Essay About Environmental Contribution And Deprivation Model Of Social Class

Intelligence
Essay Preview: Intelligence
Report this essay
Intelligence is the level of competence, ability to learn or to some people
it is how well an individual performs on an IQ test. The structure of
intelligence is best subdivided into two significant categories. They are
environmental and hereditary influences.
Environmental differences can be divided into different factors. The
deprivation model of social class and intelligence consists of three
variables. These variables explain, in terms of environmental factors,
development and performance which are correlated with social status.
The first of these variables consists of the combination of birth order,
nutrition, and prenatal care. Children who are first born, on average
score better on mental tests. There is a definite higher number of first
born children among higher socioeconomic groups as opposed to lower
socioeconomic groups. According to Bruce Eckland, children of higher
economic class tend to be brighter, on average, than children of lower
economic groups (65). Both prenatal stress and malnutrition, impair
development and are found much more frequently among lower
socioeconomic classes. According to Philip E. Vernon, the fetus can
have lack blood supply and growth of the fetus can be disturbed if the
mother takes certain drugs or suffers from certain diseases. Severe stress
on the mother can also be hazardous to the fetus (84). These conditions
expressed are both genetic and or resulting from environmental conditions
and are known to as constitutional factors. The second variable of the
deprivation model which helps exhibit differences in performance is the
cultural variable. It seems that lower socioeconomic classes experience a
unique pattern of behavioral and psychological traits which impair
development in children raised in these conditions. The last environmental
variable that accounts for differences in the cognitive development is the
social cultural variable. This variable includes deprivation which involves
socially structured inequalities in education and other social opportunities
for improving performance. Sidney W. Bijou states that in order to help
development, an ample supply of physical stimuli for cognitive
development is favorable along with the people who have to manage
these stimuli in contingent relationships after the birth of the child (230).
Another environmental contribution to intelligence, which Bijou points out
is the availability of people who enhance opportunities for cognitive
development. These people have the job of shaping responses and for
bringing responses under stimulus control. Examples of this contribution
are conceptualizations and symbolizations. An unwanted contribution
would be some situation where there are people with marital discord or if
they are economically poor. Another contribution, explained by Bijou,
refers to the kinds of reinforcers in effect in cognitive situations. An
example of this contribution would be to use positive reinforcing
contingencies. A hampering situation would entail adults who use
aversive, neutral or random stimulus contingencies. The last of these
contributions refers to the schedules of reinforcement. These
contributions are categorized by a high number of people who schedule
contingencies of reinforcement in ways which maintain the cognitive
repertories acquired (230). Greenfield insists that people learn what they
need to accomplish a goal presented by the environment. The
specification of a particular set of goals by the environment not only
determines whether learning (255). In an experiment done on children,
Werner and Kaplan found out that variable verbal and action contexts
for a certain concept provide a way of generalizing that particular concept
by differentiating it from its context. Educationally this provides a wide
variety of action goals but even more important during the initial stage
instead of the later stages. This goal structure of the environment plays a
most important role in early life and then gradually declines in importance,
according to Patricia M. Green field. Greenfield also points out in a study
administered by Garves that middle class mothers give significantly more
positive feed back as opposed to lower class mothers who give a high
rate of negative feedback to their children. This scenario leads to feelings
of failure on the on the childs part. In other words, lower class mothers
believe that their goals cannot be attained, therefore giving way to a
feeling of discouragement and a response of negative feedback to their
children. This condition produces a