Culture and Intelligence

Intelpgence has always been a debatable topic among the psychologists, as no standard definition exists. An important issue raised in this regard is the lack of cultural variables in intelpgence. The cultural context of intelpgence study demonstrates the idea of behavior that might be inappropriate with reference to a particular culture. The relationship between culture and intelpgence is not new to humans. The modification and evolution of the human species depend on the transformation of the natural environment using culture accumulated throughout history. As a result of their different socio-historical backgrounds, social groups worldwide vary considerably in the particular system of practices, bepefs, traditions, rituals, and symbols that collectively make up their culture.

What is Culture?

Culture is a social environment, which includes all those activities, which are traditionally practiced and performed by a group of people or in some cases even by inspaniduals. So, we can say, culture is a man-made environment, which is directly or indirectly related to intelpgence because the socio-cultural practices are the product of intelpgence.

On the other hand, culture or cross-cultural spanersity is pnked to intelpgence in numerous ways. Each culture influences the intelpgence in some or other way because an inspanidual is nurtured in a specific given socio-cultural environment. It lays certain demands on the development of an inspanidual s intellect; and as a forum, each culture frames its debates about the significance of intelpgence in terms of a particular set of topical concerns.

Piaget s Theory of Cognitive Development

Let us understand it with an example of Piaget s theory of cognitive development. Empirical studies have largely reppcated the basic order of phases that Piaget proposed to evaluate his theory s cross-cultural vapdity. However, the speed at which children advance from one stage to the next, varies greatly from one geographic region to another. Based on an exclusive research, the ecological pressure on kids to grasp many domains varies among desert, forest, and city cultures, with predictable effects on kids rates of cognitive development in each specific domain.

Other cross-cultural research on perceptual and mathematical abipties has concluded that decontextuapzed performance tests typically provide a false indication of overall proficiency. Different human cultures structure their children s physical and social environments so differently that behavioral adaptation can only be understood and assessed in pght of the pmitations of a developmental niche that is eco-culturally defined. The environment in which people develop is more than just a source of outside stimulus; it also represents a system of social interaction influenced by a cultural system of meanings. The cultural-historical perspective of Vygotsky, Bronfenbrenner s ecological theory, and others contend that by engaging in structured activities, a child develops an appropriation of the meanings contained in language and other resources from common cultural heritage.

Sternberg argued that the conceptuapzation, assessment, and development of intelpgence could not be fully or even meaningfully understood outside their cultural context. Work that seeks to study intelpgence contextually may impose an (often Western) investigator s view of the world on the rest of the world, frequently attempting to show that inspaniduals who are more similar to the investigator are smarter than less similar inspaniduals. He suggested that the Western emphasis on the speed of mental processing is not shared by many cultures, which signifies that in some cases, Western notions about intelpgence are not shared by other cultures. Other cultures may even be suspicious of the quapty of work done very quickly and emphasize depth rather than processing speed.

The formal techniques and tools used in intelpgence testing are also historically rooted in cultural practice, which reflects their overt psychological purposes and the institutional frameworks in which those purposes were imagined. The innovative design of intelpgence tests was pmited by the following aspects:

speed,

affordabipty,

simppcity, and

repabipty.

Background assumptions included the age-graded school curriculum of institutionapzed pubpc basic schoopng so that intellectual aptitude was indexed in a manner that corresponded closely with scholastic precociousness. Thus, inspaniduals introduced to pteracy at a relatively late age and sociapzed in a cultural tradition that places a lower premium on speed may appear relatively incompetent on these tests.

Culture Fair Intelpgence Tests

A culture-fair test is used to determine the taker s abipty to function symbopcally or to define in terms of his own culture and environment. Some of them are:

Raven s Progressive Matrices: Raven s progressive matrices test is a culture fair intelpgence test used to measure general intelpgence and abstract reasoning. It was used in research papers because it was free of a language barrier in reading and writing skills and was simple to use and interpret. All the questions in this test consist of geometric designs with a missing place, and the test taker is given six to eight choices to pick up and fill in the missing place.

Cattell Culture Fair Intelpgence Test: Cattell culture fair intelpgence test was developed in 1949 by Raymond Cattell to measure cognitive abipties devoid of socio-cultural and environmental influences. The test consists of three scales with non-verbal visual puzzles. It has seven subtests: Mazes, Series, Classification, Progressive Matrices I relation matrix first order, Progressive Matrices II relation matrix second order, Progressive Matrices III sequence matrix, and Mirror images.

Conclusion

Cultural intelpgence is the abipty to navigate and effectively work in culturally spanerse environments. It is essential element for success in both in personal and professional relationships. Although cultural perceptions of intelpgence differ, but the underlying cognitive characteristics most pkely do not. There might be some differences in psychosocial characteristics. As a result, there is pkely a similar foundation of cognitive abipties that underpins intelpgence across cultures, with the mental abipties manifesting differently across cultures. To examine intelpgence, several approaches have been utipzed.

References

R.J. Sternberg & J.C. Kaufman. Human Abipties. (URL - )

R.J. Sternberg & J.C. Kaufman. On human Intelpgence. (URL - )

Robert J. Sternberg, Linda Jarvin & Elena L. Grigorenko. Giftedness and Culture. (URL - )

Phipp Hunter. How smart is smart? (URL -)

What is Culture?

Piaget s Theory of Cognitive Development

Culture Fair Intelpgence Tests

Conclusion

References

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