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AP English 2B
Graduation Project Essay
April 22, 2015
The Disadvantages of the IQ Test

In 1905, the well-known and influential French psychologist Alfred Binet created
the worlds first Intelligence Test (Myers). France had just passed a law requiring all
children to attend school, but they were having trouble placing children in the appropriate
level of classes. Where the children were placed in school was in the hands of the
teachers own judgment and the French government did not have complete confidence in
this method. They believed that teachers might judge the schoolchildren based on social
aspects such as background, race or religion, and not on the correct matter, like reading
and writing comprehension. So to prevent misjudgments from happening they appointed
Binet and his colleague Thodore Simon to study and solve the problem. Their research
led them to establish the term mental age: the chronological age that most typically
corresponds to a given level of performance (Myers). They gave reasoning and
problem-solving questions to measure a childs mental age and used this data to place
French children in the correct classes. Thanks to Binets platform of the intelligence test,
and Lewis Turmans well-known revision of Binets work known as the Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Test, the German psychologist William Stern was able to create the worlds
famously known Intelligence Quota Test, or IQ Test. Turmans achievement quickly

became a phenomenon and was widely used across the world. It was so influential that in
fact the United States government used it to measure the intelligence of new immigrants
and even World War I army recruits. But with this achievement comes conflict too. A
persons IQ is defined originally as the ratio of mental age to chronological age
multiplied by 100 (Myers). The IQ test is designed to test ones general intelligence
which is the three key components of intelligence: short-term memory, reasoning, and a
verbal component (Collins). Intelligence is the ability to learn or understand things or to
deal with new or difficult situations (Merriam-Webster) and there are certainly more
components that need to be tested in able to fully measure a persons brainpower. The
IQ test does not accurately reflect ones full intelligence because it only tests three
components of intellect and not other facets of our mental abilities, such as creativity
and social skills, and as a result creates stereotypes that sort people into specific
groups.
The brain is the most complex organ in our entire body. It contains millions and
millions of neurons, so how can only one test score measure the capability of our brains?
The brain is not only made up of short-term memory, reasoning and verbal components.
The brain is our senses, personality, long-term memories, movements and emotions.
Every human is significantly different, so each individual has his or her own level of
general intelligence. There is no single general intelligence that applies to every person
in the world, so the entire IQ test should not be based off of this theory. Since the IQ test
is, indeed, designed according to this theory, it is testing people based off of an average
level of intellect and not a level that directly applies to the test-taker. A solution to this

problem may be connected to the theory of multiple intelligences, introduced by Howard

Gardner in 1983. He proposed that an individual has eight specific intelligences, instead
of only 3, as general intelligence claims. The eight intelligences are word, logic, nature,
picture, body, music, people and self-smart. The map below shows a range of different
abilities one can have and describes the specific intelligences Gardner

proposed.

Self:
learning
Self: learning
through
through your
your
own
own feelings
feelings
and attitude

People:
learning
through
communicati
communicati
on
with
on with
others
others

Music:
excels
Music: excels
in
performing,
singing,
or
singing, or
composing

Word:
Word:
readng,
listening,
speaking and
writing

Gardner's
Multiple
Intelligenc
es

Body:
learning
learning
through
the
through the
environment
environment

Logic:
Logic:
reasoning
reasoning
and problem
problem
and
solving

Nature:
learning
through
classification
classification
and
and
hierarchies
hierarchies

Picture:
Picture:
learning
through
shapes,
shapes,
visuals,
or
visuals, or
designs
designs

Gardner developed this theory by studying individuals who were highly intelligent in one
field, but scored low in another (Myers). If the theory of multiple intelligences were
applied to the modern day IQ test it could help eliminate inaccurate scores that do not
apply to the test-takers true intelligence. Ultimately, this would be fairer to the person
taking the IQ test and would create test scores that people could trust more and rely on in
terms of knowing their correct level of intelligence. Cambridge scientists, who now
work at the prestigious Brain and Mind Institute in London, have created a new, online
intelligence test that measures multiple components of our intelligence. The test contains

