In 1969, psychologist Arthur R. Jensen published his research on intelligence, “How Much Can We Boost I.Q. and Achievement,” and ignited a firestorm of protest from a range of critics for suggesting the “possibility” that intelligence test scores reflected differentials based on race.
His observations were drawn from a broad number of tests administered in the 1960s that measured intelligence in two areas – Level I measured ability to memorize facts and skills, and Level II measured problem solving ability.
He concluded that the first level intelligence had normal distribution across race, and that Level II abilities were differentiated, whites performed better than blacks, and Asians performed better than either. He proposed that the investment in Head Start programs was not making a difference in IQ scores, and suggested that other approaches to early education be considered.
Jensen was unprepared for the backlash and accusations of racism that rained down upon him from political, social and academic circles. A 1978 analysis showed that the paper was one of the 100 most cited academic articles in the U.S., and that almost 50 percent were negative, refuting the arguments in the article, and 30 percent were citing the article in supporting arguments. Students protested in front of his office, and he was castigated for how his research was used to promulgate bad social and political policy.
Among his harshest critics was Stephen Jay Gould, whose 1981 book, “The Mismeasure of Man,” blasted Jensen as well as most other scientists who drew conclusions tying biological inheritance, such as race or cranial capacity, to deterministic measures like intelligence. Gould and Jensen traded rebuttals for more than 15 years.
James Flynn, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, was a noted researcher on the nature of intelligence who challenged Jenson’s conclusions. “The evidence is highly complicated,” Flynn said last year in a New York Times interview for Jensen’s obituary. “The best we can say is that it is more probable that the I.Q. gap between black and white is entirely environmental in origin.”
However, Flynn said, “Arthur Jensen’s life is emblematic of the extent to which American scholarship is inhibited by political orthodoxy.”
“Jensen was a true scientist, and he was without racial bias. It never occurred to Arthur Jensen that people would use his data to argue for racial supremacy.”
He arrived at the center of the controversy through his interest in differential psychology, the study of what makes individuals behave and think differently, and the role of heredity versus environment in that equation.
Jensen was born on Aug. 24, 1923, in San Diego, Calif., where his parents ran a building supply company. He studied the clarinet and briefly considered a career in music (he wanted to become a conductor). He received degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, San Diego State College, and got his doctorate from Columbia University in 1956. His post-doctoral research was done at the University of London.
He returned to a research and faculty position at Berkeley in 1958, where he focused on intelligence testing of school children.
The controversy over his 1969 article, and the decades-long debate it created, overshadowed a large body of work Jensen did on intelligence, its composition and the history of our understanding.
He died on Oct. 22, 2012, in California.