Socioeconomic Status and Black and White Intelligence Revisited

Abstract

The mean average difference previously recorded between blacks and whites on intelligence may be an artifact based upon the differences in education and socioeconomic position of blacks and whites in this country. Previous studies in this area, with a few exceptions, have been comparing lower class blacks with second-third through tenth generation middle class whites. Only recently in this country has a true black middle class emerged that has had access to both education and income. Even though black income nationally is still only 61% of white income, the black middle class income has approached 75% of white income. This increase in disposable income is being invested in youth development. Second generation black youth of middle class status will show many attributes of the American achievement syndrome. The black youth in this study exceeded the white sample mean on the Stanford-Binet and the WISCR. The black mean was 128.63 with a standard deviation of 14.44, while the white mean was 115.75 with a standard deviation of 13.37. The difference was significant at the 0.001 level.

The experimental psychology course.

“…Perhaps the most common bias in research is the failure to consider or control extraneous variables that confound the effects of the independent variable. Examples of these extraneous variables include the following: 0 Income is frequently confounded with variables of gender (e.g., studies suggesting single motherhood is detrimental to children, reviewed in Mussen et al, 1984), race (Tate & Gibson, 1980), and disability (Asch, 1984).…”

Curriculum design for Black (African American) psychology.

“…It is useful to include and discuss works that have branded African Americans as genetically inferior (e.g., Jensen, 1985) as well as those that sharply rebuke the racial inferiority perspective (e.g., Persell, 1981). Focused topics include race of examiner effects (Hanley & Barclay, 1979), social class effects (Tate &Gibson, 1980), and legal issues (Hilliard, 1983b). Many of the issues surrounding the race and I& controversy also pertain to general psychological assessment (Cameron, 1980;Wyche & Novick, 1985).…”