Annotated Argument – the Belle Curve
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Christina Emmett
Annotated Argument
Monmouth University
Table of Contents
The Bell Curve
Chapter 1 – “Cognitive Class and Education, 1900-1990
It is not just the case that more people are going to college, but that the brighter
students are the ones attending.
Admission became more related to I.Q. than in the past.
There is a small part of the population that are expected to fill positions of
power, yet they cannot relate to the majority of the population.
Chapter 2 – “Cognitive Partitioning By Occupation
The correlation between I.Q. and job status is high.
Family members typically resemble each other in job status.
Biology is more of a predictor of I.Q. than education or SES.
Chapter 3 – “The Economic Pressure to Partition”
1) IQ reflects a persons education, and the skills and knowledge that that
person contributes to a work place (productivity).
IQ is strongly correlated with job status because we live in a world of artificial credentials.
Sheer intellectual horsepower, when independent of education, has marketing value. Meaning that people with college degrees tend to be smarter than those without degrees, making those with one more valuable and marketable.
Chapter 4 – “Steeper Ladders, Narrower Gates”/ “Cognitive Classes and Social Behavior”
Money made in high IQ occupations is pulled away from money made in low
IQ occupations, and education levels cannot explain all of the change.
2) The authors imply that these differences in intelligence are a result of genetics,
not education; IQ is hereditary.
3) A person with a college degree would make more money than a person with
just experience.
IQ makes the difference in wages.
Chapter 5 – “Poverty”
Low IQ is a stronger precursor to predicting poverty than is socioeconomic
status.
Low IQ, or the absence of a BA would almost always result in poverty.
Chapter 6 – “Schooling”
IQ outweighs socioeconomic status and environmental background.
Education is more important than socioeconomic status.
Chapter 7 – “Unemployment, Idleness, and Injury”
When age is held constant, rising socioeconomic status associates with
increased probability of dropping out of the labor force.
People with lower IQs tend to get injured more often than those with high
Chapter 8 – “Family Matters”
People with low I.Q.s tend to have lower marriage rates than those with
higher I.Q.s.
The higher the I.Q., the lower the probability of divorce and/or illegitimacy.
Children of divorced parents have an elevated risk of getting divorced.
The combination of poverty and welfare cause women to have illegitimate babies.
Chapter 9 – “Welfare Dependency”
Women on welfare have less education than women not on welfare.
White women with above-average cognitive ability or socioeconomic
background rarely become welfare recipients.
Chapter 10 – “Parenting”
Smart women are better mothers and provide a better environment for their
children.
Middle-class parents are better parents than that of the working-class.
Mothers I.Q. is strongly related to a childs I.Q. (heredity).
Chapter 11 – “Crime”
There is a link between cognitive ability and criminal behavior.
There is a link between SES and criminality.
There is a link between broken homes and criminal behavior.
Chapter 12 – “Civility and Citizenship”
If you have a higher IQ, you are more likely to participate in political
activities and understand how the government works.
Political participation is highly dependent
on SES.
Education, rather than income or occupational status, links voting to SES.
Chapter 13 – “Ethnic Differences in Cognitive Ability”
There are ethnic differences