What is the average IQ of dominicans?

The term 'IQ' is very misunderstood.

It is not a measure of how educated a person is, but is meant rather as a way of judging an individual's potential. As such, there should theoretically be little or no difference from place to place around the world in the population's average IQ. It should be around 100. That having been said, tests designed to determine this number are inherently biased culturally by the writers, so groups who think like the authors (not necessarily who learned the same things in school, but just who have though processes that are similar) tend to score higher. Especially if the examination is poorly designed.

Tom (aka XR)

IQ

Remember the standard IQ test is relative. How could someone test the IQ of someone else based on a set type of knowledge when that person has never been exposed to the knowledge.
For instance the IQ test I took as a teenager tested me out at the high 130s and yet I feel I was exposed to the right amount of info. Yes part of the test was universal such as math/ general science and so forth. But a large amount was history and vocabulary. My exposure to history was very much different that most peoples. My vocabulary was influence by the rich ethnic background of my family. Also thank god for scrabble and trivial pursuits.
How can you accurately test the IQ? Is there an accurate test for Dominican? Take a Russian with a PHD to the United States and give them an IQ test and they may do poorly based on the norms of his education and background yet he is brilliant. I mean how smart is someone that can take $200 and buy $250 worth of beer still get food and have nice clothes?
John

No offence, but I think this is a rather foolish - not to mention loaded - question.

Chiri

No, that's not correct.

An IQ test is not an achievement test. Anyone who uses an achievment type test as a basis for an IQ reading needs to take their counseling/teching degree back to the university that gave it to them. There is an IQ test floating around on the web, try that, and you will see what I mean. Spatial and numerical relationships, recognition, etc. for example are not language or culture dependent and examinations with questions crafted in this manner will return good results regardless of educational, ethnic, or economic background.

One good example of this is the Stanford-Binet (sp?) test, where your ultimate ranking depends on how many questions you actually answer correctly in the limited amount of time provided.

Tom (aka XR)

P.S.
It's a fascinating subject, but remember that IQ to professionals is not based on knowledge learned.

Chirimoya said:

No offence, but I think this is a rather foolish - not to mention loaded - question.

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It is. The answer to the original question is '100' across the board.

Tom (aka XR)

different view

I have a theory as to why the Dominicans and Gringos differ so much in spending and so forth. This would also explain why they are not as stupid as we sometimes think but rather have adapted to a way of life here and we are bringing another way of life into the mix.
I do not know about Europe but in the United States we as a society are only two generations of being mostly farmers. Farmers in the temperate regions farm for one thing. We nine months a year are saving and hording to have food through the winter until spring plus one crop failure.
We spend the entire spring planning fields and then the summer while the crops are just growing gathering firewood. During the summer we send the children to pick berries to can for the winter.
Then in the fall we gather the crops to preserve for winter. Then just before Christmas as the winter is about to lock us into our farms we take stock. We look at our neighbors and see who is hurting. We look at our selves and see what we can spare and then we get charitable. Not because we were selfish but during the summer everyone could eat. It is the wintertime that there is the most need. Christmas is just after all the crops are put up and we can take stock of our kinsmen and see who needs and who can spare.
That is the culture that has carried through all people of temperate regions. Even if we do not farm it is what the policies of governments and the cycles of business have followed since before the Romans.
Our work ethics of delayed gratification were based on farming styles that were what our cultural lives revolved around. The peasants of our homelands set those cultural norms for us.
Those very values do not match the farming style needed here and because of that the bottom up is to live for today.
I submit this as my humble opinion as to why I feel the Dominicans are not dumb just different.
John

I don't know what the average IQ is in the Dominican Republic and how it breaks down along class lines. But a word of caution: in the DR you can't relate economic success to a high IQ, as many rich people are so as a result of corruption, nepotism, corruption, well, the whole sancocho. And some of the richest people I have met there are the most bankrupt people, morally, ethically and culturally, that I have ever met in any place. When I used to spend summers in Jarabacoa with my aunt I was always so impressed by the peasants there. I was impressed by how Ramona, my aunts cook, had what it took to run a household without a father, feed nine kids, send them to school, participate in her church and most impressively, not be bitter or complain about the hand she had been dealt. Millions of Dominicans are like Ramona. They may not be good at answering logic questions or putting pieces of triangles together. But she is campo smart, does what she needs to do to keep her family together and offer her kids a better future. Wow, what a concept. If only all the smart people had such values!

Somewhat below a "nobrainer"

Figure out what that IQ level is and you have the answer.

What gets regularly referred to as "nobrainers" get routinely violated in the DR. Sometimes it seems that they even seek out nobrainer situations just so they can do it.

Examples:

The way they drive.

