IQ and Mental Retardation

Paper Summary:

This essay looks at the issue of raising of IQ scores so that the IQ cutoff for mental retardation would be raised to 80. The author examines the evidence for and against raising the scores and also discusses the relevancy of IQ scores and how many other variables should be taken into account when evaluating intelligence.

From the Paper:

"The debate regarding IQ tests continues to rage into the new millennium. Every decade has a myriad of new studies supporting or contradicting the last accepted theories and studies. here are new studies which indicate that the IQ scores in the United States has risen by 3 points per decade, "indicating that intelligence is not stable but is flexible with regards to environmental influences." However, after vast research, no one knows just exactly what is causing the rise in IQ scores. Moreover, there is an ongoing debate in regards to raising the IQ cutoff scores for the mental retardation assessment. The American Association of Mental Retardation's definition of mental retardation is "a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. This disability originates before age 18.""

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