Does your Family Make You Smarter?
Nature, Nurture, and Human Autonomy

A new method of estimating what affects IQ shows that life history and choice count toward your level of intelligence.

James R. Flynn (Author)

9781316604465, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 May 2016

272 pages, 1 b/w illus. 33 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.41 kg

'This is a brilliant book that anyone will want to read who is even remotely interested in intelligence and what variables affect it. Its take-home message is extremely powerful for people of any age - that they have serious control over their intelligence through the environments they select …' Robert J. Sternberg, PsycCRITIQUES

Does your family make you smarter? James R. Flynn presents an exciting new method for estimating the effects of family on a range of cognitive abilities. Rather than using twin and adoption studies, he analyses IQ tables that have been hidden in manuals over the last 65 years, and shows that family environment can confer a significant advantage or disadvantage to your level of intelligence. Wading into the nature vs. nurture debate, Flynn banishes the pessimistic notion that by the age of seventeen, people's cognitive abilities are solely determined by their genes. He argues that intelligence is also influenced by human autonomy - genetics and family notwithstanding, we all have the capacity to choose to enhance our cognitive performance. He concludes by reconciling this new understanding of individual differences with his earlier research on intergenerational trends (the 'Flynn effect') culminating in a general theory of intelligence.

Part I. Human Autonomy: 1. Twins and autonomy
2. Justice and freedom
3. The great debate
4. Slow and quick decay of family effects
5. Reconciliation with twins and adoptions
6. The fairness factor
Part II. Intelligence: 7. The Raven's revolution
8. Learning from astronomy
9. The meta-theory of intelligence
10. Scientific theories of intelligence
11. Psychology and Cardinal Bellarmine
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Family & home stories [Children's / Teenage YFN], Family & relationships [VFV], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Family psychology [JMF], Sociology: family & relationships [JHBK]