The way they remove mirrors, lights, and other safety equipment from vehicles, especially (but not limited to) motorcycles.

The way they make no provisions for tomorrow.

Their casual attitude toward sanitation, diet and health.

Their treatment of animals.

The way they generate as much noise as possible.

Their casual attitude toward education.

Their acceptance of lack of power, water, legal system, police protection, etc. taken for granted in the civilized world and even in many other 3rd world countries.

I believe that part of the reason is the unrelenting tropical heat. The body can obviously tolerate high levels of heat for short periods - Scandinavians even "cook" themselves twice a week or so. But just as the brain needs rest to the point of putting the body to sleep 8 hours a day to get it, I believe that it also needs escape on a regular basis from oppressive heat. Except for those living in Constanza, or fortunate enough to have air conditioners, in the DR it's not possible.

Of course cultural, ethnic, and religious traditions make a big difference, too.

On matters that relate to vocabulary, solving math problems, etc., I think the average Dominican would score lower than would someone from the US or other first world country where they had the benefit of a regular education program. But on matters related to such things as making something useful out of items thrown away in the US and other first world countries, I am confident the average Dominican would score much higher.

Carl, what country do you live in? Are there differences there along racial and class lines?

Take a look at this from my very good friends at the Times Newspaper.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-888798,00.html

"Intelligence is the largest single factor behind national wealth. It then becomes a virtuous circle, with the benefits of the resulting affluence adding extra IQ points."

"A COUNTRY?S prosperity is closely related to the average IQ of its population, according to research that has mapped global intelligence levels..."

"They found that the countries of the Pacific Rim had the highest intelligence scores: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore averaged IQs of about 105.

The next brightest were the populations of Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, averaging 100. In South Asia, North Africa and most Latin American countries, the score was an average of about 85, and in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean closer to 70."

Etc etc etc...

Interesting article, but not entirely convincing.

What comes first, the chicken (IQ) or the egg (affluence)? I tend to agree with the ending quote by Dr Oliver James.

The IQ test is heavily culturally conditioned. In this country it tests your middle-classness and how well you know how to please the testers. The IQ of a working-class child adopted by a middle-class family will rise by about 12 points. (The authors) are confusing IQ with education. If a country has a good education system, their economy will benefit. It is rich countries that are likely to have those systems.

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Chiri

I do, too, Chiri.

And this is not a new problem. Minority groups have been objecting for years to the tests used to measure IQ because they contain a cultural bias.

IQ

With cultural bias for an IQ test I say yes it is a real problem but for such things as an entrance exam that the contents are well known for years ahead of time what the standards are I feel that it is on the examinee to rise up and train them to meet the challenge.
If I as an employer or a school say I want you to be able to do a certain level of math and understand the Roman Empire then I have an obligation to say yes I will learn ex. I can not say ?my peeps is from da other region and didnt noz no wons prom Rome so I dons noz dat stuff. I shuddnt be axt dat.?

my own family

In my family even amoung the step children we all out score our peers in the same school social class and so forth. The difference is that in our family as children we are included in adult activivites.
When a father is fixing a lawn mower he will take all day doing a 20 minute task to show the child how it works and so forth. A 30 minute cake I have seen take three or four hours because the 4 year old is doing the measuring and being told how to do it.
It is priorities with in the community. The same way the chances of being a self made milionaire in America is higher for first generation imigrants than any other group in the US.
If there is a percieved need for production then they produce. If there is no perceived benifit then they don't.
Work and education both work this way.
John

If this isn't the stupidest question ever posted on DR1 it has to be among the top 5. We know what the other 4 stupidest questions are.

First of all there is nothing more biased and inexact than an IQ test. I've taken two in my life. Both times I scored differently. I don't think I got smarter in a matter of months. Second, if any of you have taken an IQ test you will notice that although it doesn't ask specific questions (such as "what is the past participle of to get"?) there definitely is a benefit if you have a good command of the language (you understand instructions well and quickly).

If you haven't been living under a rock, say the last 100 years, you might have heard that there are two things that have an impact on a child's intellectual development: nutrition and environment. A kid that is consistently malnourished and sick is at a disadvantage. Sure the population of western countries SEEMS to be smarter than their ancerstors, but they also got taller. See my point? Furthermore, parents now seem to be competing to give their children an advantage even before they are born. Mothers in western countries start preparing for maternity before they even have a chance to get pregnant. Doctors routinely prescribe vitamins to women that are planning to conceive.

Taking that into consideration I conclude that:

a) We could be comparing apples and pineapples here.
b) The question is loaded and suggests there might be a link between intelligence and race. That way lies madness.
c) It still is a stupid question IMHO.