12 different sections that test various parts of our brain that are usually ignored in the
standard IQ test. Over 110,000 people across the world have taken the test and it has
showed considerable results. The scientists collected 16 volunteers of the 110,000 testtakers and scanned their brains after taking the test. Their results showed that the
volunteers brains showed multiple activity in short-term memory, reasoning and verbal
component functions of the brain and decided that the theory of general intelligence is
not a trustworthy theory. This theory is not trustworthy because it overlooks other
elements of intelligence that an individual could possibly be more skilled in.
A persons conscious awareness of themselves and surrounding also contributes to
their intelligence because ones knowledge is their awareness of themselves, other people
and their environment and how they take in their surroundings. An environment has a
greater effect on someone than they think it does. For example, how and where a person
is raised when they are a baby can greatly affect their knowledge because it is the critical
stage in their development. Their environment influences how the person acts, feels and
thinks because they are constantly being surrounded by it. From other people and
surroundings, an individual learns and finds solutions to problems because they are
influenced by external factors, such as a best friend or the type of home one grew up in.
Finding solutions means new ideas, new ideas means creativity and creativity means
intelligence. Being able to come up with new and innovative solutions that produce
successful outcomes does not require a high IQ score (Christensen). Whether you have an
extremely low or high score it does not apply to your ability of coming up with creative

ideas and using your knowledge to accomplish things in a different, inspired way.
Everyones ideas are creative in their own way so one intelligence test could not possibly
attempt to test someones problem-solving skills.
Not only are IQ scores made for the test-taker, in the past they had been used to
categorize children in school. Though it is not popular today, but in the 1960s IQ and
test scores had been used to place students in either a higher -level class, for students with
high test scores, or a lower level class, for students with low scores. A Harvard
psychologist named Robert Rosenthal wanted to prove that using IQ scores for sorting
children was not an effective or correct way to place children in classes. In 1965, he and
his colleague Lenor Jacobson ran an experiment at a San Francisco elementary school.
They chose 20 percent of the children and told teachers that they had scored high on a
Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition, when really this test never existed. They told the
teachers that these specific students were bound to grow intellectually throughout the
school year and show positive results in the classroom. In the end, this 20 percent of
students had indeed improved. They had higher test scores on classroom tests and
especially on the IQ test. This experiment showed that if someone has high expectations
for a child, the child will work hard to fulfill their authorities expectations (Goldstein).
This breakthrough experiment that Rosenthal and Jacobson directed showed America that
they can no longer rely on IQ scores to judge where a child will succeed in a classroom.
This type of sorting leads to strong stereotypes in a childs mental capabilities. If a child
were to get a very low IQ score, they would immediately assume that they were not smart

and it could potentially prevent the child from having goals and ambition in school.
(Livestrong). People stereotype themselves as being smart and not smart because
they do not think about other components of intelligence that they are strong in. They are
not aware that the IQ test only measures your general intelligence, so people immediately
assume they are an all around dumb person, if given a low score.
One might object that the theory of general intelligence is not a correct way to
shape the Intelligence Quota test from. If we do continue to test people on only shortterm memory, reasoning and verbal component than we will continue to recieve
inaccurate scores for people. This is an unfair method to test peoples intelligence with
and if we want to know our true intellectual capabilities then psychologists should highly
consider using Gardners multiple intelligences theory for the basis of the IQ test.
Altering the IQ test could increase the trustworthiness and reliability of the single IQ
score by a great deal and it could potentially eliminate some of the controversies that
come along with IQ tests. Using the theory of multiple intelligences could certainly be a
solution for stereotyping and sorting, regarding a persons IQ scores. If a person is tested
on eight components of intelligence and not just three, than they are much more able to
score higher because they could actually be tested on components of intelligence that
they are better at. Higher test scores and more specific materials that apply to the
multiple intelligence theory can get rid of sorting and stereotyping because people will
have more knowledge that they are being tested in more intelligence fields. More
intelligence fields means more exposure to the capabilities of our brains and thats the

exact reason why people want to take the IQ test. If we altered the IQ test to make it
more reliable, it could possibly become as popular as it was years ago and allow us to see
how intelligent we really are.