Questions and Reading Notes on Mismeasure of Man

• Questions
  • What statistical terms did you find in the book that you need more explanation of?
  • Did you discover any filters you have about intelligence and intelligence testing?
  • Do you think that Gould was saying that there is nothing valid measured in intelligence testing.
  • What did you think about the assertion that a person with a high "g" would make a better officer in the armed forces?
    
• Reading Notes
  • This book can be read on several levels. One is about the problems created from a priori reasoning. Another has to do with institutionalized and internalized racism, sexism and class-ism. A third is about the use and misuse of statistics. Another about fraud.
  • I noticed that in the U.S. that race was the factor that was brought up most often as determining intelligence . In Great Britian it was class.
  • In the history lecture discussion we discussed the difference between lying and difference in perspective. There is an analogous situation here. It seems to me that many of the errors committed by the researchers had to do with having a certain point of view. On the other hand some of the errors were just plain lying. However the errors caused by a biased perspective, it seems to me, were more insidious.
  • I remember when I was in school, I believed the test we took actually measured "intelligence" and our relative worth. I wonder if one reason I felt that way is that I was fairly good at taking these types of tests.