
of intelligence revealed g to be an illusion (1981: 159; 13-314). Gould criticizes Jensen's sources including his use of Catharine Cox
Catharine Cox
Catharine Morris Cox Miles was an American psychologist known for her work on intelligence and genius.Born in San Jose, CA, to Lydia Shipley Bean and Charles Ellwood Cox....
's 1926 Genetic Studies of Genius, which examines historiometrically the IQs of historic intellectuals after their deaths (Gould 1981: 153-154).
In 1980 Jensen published a detailed book in defense of the tests used to measure mental abilities, entitled Bias in Mental Testing. Reviewing this book, psychologist Kenneth Kaye
Kenneth Kaye
Kenneth Kaye is an American psychologist, writer, and business consultant whose research, books, and articles connect the fields of human development, family relationships and conflict resolution....
endorsed Jensen's distinction between bias and discrimination. The purpose of tests is to discriminate (that is, reveal actual differences) on the basis of ability; bias constitutes error. Jensen defined any test as biased for a particular group if that group differs significantly from the majority group in the slopes, intercepts, or standard error of the estimates of their regression lines. Most studies found no difference in the regression lines between black and white groups, but those differences that had been found to be biased had overpredicted rather than underpredicted the minority group's performance (for example, grades in Officer Candidate courses). Jensen's conclusion:
Until we find out what the relevant psychological predictors are for which racial classification per se is merely a 'stand-in' variable, we have no choice but to include race (or other group membership) as a predictive variable along with the test scores or other predictive measures. On the other hand, if the overprediction of the minority group's criterion performance is not too extreme, it may seem reasonable to many to leave it uncorrected, thereby giving the benefit of the slight predictive bias to the presumably disadvantaged group.
Pointing out that "many of Jensen's opponents allowed their scientific conclusions to be far more biased by their political views than he did, Kaye quoted 18th-century David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
: "There is no Method of Reasoning more Common, and yet none more blameable, than in philosophical Debates, to endeavor the Refutation of any Hypothesis, by a Pretext of its dangerous Consequences to Religion and Morality."
In a 1982 review of The Mismeasure of Man, Jensen gives point-by-point rebuttals to much of Gould's critique, including Gould's treatment of heritability, the "reification" of g, and the use of Thurstone's analysis. Gould responded to Jensen's rebuttals in a revised edition of the book, published in 1996.
Jensen's response and criticism
In Arthur Jensen's response to Gould's criticisms, in the paper titled The Debunking of Scientific Fossils and Straw Persons., Jensen begins his paper with this observation
Stephen Jay Gould is a paleontologist at Harvard's Museum of Comparative ZoologyZoologyZoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
and offers a course at Harvard entitled, "Biology as a Social Weapon." Apparently the course covers much the same content as does the present book. Having had some personal cause for interest in ideologically motivated attacks on biologically oriented behavioral scientists, I first took notice of Gould when he played a prominent role in a group called Science for the PeopleScience for the PeopleScience for the People is a left-wing organization that emerged from the antiwar culture of the United States in the 1970s. A similar organization of the same name was founded in 2002....
and in that group's attack on the theories of Harvard zoologist Edward O. Wilson, a leader in the development of sociobiologySociobiologySociobiology is a field of scientific study which is based on the assumption that social behavior has resulted from evolution and attempts to explain and examine social behavior within that context. Often considered a branch of biology and sociology, it also draws from ethology, anthropology,...
...
While Jensen recognizes the validity of some of Gould's claims, in many places, he criticizes Gould's general approach
This charge of a social, value-laden science undoubtedly contains an element of truth. In recent years, however, we recognize this charge as the keystone of the Marxist interpretation of the history of science.
Jensen adds that Gould made a number of misrepresentations, whether intentional or unintentional, while purporting to present Jensen's own positions
In his references to my own work, Gould includes at least nine citations that involve more than just an expression of Gould's opinion; in these citations Gould purportedly paraphrases my views. Yet in eight of the nine cases, Gould's representation of these views is false, misleading, or grossly caricatured. Nonspecialists could have no way of knowing any of this without reading the cited sources. While an author can occasionally make an inadvertent mistake in paraphrasing another, it appears Gould's paraphrases are consistently slanted to serve his own message.
