There are a number of research methods that have been used to investigate the relative importance of genes and environment in the development of intelligence:
Twin and family studies
Genetic studies
Enrichment Studies
Published in
Development of Measured Intelligence
Typically, IQ tests measure:
Spatial ability
Visualisation and mental manipulation of shapes or objects
Mathematical ability
Logic and problem solving
Language ability
Vocabulary – sentence completion
Memory ability
Storage and retrieval of information
Published in
Development of Measured Intelligence
IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient, which is a number that represents how intelligent a person is. It is calculated by comparing a person’s mental age (MA) with their chronological (actual) age (CA) using the following formula:
IQ = MA/CA ×100
Mental age is calculated by giving tests to thousands of people of different ages, this makes it possible to see how the average 12 year old, for example, performs on the test. Someone who performs at the same level as a 12 year old would have a mental age of 12. Likewise, someone who performs at the same level as a 24 year old would have a mental age of 24.
Applying the formula: if a 12 year old has a mental age of 12 they have a normal IQ of 100, but a 24 year old with a mental age of 12 would have an IQ of 50 and would be considered to have learning difficulties.
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Development of Measured Intelligence
In Unit 3 of the AQA-A Psychology Specification, candidates must develop knowledge, understanding and skills of analysis and evaluation in relation to three topics selected from the following:
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Unit 3
Parent-offspring conflict concerns conflicts that arise over how much parental investment parents give to offspring. This occurs because the nature of the genetic relationships between parents and offspring means that they each have different priorities.
Published in
Human Reproductive Behaviour
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There are several explanations of sex differences in parental investment: that females typically invest more because they have already invested the most (Trivers, 1972); that females invest more because males have less parental certainty; or that females are less likely to have more offspring in the future (Gross and Sargent, 2005).
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Human Reproductive Behaviour
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Tuesday, 14 July 2009 06:49
Evolutionary Explanations of Parental Investment
Written by Keiron Walsh
Human beings, in evolutionary terms, are vehicles for ensuring the continued existence of the genes they contain. They do this through sexual reproduction: the greater the number of offspring a human being produces the greater the probability that any genes it contains will continue to exist and the greater the probability that at least some of the offspring will go on to produce offspring of their own.
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Human Reproductive Behaviour
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Monday, 22 June 2009 13:49
The relationship between sexual selection and human reproductive behaviour
Written by Keiron Walsh
Sexual Selection
Sexual selection is a special type of natural selection that is concerned with an organisms ability to successfully reproduce. Survival is no guarantee of passing gene variants to the next generation, that can only happen if the animal reproduces.
Published in
Human Reproductive Behaviour
Evolution is a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations."In fact, evolution can be precisely defined as any change in the frequency of alleles within a gene pool from one generation to the next." - Curtis and Barnes (1989)
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Human Reproductive Behaviour
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