Dr. Lester M. Sdorow, author of Psychology, answers
questions about intelligence. 1. Are intelligence tests biased in favor of the predominant European American
culture? This is an important and sensitive issue. If you are asking whether
intelligence tests are biased because of their content, then all tests are
biased to a certain extent because no useful test has ever been devised
that contains items that are equally familiar to both sexes and to all ethnic groups. But test makers have become more aware of the
need to minimize biased content as much as possible. If you are asking
whether intelligence tests are biased in predicting the academic
performance of those who take them, then the evidence is fairly strong
that they are no more or less accurate for predicting the performance of
one group of people than another. This does not mean, however, that we
should not address conditions that might make one group perform better
than another on those tests. 2. Isn't it dangerous to be too intelligent? Aren't highly
intelligent people usually social and athletic misfits? On the contrary, despite this stereotype, highly intelligent people tend
to be at least as socially and athletically proficient as less intelligent
people. In fact, highly intelligent people tend to be more successful in
most aspects of life. 3. I've noticed that people can behave intelligently in one aspect
of there lives but not in others. Is there just one kind of intelligence,
or are there several kinds? You are on to something. Though many people have been led by the notion
of the "I.Q." to believe that intelligence is a unitary
characteristic, there is evidence that intelligence is really a composite
of a number of different abilities. For example, Gardner's theory of
multiple intelligences holds that we have evolved brain modules that serve
different kinds of intelligence. | 
2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education