Socioeconomic status  

         Grading  of  parent  occupa0on  into  five  categories:  Mackintosh  (1998)  and  Mascie-­‐Taylor  (1984)    •  Class  I:  Professional  occupa0ons  •  Class  II:  Managerial  &  technical  occupa0ons  •  Class  III:  Skilled  occupa0ons:  Manual  (M)  

and  unmanual  (U)  •  Class  IV:  Partly  skilled  occupa0ons;  •  Class  V:  Unskilled  occupa0ons.      Children  whose  fathers  had  Class  I  occupa0ons  scored  10  IQ  points  higher  than  those  with  fathers  in  the  Class  V  occupa0ons  (Wahlsten,  1997)        Adop0on  studies:  children  coming  from  low  socioeconomic  backgrounds  who  moved  to  a  family  with  high  socioeconomic  status  had  an  IQ  scores  improvement  of  12-­‐16  points.          Confluence  model:  the  context  of  the  family  situa0on  to  explain  intellectual  intelligence.            Zajonc  (1976):  there  are  factors  that  influence  the  rela0onship  between  birth  order  and  intelligence.    First  borns  do  not  have  to  share  their  parents  a[en0on  at  first.  

Concordance Rates

         Ridley  (1999)  shows  the  concordance  rate  of  IQ  (presence  of  the  same  intelligence  level  between  2  individuals).    This  is  consistent  with  several  studies,  which  were  used  to  make  es0mates  of  the  heritability  of  intelligence:  •  Eysenck  (1979):  es0mate  of  69%.    •  Herrnstein  and  Murray  (1994):  es0mate  of  

74%.  

 

         Gene0c  influence  may  be  lower  than  these  previous  es0ma0ons.  More  modern  es0mates  of  heritability  fall  into  a  range:    •  Neisser  et  al.  (1996)  es0ma0ng  40  to  80%  of  

intelligence  is  inherited.  •  Mackintosh  (1998)  es0mate  30  to  75%.    •  The  commonly  accepted  es0mate  is  50%  

(Chipeur  et  al.,  1990).    

Outside Family Factors

         Five  non-­‐shared  factors  outside  the  family  that  can  influence  intelligence  (Harris,  1995):    1.   Context-­‐specific  socialisa;on            As  children  age,  the  family  environment  has  less  impact  and  outside  family  factors  have  more  impact.  2.  Outside-­‐the-­‐home  socialisa;on            Children  can  iden0fy  with  many  social  groups,  and  each  group  will  have  a  different  influence  on  their  intelligence.    3.  Transmission  of  culture  via  group  processes            Social  norms  learnt  from  the  family  are  only  kept  and  shared  by  the  individual  if  they  are  accepted  by  the  social  groups  they  belong  to.    4.  Group  processes  that  widen  differences  between  social  groups            Social  norms  are  not  only  formed  from  fidng  in  with  a  group,  but  from  perceived  differences  of  other  groups  whose  features  are  rejected  5.  Group  processes  that  widen  differences  among  individuals  within  the  group          The  roles  within  a  group  will  influence    intelligence  

 

Genetics        Heritability  of  intelligence  examines  whether  and  to  what  extent  intelligence  is  passed  down  through  genes.  •  Children  biologically  inherit  50%  of  their  

genes  from  the  mother  and  50%  from  the  father  during  concep0on.    

•  Variability  is  the  difference  between  a  parent’s  and  child’s  intelligence.  It  is  assessed  by  looking  at  the  propor0on  of  shared  variance.  High  propor0ons  (100%)  suggests  no  variance  between  parent  and  child.  This  variance  accounted  for  by  gene0cs  is  the  average  es0mate.  

•  Does  not  mean  that  50%  of  intelligence  is  inherited  exactly  from  one  parent,  but  popula0on-­‐wise  this  is  the  case.    

•  Intelligence  is  suscep0ble  to  environmental  influence  as  well,  so  an  es0mate  of  heritability  is  calculated  (h2).    

•  Three  main  types  of  studies  are  used  to  compare  gene0c  and  environmental  influences  on  intelligence:  family  studies,  adop0on  studies  &  twin  studies  

 

Education  Stephen  Ceci  (1990,  1991)    •  Metaanalysis  -­‐  effects  of  a[endance  on  

intelligence  test  scores.    •  Overall  finding  were  that  children  who  

a[end  school  regularly  scored  higher  on  intelligence  tests  than  those  who  a[ended  less  regularly.  

•  Intelligence  test  scores  among  pupils  decreased  over  the  long  summer  holidays.  

•  There  was  a  rise  of  2.7  IQ  points  for  each  year  of  schooling.  

Douglas  Wahlsten  (1997)    •  Noted  that  studies  have  shown  that  delays  

in  star0ng  school  cause  intelligence  tests  scores  to  drop  by  5  IQ  points  a  year.  

Sorel  Cahan  and  Nora  Cohen  (1989)    •  Length  of  schooling  was  important  in  

predic0ng  performance,  more  than  age,  for  all  the  verbal  tests.    

•  Length  of  schooling  also  made  a  contribu0on,  but  a  smaller  contribu0on,  to  performance  on  nonverbal  tests.    

