Inquiry Into The Ethnic Superiority Thesis Of The Bell Curve : A Cognitive Comparative Study Of Malay And Chinese In USM
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Date
2017-06
Authors
Zulkernain, Mohd Noordinie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
This study is based on the probe into ethnic intelligence superiority thesis by
Herrnstein and Murray (1994) in "The Bell Curve" book. The book suggested that
certain ethnic groups were superior intellectually than another due to genetics and
this is not amenable to intervention. The main purpose of this research is to
scientifically examine their nature stance. This research brings the arguments to the
Malaysian context, by looking at the Malays and the Chinese, two largest ethnic
groups in Penang. During the British colonial period, the Malays were described as
lazy and lack intellectual capacity but the Chinese were viewed oppositely as hard
working and academically inclined. Sociological perspectives and history are
discussed to review the role of the environment on the development of intelligence.
In conjunction to this, this thesis questions the narrowness of the debate on ethnicity
and intelligence by "The Bell Curve". In doing so, major psychological theories such
as multiple intelligence, and interventions such as self-regulation and accelerated
learning are taken into consideration. This way, it can show the diversity of each
groups, and the flaw in concluding that one group is greater than another. Case study
was employed and the data collected was a quantitative data. The experiment results
showed that Malay and Chinese performances were improved by interventions. The
Malays who performed less than the Chinese in the control phase of Simple Reaction
Time (SRT) and Symbol Digit Test (SDT), were able to caught up to the Chinese
when interventions were applied.
Description
Keywords
Inquiry into the ethnic superiority , of Malay and Chinese in USM