Lesson Notes

Lesson 8.4aExtremes in Intelligence: Mental Retardation and Giftedness

This lesson discusses the terms of retardation and giftedness. One may assume that to be gifted means success. But, in Terman’s  study of gifted students in 1921 (these are students with an IQ of over 140) he not only found that many of these kids grew up to be professionals and earn more money, he also found that there were others who got divorced, became alcoholics, and even committed suicide. Therefore, it is important to note, that having a high IQ does not automatically mean success. On the other end of the spectrum, people who are considered to have mental retardation are those who have an IQ of 70 or less. Although this may mean that a person will be low-functioning in many areas of their lives, there are others who may excel in one particular area – these people are called savants. When people have these labels they can have dramatic effects on people’s lives – for the good and the bad.

Finally, you will read about some of the other controversies relating to intelligence. These include:

• Nature vs. Nurture: Are we born smart or do we learn from our environment. Do our genetics play the biggest role in our intelligence?
• Gender Differences: Whose smarter boys or girls? According to recent studies, girls outperform boys in almost all areas of intelligence. Do you believe it?
• Race differences:  A book called the Bell Curve would argue that white people are smarter than black people in the United States based on IQ tests. But ID tests have shown to have a cultural bias. In other words, these same theorists might also argue that Americans are smarter than Canadians (many traditional IQ tests had questions pertaining to US history and culture.