The human race has been very curious about the brain for a long time. There have been many studies on the brain such as whether intelligence has some connection with the size of brain, comparison of human brain with other species, what influences intelligence, whether intelligence is inborn, and so on. It will be useful to know how intelligence is determined when it comes to the risk that a child could have an intellectual disability or an elderly person could have dementia. Taking into account topics that people wonder about or may be helpful, this essay will explain how outside factors might influence intelligence.
It was been widely believed that the human brain, intelligence to be exact, is basically inherited but also can be nurtured. To date, many studies have had quite a range of scientific evidences that proves this belief. There are also some studies that show what factors influence intelligence and how the factors influence intelligence. They largely point out education and socioeconomic status as environmental factors.
There is a tendency for intelligence to show gender differences to some extent. No differences on overall IQ scores (gained via IQ test which is a means of measuring intelligence) can be found between male and female but it appears to indicate gender differences on specific intellectual skills. On average, females are good at language and fine dexterity while males are skilled at spatial relations and mathematical reasoning. With regard to spatial relations, the reason for the differences was not able to reveal if it is caused by educational environment even though the differentials increase with age. However, in terms of mathematical reasoning, it seems that the clue has been found. The clue is presumed that many boys take mathematics course in advance unlike girls. Thus, in general, there is no such differences of intelligence in sex except for some specific skills and even the specific skills have just small gaps that could be caused by the educational environment (Seal, 1997).
Another outside factor might impact intelligence is the domestic environment. Stumm and Plumin (2015) studied how the family socioeconomic status (henceforth, SES) impacts children’s development of intelligence until they reach adolescence, which is from the age of 2 to 16. They presented graphs showing this. According to the graphs, there are gender differences and age differences regarding the impacts of SES on intelligence. IQ scores of boys who had high SES increased from around 100 to 106. By contrast, IQ scores of boys who had low SES continuously decreased from 100 to 90. In the case of girls, IQ scores of children who had high SES very slightly grew from 108 to 110, while IQ scores of girls who had low SES declined from 100 to 92. Therefore, their study shows significant impacts of family socioeconomic status on intelligence and also implies the importance of domestic set-up to children (Stumm & Plumin, 2015).
This essay examined how education and family socioeconomic status might influence intelligence. It did not include intrinsic factors which are probably reading or learning. To conclude, the implied intrinsic factors gives people some hope that a mediocre person who does not have high IQ score or towering family background can be smart through reading and learning.
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References:
Seal, B. (1997), Academic encounters: content focus, human behavior. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Stumm, S. & Plumin, R. (2015). Socioeconomic status and the growth of intelligence from infancy through adolescence. Intelligence 48, 30-36.
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