Extra Credit Chapter 8

APA-style citations are required.

1. Several civil rights organizations have been mounting a case to eliminate the death penalty as a viable option for individuals with intellectual disability. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that executing individuals with intellectual disability was unconstitutional (Amnesty International, USA). With this being said, there are several individuals with “borderline intellectual disability ” who have not been spared.Think about your position regarding intellectual disability and the death penalty. Regardless of how you feel about the death penalty in general, do you feel that individuals with intellectual disability should be sentenced to die? Why/why not? What about how we assess intellectual disability ? If a person has an IQ of 71, does that mean that s/he should be sentenced to death? What can be done? How can we assure that individuals are not “faking” intellectual disability ?

2. Share some of the wisdom you have learned from someone. This can be someone you know personally or someone well known in the media; describe this person’s demographic variables (e.g., age, cultural group, gender identity, etc). Why is this wisdom valuable to you? Do you view it as something strongly connected with the person who espoused it, or do you believe many people share this particular insight? What do you think the individual experienced to lead them to acquire this wisdom? Given that research has indicated young adults can be considered to have much wisdom as well, what significant wisdom do you feel you have acquired at this point? What experiences led you to this knowledge and understanding of the world?

3. Design a brief interview regarding personal beliefs about the nature of intelligence making sure to include a nature-nurture question, a question regarding intelligence over the life span, and specifically what traits should be included in the definition of intelligence. Give the interview to a sampling of your professors or other professionals, to other college students not in your class, to adults who do not fit into either category, and to some children of various ages. When you have finished 10 to 15 interviews, see if you can categorize them according to different beliefs about intelligence including the following:

1.Is intelligence a single underlying factor, or is intelligence made up of multiple factors?
2. What traits would you find in a highly intelligent person?
3. What factors in early childhood predict high levels of intelligence in adolescence and adulthood?
4. Describe the changes in intelligence we are likely to face as older adults, excluding cases of Alzheimer disease or other dementia.
5. Is intelligence something we are born with or do we get smarter and smarter? (This is especially interesting when asked of young children.)

Then, write up your results. Discuss if the current research supports or disputes the beliefs held by those you interviewed. Were the beliefs held by the professionals the same as other adults? What changes in intelligence were predicted across age during childhood and across the life span? What traits were most commonly thought to reflect higher intelligence? Which early childhood traits were most commonly thought to predict later intelligence? What changes in beliefs about intelligence did you find from younger to older children?