Within family factors

         Reiss  (1997)  has  implicated  three  main  models  to  explain  how  the  genes  we  inherit  form  behaviours  based  on  the  family  environments:    1.  The  passive  model:  Intelligence  is  explained  by  an  overlap  in  genes  -­‐  intelligence  occurs  because  the  parent  and  child  share  the  same  genes  that  influence  intelligent  behaviour.    2.  The  child-­‐effects  model:  Parents  react  differently  to  children  who  demonstrate  intellectual  behaviours.  Harris  (1995)  suggests  that  parental  response  can  manifest  in  two  ways:  Posi;ve  feedback  loops  (reinforcing  the  children’s  natural  intelligence)  and  Nega;ve  Feedback  loops    (children  prevented  from  behaving  consistent  with  natural  intelligence  abili0es).  3.  Parent-­‐effects  model:  Parental  response  to  the  child  influences  the  development  of  the  child’s  behaviour.  The  child’s  intellectual  behaviour  is  driven  by  their  parent’s  intellectual  behaviour.  

Twins

         Due  to  a  failed  assassina0on  a[empt  on  Nigel  Powers,  ‘Dougie’  was  presumed  to  have  died  in  a  car  explosion.  He  was  then  found  and  adopted  by  a  ‘Belgium  boulangerie  worker  and  a  fikeen  year-­‐old  French  pros0tute  named  Chloe  who    had  webbed  feet’.  

         Inherited  50%  of  genes  from  biological  father  and  50%  from  the  biological  mother.  Iden0cal  twins  who  are  raised  separately  have  a  concordance  rate  of  76%.  

         Aus0n  was  raised  by  his  father  Nigel  Powers.  Nigel  works  as  a  spy  for  the  Bri0sh  Government  and  shares  many    similar  personality  traits.    However,  Aus0n  felt  that  Nigel    focused  more  on  being  a  friend    than  a  father-­‐figure.  As  a  result    missed  many  important  moments  in    Aus0n’s  life  ‘Daddy  wasn’t  there’.  

•  Student  in  the  Bri0sh  Intelligence  Academy  

•  Winner  of  the  Interna0onal  Man  of  Mystery  

•  Interna0onal  Super  Spy  

         Nigel  Powers  is  a  Class  I  working  professional  (also  a  Bri0sh  super  spy).  This  meant  he  could  afford  to  send  Aus0n  to  the  Bri0sh  Intelligence  Academy.  

Aus0n  remained  in  the  care  of  his  father  and  so  is  Bri0sh.  Living  in  Britain  during  the  ‘Swinging  six0es’  caused  his  colourful  dress-­‐sense  and  dislike  of  authority  figures  such  as  Dr.  Evil.  

Dr.  Evil  was  adopted  by  Belgians  and  this  is  accredited  for  his  evil  nature.  

         Dr.  Evil’s  adop0ve  parents  are  Class  V  unskilled  workers.  Which  meant  that  Dr.  Evil  should  have  been  disadvantaged.  However,  Dr.  Evil  a[ended  the  same  school  as  Aus0n,  perhaps  though  scholarships.  

•  Top  student  in  the  Bri0sh  Intelligence  Academy  

•  Six  years  of  Evil  Medical  School  •  Evil  genius  who  has  invented  numerous  

evil  devices  for  either  world  destruc0on  or  domina0on    

         Inherited  50%  of  genes  from  biological  father  and  50%  from  the  biological  mother.  Iden0cal  twins  who  are  raised  separately  have  a  concordance  rate  of  76%.  

87% 86%

76%

55%47%

40%31%

24%

0% 0%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

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Persontaking thesame IQtest twice

Identicaltwinsreared

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Fraternaltwinsreared

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Biologicalsiblingsreared

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Parentsand

childrenliving

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Parentsand

childrenliving apart

Biologicalsiblingsrearedapart

Adoptedchildrenliving

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Unrelatedpeople

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Level of genetic relatedness

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!

•  People  in  Dr.  Evil’s  life  that  may  have  influenced  his  intelligence  are:  Number  2,  Sco[  Evil,  Frau  Farbissina,  Mini-­‐me  and  Mustafa  

•  As  leader  of  his  evil  organisa0on,  the  leadership  role  would  have  improved  his  intelligence.  Although  much  of  the  technical  running  of  the  organisa0on  is  lek  to  Number  2.  

•  People  in  Aus0n’s  life  who  may  have  influenced  his  intelligence  are:  Vanessa  Kensington,  Basil  Exposi0on,  Felicity  Shagwell,  Foxxy  Cleopatra  and  Marie  Kensington.  

•  Aus0n  had  a  high  role  within  the  group,  and  at  0mes  was  required  to  take  a  leadership  role,  which  would  have  increased  his  intelligence    

         Although  having  an  extremely  unusual  upbringing,  Dr.  Evil  parent’s  seem  to  have  encouraged  his  pursuit  of  evil.  It  is  likely  that  posi0ve  feedback  loops  and  the  s0mula0ng  response  of  his  parents  developed  his  intelligence  and  evil  disposi0on.  

         As  Aus0n  felt  that  his  father  was  not  fully  engaged  in  his  upbringing  it  is  hard  to  tell  what  influence  this  had  on  his  intelligence.  It  is  possible  he  followed  his  father’s  career  path  in  an  a[empt  to  gain  recogni0on  and  respect.