Annotated Argument-the Belle Curve

Christina Emmett
Annotated Argument
Monmouth University

Table of Contents
  The Bell Curve

Chapter 1 – "Cognitive Class and Education, 1900-1990

1) It is not just the case that more people are going to college, but that the brighter
students are the ones attending.
2) Admission became more related to I.Q. than in the past.
3) There is a small part of the population that are expected to fill positions of
power, yet they cannot relate to the majority of the population.

Chapter 2 – "Cognitive Partitioning By Occupation

1) The correlation between I.Q. and job status is high.
2) Family members typically resemble each other in job status.
3) Biology is more of a predictor of I.Q. than education or SES.

Chapter 3 – "The Economic Pressure to Partition"

1) IQ reflects a person's education, and the skills and knowledge that that
person contributes to a work place (productivity).
2) IQ is strongly correlated with job status because we live in a world of artificial credentials.
3) Sheer intellectual horsepower, when independent of education, has marketing     value.   Meaning that people with college degrees tend to be smarter than those without degrees, making those with one more valuable and marketable.

Chapter 4 – "Steeper Ladders, Narrower Gates"/ "Cognitive Classes and Social Behavior"

1) Money made in high IQ occupations is pulled away from money made in low
IQ occupations, and education levels cannot explain all of the change.  
2)   The authors imply that these differences in intelligence are a result of genetics,
      not education; IQ is hereditary.
3)   A person with a college degree would make more money than a person with
      just experience.
4) IQ makes the difference in wages.

Chapter 5 – "Poverty"

1) Low IQ is a stronger precursor to predicting poverty than is socioeconomic
status.
2) Low IQ, or the absence of a BA would almost always result in poverty.

Chapter 6 – "Schooling"

1) IQ outweighs... [continues]

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