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Social mobility and IQ components

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

C. G. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge
John B. Gibson
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge

Summary

This study examines the relationship between verbal, performance and total IQ scores and social class of 193 male householders living in a Cambridge suburb. The correlation coefficients between IQ scores and present occupational status were significantly higher than the correlations between IQ scores and social class of origin, suggesting that intragenerational social mobility is positively related to IQ.

Parent–offspring data were available for 85 father–son pairs. Analysis of the IQ differences between fathers and sons in relation to their social class differences provided further evidence for selective migration related to both IQ components and total IQ scores. In this sample there was a simple relationship between the extent of social mobility and the degree of difference between the father's and son's IQ scores.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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