Educability-and-Group-Differences-1973-by-Arthur-Robert-Jensen

Motivational Factors 267
about the same degree in all ethnic groups) and also shows
significant ethnic group differences. (The correlation of this item
with non-verbal intelligence is considerably lower, but is still
significant.) But the causal connection between response to this
questionnaire item and intelligence scores is not established. Does
the attitude directly affect test performance, or are less intelligent
pupils merely more likely to attribute success to ‘good luck’ rather
than to ‘hard work’ The latter explanation seems more probable.
Gough (1953) was able to produce a non-cognitive ‘intelligence
test’, made up of ‘personality’-type questions, which correlated
remarkably with scores on standard intelligence tests. Not a single
item of the Gough questionnaire calls for mental ability per se.
All the items are questions such as ‘I have often been frightened in
the middle of the night’ (keyed False), and ‘I gossip a little at times’
(keyed True). Few would argue that being frightened at night will
lower one’s intelligence, or that by gossiping one can raise one’s
IQ. Belief in ‘luck’ probably falls into this same category of
attitude items that comprise Gough’s non-intellectual intelligence
test.
The study which has used what is probably the most elaborate
and most reliable index of self-esteem, the 42-item Coopersmith
Self-Esteem Inventory, administered to groups of white, Negro,
and Puerto Rican fifth and sixth graders matched for SES and
IQ, came to this conclusion:
Support was thus given for the growing number of studies which
indicate that the self-concept of Negro children does not differ
significantly from and may even be higher than that of white
children. It also appears that the self-concept of Puerto Rican
children is significantly lower not only than the self-concept of
white children, as shown in the minimal amount of previous
research, but also than that of Negro children. (Zirkel & Moses,
1971, p. 260)
The fact that the ethnic groups were selected so as to be
highly similar in SES and IQ unfortunately makes the results
rather tenuous. If it is claimed that lower IQs are partly a result
of poor self-concept, then matching ethnic groups for IQ
and SES could well minimize differences in the self-concept
scores.