The Flynn Effect

The Flynn Effect

The effect of how over time IQ test scores are rising is known as the Flynn effect. To see if people are really getting smarter, more knowledgeable, wiser, or more intelligence is not yet decided. To make a clear understanding of this a few terms need defined:

Smarter an adjective that describes having or showing quick intelligence or ready mental capability.

Intelligence the capacity for learning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc. (http://dictionary.reference.com, 2013).

As stated in the case "The Flynn Effect" the average IQ score is 100, however; the average score of the current IQ is 115 (Robbins & A.Judge, 2013, p. 63). James Flynn a New Zealand researcher reported that these results hold up across the cultures of the world, however; not all researchers agree to this because there are other explanations to back up why the IQ scores are higher: people are better educated than their elders, couples are having fewer children ( the 1st born is said to receive more attention and help with education), people are more adapted to being tested and have learned how to better take a test, and parents pass the intelligence gene down to their children (Robbins & A.Judge, 2013, p. 63). Just having the knowledge of these factors alone makes us more intelligent in turn making us smarter. This doesn't mean that we are wiser people. Being wise is having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right; possessing discernment, judgment, or discretion (http://dictionary.reference.com, 2013).Understanding those few terms helps leads me to believe that people are getting smarter. In the world today things have changed from when our grandparents where young. Take a look back and compare how education was when your grandparents were in school, even when your parents were. There truly are differences in the way things were done compared to the way things are done today. Think about the way a vehicle was made, Ford only made one vehicle a day compared to thousands of vehicles rolling off the assembly line today. Society has changed in the way that they expect things to be done and in doing that researchers have come up with different ways to complete a project. We have more knowledge today compared to what our ancestors had. This in turn does give us the benefit of the doubt that we have become smarter based