The g Factor
The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability (1998) is considered by supporters to be Jensen's magnum opus on the general intelligence factorGeneral intelligence factor
The g factor, where g stands for general intelligence, is a statistic used in psychometrics to model the mental ability underlying results of various tests of cognitive ability...
(g). The book deals with the intellectual history of g and various models of how to conceptualize intelligence, and with the biological correlates of g, its heritability, and its practical predictive power.
Clocking the Mind
Clocking the Mind : Mental Chronometry and Individual Differences (2006) deals with mental chronometryMental chronometry
Mental chronometry is the use of response time in perceptual-motor tasks to infer the content, duration, and temporal sequencing of cognitive operations....
(MC), and covers a variety of techniques for measuring the speed with which the brain processes information. Whereas IQ merely represents an interval (ranking) scale and thus possesses no true ratio scale properties, Jensen argues mental chronometry represents a true natural science of mental ability.
Interviews
- "Profiles in Research. Arthur Jensen. Interview by Daniel H. Robinson and Howard Wainer." Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics Fall 2006, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 327–352
- "A Conversation With Arthur Jensen (Part 1)". (1992). American RenaissanceAmerican Renaissance (magazine)-Cancellation of 2010, 2011 conferences:In February 2010, following protests to hotel management of several hotels, which Jared Taylor claimed included some death threats, American Renaissance's biennial conference was canceled...
, 3(8). - "A Conversation With Arthur Jensen (Part 2". (1992). American Renaissance, 3(9).
- Intelligence, Race, and Genetics: Conversations with Arthur R. Jensen. (2002) Frank Miele (of Skeptic MagazineThe Skeptics SocietyThe Skeptics Society is a nonprofit, member-supported organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs. The Skeptics Society was originally founded as a Los Angeles-area skeptical group to replace the defunct...
). Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-4008-X
Selected articles, books, and book chapters
- Rushton, J. P.J. Philippe RushtonJean Philippe Rushton is a Canadian psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario who is most widely known for his work on racial group differences, such as research on race and intelligence, race and crime, and the application of r/K selection theory to humans in his book Race,...
, & Jensen, A. R.. (2005). Thirty years of research on Black-White differences in cognitive ability. Psychology, Public Policy, & the Law, 11, 235-294. (pdf) - Rushton, J. P., & Jensen, A. R. (2005). Wanted: More race-realism, less moralistic fallacy. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 11, 328-336. (pdf)
- Rushton, J. P., & Jensen, A. R. (2003). African-White IQ differences from Zimbabwe on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised are mainly on the g factor. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 177-183. (pdf)
- Jensen, A. R. (2002). Galton's legacy to research on intelligence. Journal of Biosocial Science, 34, 145-172.
- Jensen, A. R. (2002). Psychometric g: Definition and substantiation. In R. J. Sternberg, & E. L. Grigorenko (Eds.). The general factor of intelligence: How general is it? (pp. 39–53). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Jensen, A. R. (2000). Testing: The dilemma of group differences. Psychology, Public Policy, & Law, 6, 121-128.
- Jensen, A. R. (1998) The g factor and the design of education. In R. J. Sternberg & W. M. Williams (Eds.), Intelligence, instruction, and assessment: Theory into practice. (pp. 111–131). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Jensen, A. R. (1996). Giftedness and genius: Crucial differences. In C. P. Benbow, & D. J. Lubinski (Eds), Intellectual talent: Psychometric and social issues (pp. 393–411). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.
- Jensen, A. R. (1995). Psychological research on race differences. American Psychologist, 50, 41-42.
- Jensen, A. R. (1993). Spearman's g: Links between psychometrics and biology. In F. M. Crinella, & J. Yu (Eds.), Brain mechanisms: Papers in memory of Robert Thompson (pp. 103–129). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
- Jensen, A. R. (1993). Why is reaction time correlated with psychometric g? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2, 53-56.
- Jensen, A. R. (1989). The relationship between learning and intelligence. Learning and Individual Differences, 1, 37-62.
- Kranzler, J. H., & Jensen, A. R.(1989). Inspection time and intelligence: A meta-analysis. Intelligence, 13, 329-347.
- Jensen, A. R. (1974). Ethnicity and scholastic achievement. Psychological Reports, 34, 659-668.
- Jensen, A. R. (1974). Kinship correlations reported by Sir Cyril Burt. Behavior Genetics, 4, 1-28.