IQ causes success Essay Example for Free

IQ causes success Essay I was particularly intrigued by the authors’ discussion of the cultural differences that affect the ways in which people deal with concepts. In order to illustrate this point, the authors point to the different ways in which Chinese and American people deal with the conflict between capitalism and communism. The first tends to seek out some kind of common ground between two different concepts while the latter tends to place different concepts into either/or categories. This discussion of culturally contingent ways of thinking made me wonder how much more successful high-level political debates would be if both parties tried to understand not just the other’s position but the way of thinking that allowed them to arrive at that position. The discussion of problem solving tactics (algorithms and heuristics) and obstacles to problem solving was interesting as it contained practical, real-world applications of the course material. I had one question, however, when reading this section. From the discussion, it seems that the authors are taking emotional detachment from the problem as a given, i. e. the ability to think logically about the problem is a prerequisite for problem solving. However, they do not ever explicitly discuss this necessity or how to achieve it. With regards to IQ, the authors discuss a longitudinal study undertaken by Lewis Terman in the 1920s. Terman found that children with high IQs continued to have academic and career success throughout their lives. The way the authors’ discussion is worded, it seems that they are saying that high IQ causes success. However, there could have been other contributing factors to these individuals’ success. For example, a child identified early on as having a high IQ might have more encouragement and attention from their parents and teachers. They might also be subjected to greater expectations for success. These factors, and not just the IQ alone, could also cause the success of the individual.