Royane Real
The Effects Of Genetic And Environmental Factors On IQ
By: Alexander Roulinski
Introductory comments by Royane Real
Author of “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative”
Have you ever wondered how much of your intelligence and your personality is determined by your genes? Have you wondered how your intelligence was influenced by your upbringing? Do you ever wonder if there’s anything you can do to improve your IQ?
These are important questions that scientists are trying to understand as well. It’s only been during the past few decades that researchers have started to unravel the mysteries of the brain and how we think and learn.
Obviously, our parents have a big impact on our personalities and on the way we think today. After all, we have inherited our genes from our parents, and these genes can influence how smart we are later in life. The way our parents treated us also has a big impact on our intelligence potential. We may have had parents who encouraged us to learn, or we may have had parents who did not care very much how we developed.
Our parents had a big influence on our nutrition and our exercise. If we were lucky enough to have a lot of good parental interaction when we were very young, and if our parents made sure we had good nutrition and good exercise, we have a big intellectual advantage over people who did not have such a good head start in life.
Another factor that affects our intelligence is the kind of teachers and schooling we had.
If you had poor teachers and if you encountered a school system that was all wrong for your particular learning style, you may have left school convinced that you were not very intelligent. The real problem may have been that your teachers used methods that were all wrong for teaching you. Not everybody is suited for learning that takes place in a classroom that is based on a lot of reading, listening and repetition.
Researchers are discovering that even as adults, we can influence the way our brain develops in the future. We can learn to think more clearly, we can amass more information and discover the deeper meaning of things. We can encourage our creativity.
No matter where we started, we can still influence the future direction of our intellectual development.
The following article by the author Alexander Roulinski discusses some of the ways that people’s intelligence as measured by IQ tests can be affected by such factors as their genes and their upbringing.
( The above introductory comments are composed by Royane Real who wrote the popular book “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative” Download it today and learn more ways to get the maximum use of your brainpower. It’s available at http://www.lulu.com/real )
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Feature article:
The Effects Of Genetic And Environmental Factors On IQ
By: Alexander Roulinski
For the last 140 years, scholars have been preoccupied with identifying the exact factors that influence one’s IQ. The numerous studies on the subject have led most scientists nowadays to the belief that one’s IQ is determined by a variety of both genetic and environmental factors, although there is contention about the exact weight of each.
The majority of studies on intelligence have shown that environmental factors account for about 25% of the differences in people’s IQ scores. The factors that have been of greatest interest to scholars include prenatal development, nutrition, birth order, home and family environment, and the effects of schooling.
Prenatal development
Scientists have discovered many factors during a woman’s pregnancy that could affect a child’s cognitive development. Among them are:
… the mother’s health, including her nutrition and smoking and drinking habits during pregnancy, her age and the number of previous pregnancies, the interval since her last pregnancy, blood type and Rh incompatibility of mother and fetus, her history of X-ray exposure, and her red blood cell count, to list a few (Jensen; 169).
Nutrition
Despite researchers’ initial belief that nutrition played a significant role in a child’s cognitive development, so far, there has been no substantial evidence that differences in nutritional habits have a noticeable effect on IQ, unless a child has suffered severe and prolonged malnutrition in early childhood.
Birth order
Surprisingly, statistical data shows that birth order can somewhat affect IQ:
Each successive child born into a family has, on average, a slightly lower IQ, by about .7 IQ point, than the previous born child… A parallel effect is found on scholastic achievement as well (Jensen; 171).
Home and family environment
One of the factors that many people attribute an important role to in mental development and differences in IQ is home and family environment. The latter encompasses variables such as:
… neighborhood, the number of rooms in the home ... the number of magazines and books, the parents' educational and occupational level, family income, whether private music lessons and dance lessons are given to child, membership in established organizations, and travel experiences (Jensen; 173).
Schooling
In addition, scholars have also examined the effects of schooling on a child’s IQ. They have discovered that differences in school quality have no detectable influence on a child's intelligence test scores. What proves to be of greater significance is regular school attendance, especially in elementary school.
Genetic factors
Besides environmental influences, most scientists today believe that genes also play a part in determining one’s IQ. However, there is currently an intense debate whether genetic or environmental factors are the deciding influence.
To sum up, science has come a long way in understanding the different factors that shape one's intelligence. However, there are still contentious issues that need to be clarified.
References:
Jensen, Arthur R. Straight Talk About Mental Tests. New York : The Free Press, 1981. 168-190.
Alexander Roulinski is a member of MENSA and founder of www.IQScoreNow.com His site offers online IQ tests and other interesting articles on human intelligence.
Copyright 2007 Alexander Roulinski. For reprints, please include my name and bio.
Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com
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