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
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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.
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Keywords
Inquiry into the ethnic superiority , of Malay and Chinese in USM
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