Runninghead:INTELLIGENCEANDCULTURE

Intelligence and Culture

Maria de Jesus Rocha
Arizona State University

EDP 310: Ed Psychology for Non-Teachers

Professor Dr. Newsome
Signature Assignment
November 21 2016

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Introduction

What is Intelligence? Although it may seem an obvious answer, I was hesitant on how to
answer this question. Personally, I defined someone who is intelligent as a person who is an A
student and is knowledgeable. Now that I am older, I know my definition is not accurate because
I did not factor in a persons background or their experiences. As for myself, I do not consider
myself intelligent, but I worked hard to receive good grades in school and I am only one
semester away from receiving my Bachelors degree in Educational Studies. My journey is
headed to a successful path because I now know that I am intelligent in my own way. I do
believe that there is more than one way in measuring intelligence because we are all unique and
come from different cultures. Being intelligent is a social construct and therefore intelligence
could mean something completely different to me than to another person from a different culture
than mine.
Key Ideas
We are all very unique and intelligent in our own way. Our intelligence is an important
subject in human psychology because it plays a huge role in our success. According to the article
Genetic Foundations of Human Intelligence, it states how they describe the human
intelligence phenotype, summarize the evidence for its heritability, provide an overview of and
comment on molecular genetic studies, and comment on future progress in the field (Deary,
Johnson & Houlihan 2009). It was an interesting article to read because it explains how
intelligence is a measurable trait, but it is not as straightforward as measuring our height and
weight. We must first describe the phenotype of intelligence. If we test a group of people, some
will perform better than others due to various reasons. Some may have a different experience or

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an understanding with the test, or may have never been exposed to the questions being asked.
A childs environment is involved in their development of intelligence. Studies generally
indicate that genetic influences unique to IQ and not shared with genetic influences on
socioeconomic status (SES) are more important in environments of higher rather than lower SES,
at least in childhood (Deary, Johnson & Houlihan 2009). It would be a surprise if our genes and
our environment did not contribute in some way to our intelligence. By understanding how they
contribute will help teachers better understand intelligence and how it develops. Performance on
intelligence testing does vary from place to place in our nation diversity and socioeconomic
status.
Personal Critique
My parents never received any type of schooling when they lived in Mexico. When they
decided to migrate to America, they knew they wanted their children to have the education we
deserved. My siblings and I never asked our parents for help with our homework, which made it
was very challenging for us to complete an assignment we did not understand. Luckily for us,
there was a library nearby with supportive tutors that were happy to help us. I am thankful for the
help I received growing up and their encouragement to thrive in school. I cannot begin to
imagine what it would be like if I never received any of their support. There are many families
and communities who do not have this type of support programs or even a library where children
can go to complete their homework. When we rob our children from these types of programs, it
will result in students not caring or wanting to attend their classes because they are afraid of
failing.
In the article Genetic Foundations of Human Intelligence, it explains how
socioeconomic status and our environment can affect our intelligence. Personal characteristics

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such as motivation, ability to delay gratification, belief in the power of effort and achievement,
and strong sense of identity are believed to be more important than IQ in life success (Nagar &
Porath, 2014). If our child is in an environment filled with positive influences in their lives and
have the support they need to thrive in school, they will have a successful life. To me that is
being intelligent. In a childs environment, it consists of nurturing teachers and loving parents.
Having tutors are also beneficial to support a students needs.

Key Ideas
Intelligence is primarily based on our socio-cognitive skills because they are shared and
learned from our environment. In the article Physical Intelligence does Matter to Cumulative
Technological Culture, it states that by definition culture requires social learning and the social
and physical intelligence hypotheses are of course in line with this (Osiurak et al., 2016).
Culture is strongly influenced by intelligence. Experiments made in this article have shown that
our culture forms our social learning. A learners intelligence is important in observational
learning and when they verbally interact with others especially with their teachers. Social
intelligence is important because it helps teachers and students better communicate with each
other. Parents pass their traditions down to their children and they learn how to socialize because
of their siblings. Social learning is the best factor in explaining the differences in how
intelligence is defined.
Personal Critique
Growing up in a Mexican traditional home has made me feel very proud of my culture.
My parents made it an effort in their part to explain how important it is for us to work hard to
receive good grades in school. I only wanted to make my parents proud and do as they had asked

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from me. I worked hard to have good grades, but I never defined myself as intelligent. I have
learned so much from my culture and working hard to achieve success is an important one. I
learned how to be a more independent, responsible and reliable individual.
Comparing and Contrasting Articles
Both of these articles were interesting to read and with so much information. It made it
difficult to decide which part to discuss and what I should leave out. Each of these articles had
important topics they discussed and I learned from each of them. If I compared the two articles I
have to say that they both talked about intelligence, but in their own way and that was the only
similarity I saw. The first article discussed how genes and our environment play a huge role in
our intelligence. In the second article discussed how our culture plays a part in our learning and
intelligence. We are all unique and learn differently. Our environment and our culture play an
important role in how we learn. According to research on motivation, learning goals and
feedback, it is better to encourage beliefs that intelligence is dynamic and malleable rather than
fixed and inborn (Nagar & Porath, 2014). Students must have positive influences in their lives
in order to become confident and successful individuals. Both of these articles made valid points
because a person has different set of values and backgrounds. We were all raised differently and
have learned different things.
I do believe that there in more than one way in measuring intelligence. In my research, I
found Gardners Theory of Multiple Intelligences perfect for teachers to use because it helps
teachers understand how their students think and learn. Emotional intelligence is also important
because it involves self-awareness, motivation, altruism and empathy (Nagar & Porath, 2014).
EQ will help students understand themselves and achieve their own goals.
Conclusion

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What I would like to see as a future direction about intelligence is that educators take a
better look and recognize that not all cultures define intelligence the same way. As a future
educator, I know this will be very important for me to learn now because the demographics of
my classroom will be diverse. As Nagar and Porath explain, culture cannot be ignored in our
quest to understand human intelligence and human abilities in general (2014, p. 194). Culture
not only tells us what the individual believes but also what they know and consider intelligent.

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References

Ngara, C. & Porath, M. (2014). Intelligence and Individual Differences. In A. Holliman (Ed.),
The Routledge International Companion to Educational Psychology (p. 154-161). Oxon:
Routledge.
Deary, I. J., Johnson, W., & Houlihan, L. M. (2009). Genetic foundations of human intelligence.
Human Genetics, 126(1), 215-232. doi:10.1007/s00439-009-0655-4
Osiurak, F., De Oliveira, E., Navarro, J., Lesourd, M., Claidire, N., & Reynaud, E. (2016).
Physical intelligence does matter to cumulative technological culture. Journal of
Experimental Psychology. General, 145(8), 941-948. doi:10.1037/xge0000189