IQ Controversial Theorist

Authur Jensen (1923 - 2012) has passed away.

In an article titled "Views on race, IQ caused furor," published in today's Los Angeles Times, disturbing facts about Jensen's professional life as a university professor are revealed.

Jensen's major scholarly contribution was the race-based differences in intelligence, for which he has become "one of the most provocative figures in 20th century psychology" (AA1).

Key facts to know:

1. 1969, wrote an article in the Harvard Educational Review, in support of studies that show that "whites scored an average of 15 points higher than blacks on standard IQ tests," and he attributed the differences as "genetic differences." Such a claim made him a "racist" and for which he suffered a lot of humiliations.
2. As a tenured professor at UC Berkeley, he continued to teach till his retirement 1994.
3. The 'racist' and race-based IQ differences did not leave him till his death.
4. "Jense 'took incredible abuse,'" Charles Murray said. "Although he had this reputation as a very controversial figure, he was actually a pure academic and almost a naive one. he was ... devoted to analysis and kind of obtuse about the reaction he would provoke with the findings he came out with." "But he was a remarkable man, an extremely important psycho-metrician who published very important work." (AA7
5. 1994 best seller, by Charles Murray, the political science professor and Harvard professor Richard J. Herrnstein, started a new chapter in the "IQ wars" and stirred up more controversies.
   
6. 'Jensenism' became a coined term.
7. Another expert: James R. Flynn, discovered the worldwide increase in IQ scores known as the "Flynn effect" said Jensen has made "landmark contributions" to psychology, most of which has little relevance to race.
8. Jense's 1988 book Bias in Mental Testing, regarded now as a classic in psychological measurement.

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