Inventing Intelligence

Elaine E. Castles, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and the author of "We're People First": The Social and Emotional Lives of Individuals with Mental Retardation.

The use and misuse of IQ tests has long been a subject of contention in the scientific and social communities, particularly because these evaluations favor intelligence at the expense of other valuable human qualities. This is the first book of its kind to examine the historical development of our modern concept of intelligence and to explore America's fascination with the controversial exams that purport to measure it.Most of us assume that people in every period and in every region of the world have understood and valued intelligence in the same way we do today. Our modern concept of intelligence, however, is actually quite recent, emerging from the dramatic social and scientific changes that rocked the United States during the 19th century.Inventing Intelligence: How America Came to Worship IQ discusses the historical context for understanding the development of the concept of intelligence and the tests used to measure it. The author delves into the intertwined issues of IQ, heredity, and merit to offer a provocative look at how Americans came to overvalue IQ and the personal and social problems that have resulted.

Measurement of intelligence has resulted in individuals being judged on the basis of IQ results rather than on merit or personal achievement. Controversy abounds over America's cultural infatuation with IQ, which has long served to perpetuate social inequalities and place limits on an individual's aspirations.

PrefaceAcknowledgments1. Worshipping at the Altar of IQ2. Intelligence in Historical Context: The Colonial Experience3. Science in Nineteenth-Century America: Intellect, Intelligence, and the Science of Man4. Merit and Social Status in Nineteenth-Century America5. Phrenology: A Precursor to IQ Testing6. Intelligence and Its Measurement7. IQ Testing, Social Control, and Merit8. Democratic Ideology and IQ Testing9. A Century of IQ Testing: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same10. Toward a Broader Conception of Intelligence11. Toward a More Balanced Perspective on Heredity and IQ12. Toward a More Equitable Conception of MeritNotesIndex