Word count: Date: 25/01/2011

Li Chun Ho (Alvin) IB Psychology HL

Psychology Assignment: APFCC on Bell Curve- Herrnstein & Murray. Aims: The aim of the two researchers is to see whether the majority of positive outcomes exerted by individuals such as being successful, having high incomes are due to their high levels of intelligence instead of their social backgrounds in terms of the state of wealth around them and the surroundings they were brought up around at. Many other controversial predictions were made, such as the fact there is a positive correlation between the state of poverty and IQ levels. Herrnstein and Murray also believed genetic factors were largely responsible for the intelligence levels. Procedures: The researchers thoroughly analyzed the test results from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY). This test is a collection of surveys which targets the American society to collect information ranging from important aspects of the lives of peoples, such as labor statistics, employment from home, to identifying the activities of the economic market. This collection of data, sampled to 10,000 Americans were also analyzed along with the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT) which examines different areas of knowledge at high school level including vocabulary, math, reasoning and writing paragraphs. The fact the AFQT also predicts the social outcome based on their levels of mental intelligence, such as the possibility of being incarcerated and the levels of their monetary income. Findings: