Race Effect

19 Pages 4720 Words

preciate the influence of environmental factors on test scores (Furnham, 2001). Different environmental settings equip their inhabitants with different perceptions of issues leading to the view that lay theories of intelligence may be relatively culture and group specific. Current studies on self-estimates of intelligence done over the decade 1990-2000 give an interesting and important insight into lay theories of intelligence, mainly those that examine multiple theories of intelligence (ibid.).
To offer more insights into the gender debate, this study focussed on parents’ estimation of the overall and multiple intelligences of their sons and daughters. They were asked to rate their first and second born child on all of the multiple intelligences postulated by Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences. The parents also rated themselves. We used Gardner’s theory because its multifaceted classification of intelligence allows for a greater detailed analysis of where differences in lay people self-estimations lie (Furnham, 2001).
Parental beliefs concerning children intelligence emanate from a myriad of factors, the primary ones being gender, age, ethnicity and education of both the parent and child (ibid.). An exploration of parental estimates of the intelligence of their children is interesting because of the self-fulfilling prophecy that might occur (Furnham, 2001). Children who are distinguished to their teachers, by parents, as “intellectual bloomers” end up performing admirably on achievement tests than their peers who lack a positive introduction (ibid.). In addition, studies have indicated that parents tend to overestimate the intelligence of their male children in comparison to their female children (Furnham, 2000). Thus, the expectations of the male and female child are differentiated and they are then socialised along these perceptions of cognitive abilities. Though the socialisation varies from one cultura...