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Critically Evaluate The Claim That General Cognitive Ability (Intelligence) Is Shaped By Environmental Factors

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Critically Evaluate The Claim That General Cognitive Ability (Intelligence) Is Shaped By Environmental Factors
Critically evaluate the claim that general cognitive ability (i.e., intelligence) is shaped by environmental factors.
The claim that general cognitive ability is shaped by the environment is supported by various psychologists who believe our interactions with our surroundings enable us to develop certain cognitive abilities including intelligence. These abilities can often be influenced by our family environment, the type of education in which we receive and various other environmental interactions. Psychologist often examine an individual’s socioeconomic status (SES) which measures a person’s family economic and social position in comparison other’s in society, directly assessing the influence of the environment. Although a contradicting statement to this claim would suggest …show more content…
Further research by psychologists Binet and Simon (1905-1908) exemplified how cognitive abilities including intelligence could be measured. The stimuli used focused mainly on areas such as attention, problem solving and memory dismissing topics in which are taught on the school syllabus. The Binet-Simon scale developed by both psychologists became the basis for many various intelligence tests used today. Many have contributed to the nature versus nurture debate and have concluded that it is not each variable which is responsible for the entirety of what makes one intelligent but the interaction between both genes stimulated by the environment which enable the individual to reach their full cognitive potential. Though the definition of intelligence has been debated by many psychologists the constant change in classifying what is deemed to be intelligent can lead to the conclusion that the concept of human intelligence is far too complex to
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