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Is Intelligence Nature Or Nurture Essay

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One important component of a person 's identity is Intelligence. According to Dan Hurley, Intelligence is how we use and learn from experiences to gain insight into life, as well as making sense of information we are given, in a world where media can often influence or change information. (Hurley) According to this definition intelligence is not how “smart” we are, or how good at solving common problems, but more about how we make sense of things and look at things from different perspectives. The origin of Intelligence has been widely debated. Some argue that genetics can affect a person’s intelligence (nature), while others argue that the environment we are raised and educated in has a more significant affect (nurture). While it is likely that both of these factors play a crucial role in a person’s intelligence , nurture is more significant. A great deal of research has been conducted that supports …show more content…

Their study helps to illustrate this argument. Scientists tested the IQ of siblings raised by their biological parents compared to siblings raised by more educated adoptive parents. Researchers found that the IQ of the siblings raised by their, often less educated biological parents, was approximately 4.4 points lower than of those raised by adoptive parents. The evidence outlined above offers valid support for the nurture argument but, once again, it is not without flaws. One limitation is that only identical twins share the exact same genes. Since this study didn’t only record data from identical twins but also fraternal twins as well as regular siblings, the genes can vary slightly. Therefore, the difference the adoptive parents environment made could not be recorded

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IQ while a good evaluation of a persons ability to solve logic problems is not the epitome of intelligence. If you have IQ with out practical or social intelligence in a significant quantity it wont garner you much success in the world. It needs an addition of that practical or social intelligence in order for you to become exceptionally successful within the world. The examples put forth in the book are of Chris Langan who’s IQ was in the 190 to 200’s range, Terman’s Termites (a group of students with IQ’s of 140+ that Terman followed for his Genetic Studies of Genius.), and Robert Oppenheimer. We also have two differing tests one that touches on just IQ and the other that touches on practical intelligence.

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Mike Rose disagrees with the assumption that “Intelligence is closely associated with formal education” (Mike, 247). Formal education does not always measure the level of intelligence of a person. Education as something people can gain not only in school, but every day of their lives. We should be learning from our experiences, and apply this knowledge to our everyday lives. Wisdom should not be looked at as just

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According to many results in IQ tests, scientists found out that IQs don’t require intelligence, Instead it mostly depends on grit and conscientiousness. The whole grit means that intelligence or talent doesn’t

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Lastly, passage three contrasts with passage two in that society believes that high IQ, an innate ability that is out of one’s control, is the determinant in how successful people will be. However, innate IQ only matters to a point and beyond that there is no significant difference between high IQ people and average IQ

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Ridley talks about facts and uses logic in regard of divorce rates in twins and criminal records of adoptees in Denmark. Closely observing that divorce rates in twins are partly supported by genetic variation and partly by non-shared environmental factors, it was concluded that, “You are no more likely to divorce if reared in a broken home than the average.” This shows that non-shared environment-- home and parents-- do not affect the person’s choices, characters or personalities but it is rather the environment consisting of peers along with genes that play a role. Similarly adoptees that have a criminal record usually diminish once adopted in a neighbourhood and going to school with non-criminal backgrounds and good morals even if biological and adopting parents have a criminal background. These two examples show strong reasons to support Ridley’s

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After all, some of the most successful people in all kinds of fields such as science, business, and entertainment are extremely bright. In today’s society we often assume that those with extremely high IQs are naturally more successful, though there is an equally compelling stereotype that people with very high IQs are sometimes less likely to prosper in social life; that these highly intelligent individuals have poor social skills and that they might struggle in social setting (Cherry, Kendra. " Does Having a High IQ Lead to Success in Life?" About.com Health. N.p., 26 May 2015.

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Lewis Terman believed that IQ was the determining factor in any one person’s life - it would decide how successful they would be, how many awards they would receive and scholarly papers they would write, how well their future job might pay. He tested and gathered the most measurably intelligent children he could find - “gifted” individuals - and studied them over the course of their lives to observe how far they would go. The outcome of that study, and how Terman’s idea has created and influenced gifted programs for children in the United States, will show that not only does the gifted classification serve no long-term purpose, but it also tends to hurt the upcoming generations more than it helps them, creating a faulty dichotomy within the education system. Malcolm Gladwell disproves the idea of IQ determining success in his book Outliers, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from believing it.

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Dr. Rettew connects to class discussions and readings on shared and unshared environmental influences, evocative gene environment correlation, temperament, and the goodness-of-fit. Twins that with unshared environmental influences, such as different placentas, could adapt different temperaments (Berk, 2009). Also, twins that have been adopted into separate families could have different personality traits because they lived in completely different environments their whole life, even if they shared environmental influences of the same placenta (Berk, 2009). With an evocative gene environment correlation, a child’s genotype could draw in a certain type of environment, such as babies who appear more attractive will receive more attention (Berk, 2009). The type of attention a child gets could affect its temperament.

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Levitt and Dubner discuss different factors that do and do not have a significant role in creating higher test scores. Levitt and Dubner concluded that a “child’s academic abilities are far more influenced by the IQs of his biological parents.” This is apparent due to the nature of adoption, typically those adopting are of higher economic class (adoption is expensive), are more educated, and are born into a better household. A person who puts their child up for adoption is more likely to be less educated, younger and more likely to “not take the same prenatal care as a woman who is keeping her baby.” This revelation was the fundamental argument of chapter 5: no matter what a parent does, the strongest correlation between higher performances in children is genetics.

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Another variable that determines the race of the adopted child varies by the presence of other children in the household. As a matter a fact, they found that “[w]hen there are biologically related children in the household, the adopted child is significantly more likely to be white, like his or her adopting parents and thus, in most cases, like his or her

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I absolutely disagree with the statement that one 's race affects their level of intelligence. This assertion is completely invalid, and also offensive. To even suggest that a person 's intellect is inferior to another 's due to the color of his or her skin would be a completely unwarranted accusation, based on racial prejudice. I know for certain that race does not dictate intelligence because I have acquainted myself with multitudes of people of the same race, and each person 's level of intelligence greatly differed from the other 's. My genius of a friend, Monica Winn, is a white woman with the wits and cunning of a serpent. She is the top of her class and has practically never received a bad grade.

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In today’s society people often correlate test scores and percentages to how intelligent a person is. Although, I believe intelligence is also a mix of experiences, I strive to control what people judge me on, which is calculated numbers.

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Studies show that nurture is more responsible for the way you act. Nurture dictates how you respond to others. It is true that many identical twins are a lot alike, but people don’t notice the differences between them. For example, the Jim twins were a lot alike, but I think that is just a coincidence. Anais and Sam both had the same laugh, but they also had different jobs.

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WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE? There has been many debates as well as

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This is a very important statement because in short it means they are both equally important. Length and width are both needed to find the area of rectangle so in turn nature and nurture are needed to create someone’s personality. Continuing on the I.Q. debate from earlier, evidence shows that siblings that are adopted are just as similar as strangers are to each other. Whereas siblings that are blood related or twins have more similar IQ 's. Even if two identical twins were raised separately and fraternal twins were raised together, the identical twins are still more likely to have a closer I.Q. to each other. (Harcourt, 1).

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