Jensenism

The gap of the IQ between white and black students was a subject of debate in the United States, particularly around the 1970s. One view, which is referred to among behavioral geneticists as the genetic position, holds that IQ is determined by hereditary factors - about 80 percent of the variability of intelligence while 20 percent is attributed to environmental factors.{{Cite book|title=Black Americans: A Psychological Analysis|last=Baughman|first=E. Earl|publisher=Academic Press|year=2013|isbn=9781483267432|location=New York|pages=8–10}} The gap, therefore, was associated with race. Jensenism was as one of the most notable theories to have emerged from this sector. It was based on Arthur Jensen's 1969 article that talked about the failure of compensatory education. He cited several evidence that demonstrated how IQ is inherited. For instance, he said that if one looks at studies of adopted children, "you find that their intelligence relates more closely to their natural parents."{{Cite book|title=The Wrong Direction: An Educator Speaks Out|last=Hancock|first=Richard S.|publisher=Trafford Publishing|year=2005|isbn=141205785X|location=Victoria, BC|pages=247}} He also proposed that the measured 15-point difference between American blacks and whites could never be eliminated by education.{{Cite book|title=A History of Anthropological Theory, Fifth Edition|last1=Erickson|first1=Paul|last2=Murphy|first2=Liam|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2017|isbn=9781442636842|location=North York, Ontario|pages=121}}

Many reactions to Jensen's article and the arguments it contained quickly ensued, some highly favorable and others relentlessly negative, with some directly equating it with racism. Among the latter was a paper by behavioral geneticist Jerry Hirsch, who claimed that Jensenism was an "intellectual disgrace", while also criticizing some of Jensen's earlier critics as resorting to "inarticulate and self-defeating hooliganism".{{Cite journal |last=Hirsch |first=Jerry |author-link=Jerry Hirsch |date=January 1975 |title=Jensenism: The Bankruptcy of "Science" Without Scholarship |journal=Educational Theory |language=en |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=3–27 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-5446.1975.tb00663.x |issn=0013-2004}} In a 1970 article responding to Jensen, biologist Richard Lewontin argued that Jensenism was a more recent manifestation of 17th-century Jansenism, referring to the former as a "doctrine" that is "as erroneous in the twentieth century as it was in the seventeenth."{{Cite journal |last=Lewontin |first=Richard C. |author-link=Richard Lewontin|date=March 1970 |title=Race and Intelligence|journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |language=en |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=2–8 |doi=10.1080/00963402.1970.11457774 |bibcode=1970BuAtS..26c...2L |issn=0096-3402}} Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould also criticized Jensenism, arguing that it rested "on a rotten edifice."{{Cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-xpm-2012-nov-02-la-me-arthur-jensen-20121102-story.html |title=Arthur Jensen dies at 89; his views on race and IQ created a furor |last=Woo |first=Elaine |date=2012-11-02 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=2018-09-19 |language=en-US |issn=0458-3035}} Jensen's ideas reportedly received a more favorable reception in the Nixon administration; Lewontin quoted then-United States ambassador to India Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1974 as saying, "The winds of Jensenism are blowing through Washington with gale force."{{Cite news |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1974/7/12/lewontin-tells-300-at-forum-race/ |title=Lewontin Tells 300 at Forum Race and I.Q. Are Not Linked |last=Cohen |first=Bennett D. |date=1974-07-12 |work=The Harvard Crimson |access-date=2018-09-19 |language=en}}

More recently, several favorable articles defending Jensen and his ideas have criticized the frequent negative use of the term "Jensenism".{{Cite journal |last1=Deary |first1=Ian J. |author-link=Ian Deary|last2=Crawford |first2=J.R. |date=January 1998 |title=A triarchic theory of Jensenism: Persistent, conservative reductionism |journal=Intelligence |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=273–282 |doi=10.1016/s0160-2896(99)80011-7 |issn=0160-2896}}{{Cite journal |last=Kaufman |first=Alan S. |author-link=Alan S. Kaufman|date=January 1998 |title=A new twist on Jensenism |journal=Intelligence |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=249–253 |doi=10.1016/s0160-2896(99)80008-7 |issn=0160-2896|doi-access=free }} These include the journal Intelligence, which devoted an entire issue honoring Jensen and his work.{{Cite book|title=Intelligence, Race, And Genetics: Conversations With Arthur R. Jensen|last=Miele|first=Frank|publisher=Routledge|year=2018|isbn=9780429979385|location=Oxon|pages=1842}} Linda Gottfredson also claimed:

{{blockquote|Arthur Jensen is a masterful scientist whose work broke a social taboo. Jensenism refers to the aspect of his work that violated the [social] taboo, specifically his conclusion that individual differences in intelligence are highly heritable and group differences may be too.{{Cite journal |last=Gottfredson |first=Linda S. |author-link=Linda Gottfredson|date=January 1998 |title=Jensen, Jensenism, and the sociology of intelligence |journal=Intelligence |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=291–299 |doi=10.1016/s0160-2896(99)80013-0 |issn=0160-2896}}}}Despite such defenses, however, the current scientific consensus is that genetics do not explain IQ differences between racial groups.{{Cite journal|last1=Ceci|first1=Stephen|last2=Williams|first2=Wendy M.|date=1 February 2009|title=Should scientists study race and IQ? YES: The scientific truth must be pursued|journal=Nature|volume=457|issue=7231|pages=788–789|doi=10.1038/457788a|pmid=19212385|bibcode=2009Natur.457..788C |quote=There is an emerging consensus about racial and gender equality in genetic determinants of intelligence; most researchers, including ourselves, agree that genes do not explain between-group differences.|s2cid=205044224|doi-access=free}}{{Cite book|last=Hunt|first=Earl|title=Human Intelligence|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-521-70781-7|pages=447}}{{Cite book|last=Mackintosh, N. J. |title=IQ and human intelligence|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-958559-5|edition=2nd|location=Oxford|pages=334–338, 344|oclc=669754008}}{{cite journal|last1=Nisbett|first1=Richard E.|last2=Aronson|first2=Joshua|last3=Blair|first3=Clancy|last4=Dickens|first4=William|last5=Flynn|first5=James|author-link5=Jim Flynn (academic)|last6=Halpern|first6=Diane F.|author-link6=Diane F. Halpern|last7=Turkheimer|first7=Eric|date=2012|title=Group differences in IQ are best understood as environmental in origin|url=http://people.virginia.edu/~ent3c/papers2/Articles%20for%20Online%20CV/Nisbett%20(2012)%20Group.pdf|journal=American Psychologist|volume=67|pages=503–504|doi=10.1037/a0029772|issn=0003-066X|pmid=22963427|access-date=22 July 2013 |number=6|author-link1=Richard E. Nisbett}}{{Cite journal|last=Kaplan|first=Jonathan Michael|date=January 2015|title=Race, IQ, and the search for statistical signals associated with so-called "X"-factors: environments, racism, and the "hereditarian hypothesis"|journal=Biology & Philosophy|language=en|volume=30|issue=1|pages=1–17|doi=10.1007/s10539-014-9428-0|issn=0169-3867|s2cid=85351431}}

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Category:Cognitive psychology

Category:20th-century neologisms

Category:Race and intelligence controversy

Category:Intelligence quotient