Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Cyril Burt" - New World

From New World Encyclopedia
(copied from wikipedia)
 
Line 2: Line 2:
 
[[Category:Psychology]]
 
[[Category:Psychology]]
 
[[Category:Biography]]
 
[[Category:Biography]]
 +
{{epname}}
 +
 +
'''Cyril Lodowic Burt''' (born March 3, 1883 – died October 10, 1971) was an [[United Kingdom|British]] educational [[psychology|psychologist]], famous for his claims that [[genetics]] substantially influences mental and behavioral traits.
 +
 +
==Life==
 +
 +
'''Cyril Burt''' was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, [[United Kingdom|England]]. Early in his life he showed a precocious nature, so much so that his father, a physician, often took the young Burt with him on his medical rounds. One of his father’s more famous patients was Darwin Galton, brother of [[Francis Galton]]. The visits the Burts made to the Galton estate not only allowed the young Burt to learn about the work of Francis Galton, but also allowed Burt to meet him on multiple occasions and to be strongly drawn to his ideas, especially to his studies in statistics and individual differences, that Burt will later become famous for.
 +
 +
At the age of 11, Burt won a scholarship to Christ's Hospital, where he first developed his appreciation of psychology. Not too long after, he won a classical scholarship to Oxford, where he specialized in philosophy and psychology, the latter under a fairly new faculty member, [[William McDougall]]. McDougall, knowing Burt’s interest in Galton’s work, suggested that he focus his senior project on psychometrics (although not then an official discipline), thus giving Burt his initial inquiry into the development and structure of mental tests. In 1901, McDougall was appointed the secretary of the British Association Committee that planned to carry out, at Galton’s suggestion, a nation-wide survey of physical and mental characteristics. McDougall invited Burt to help him with this project along with J. C. Flugel, William Brown, and later [[Charles Spearman]].
 +
 +
In 1908, Burt obtained his teacher’s diploma and subsequently took up the post of Lecturer in Psychology and Assistant Lecturer in Physiology at Liverpool University, where he was to work under famed physiologist Charles Sherrington. While at this post, Burt was able to further both his knowledge of how human anatomy and physiology affect human psychology as well as his interest and research into individual differences. In 1908 he spent several months in [[Germany]], where he studied psychology under [[Oswald Külpe]] at the University of Würzburg.
 +
 +
In 1913, Burt took the position of a [[school psychology|school psychologist]] for the London County Council (LCC), which was in charge of all the London schools. Initially, Burt’s appointment was only a part time position, which allowed him to use the rest of his workweek gathering and publishing data. During his tenure at the LCC, Burt gathered so much data that he was still publishing it long after he retired.
 +
 +
In 1931 he resigned his position at the LCC when he was appointed Professor and Chair of Psychology at University College, London, taking over Spearman's position. He stayed there until 1950. He also served there as the head of the department of psychology.
 +
 +
In addition to teaching and research, Burt was a consultant with the committees that developed the Eleven-Plus examinations. In 1942 he became president of the ''British Psychological Society''. He was knighted in 1946, being the first British psychologist to receive this recognition. He also served as editor and co-editor of the ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'' (1947-1963)
 +
 +
Burt retired in 1950, but continued to write. He published around 200 works only after his retirement. He died in London in 1971, at the age of eighty-eight.
 +
 +
==Work==
 +
 +
Burt remains most famous for his work on [[intelligence]], [[juvenile delinquency]], and development of some tests and measures. In his studies, he pioneered the method of factor-analysis, which was rather novel in the time when psychology struggled to part from [[philosophy]] and psychiatry, to become an independent discipline. At the time of Burt already few researchers, like [[Francis Galton]], [[Karl Pearson]], and [[Charles Spearman]] used factor analysis in studying human intelligence. Burt developed new statistical techniques in it, and applied them to his research
 +
 +
===Intelligence===
 +
One of the first studies Burt conducted was his 1909 study of intelligence of boys enrolled in elite school versus boys enrolled in a regular school. Based on the results he concluded that the elite-school boys had higher innate intelligence, which they inherited from their parents. In yet another study of intelligence, this time of gender differences in intelligence, Burt concluded that girls were equal to boys in general intelligence — a belief that was different from contemporary claims in Burt’s time.
 +
 +
Based on his studies, Burt concluded that heredity plays greater role in the development of intellectual ability than does the environment. He writes:
 +
 +
:”That children of better social status succeed better with the Binet- Simon scale is not necessarily an objection to that scale; nor is it necessarily a ground for constructing separate norms: for, by birth as well as by home training, children who are superior in social status may be equally superior in general ability. Conversely, if a child proves defective according to a scale that is otherwise authentic, the mere fact that his family is poor and his dwelling a hovel does not of itself condone his deficiency. His parents' home may be mean precisely because their hereditary intelligence is mean. Whether poverty and its accompaniments affect the child's performances in any direct fashion-whether, for example, in the Binet-Simon tests a child that inherits an abundance of natural ability may be handicapped through a lack of cultural opportunities-is a further and a separate issue (Burt, 1921, p. 192).
 +
 +
His most influential work in the area of intelligence involved the study of twins. In the period from 1943 to 1966 he conducted several researches on identical twins who had been raised apart. Almost every study revealed that twins' intelligence test scores were extremely similar, pointing to the conclusion that nature, not nurture, plays key role in intelligence.
 +
 +
'''Controversy'''
 +
 +
It is his research on twin studies that have created the most controversy. After his death in 1971, many researchers tried unsuccessfully to repeat or verify Burt’s data. Many started to accuse Burt of fabricating data to conclude that intelligence is genetically determined. The possibility of fraud was first brought to the attention of the scientific community when Oliver Gillie (1976) and Leon Kamin (1974) noticed that Burt's correlation coefficients of Monozygotic and Dizygotic twins' IQ scores were the same to three decimal places, across articles – even when new data were twice added to the sample of twins. Leslie Hearnshaw (1979), a close friend of Burt and his official biographer, concluded after examining the criticisms that most of Burt's data from after [[World War II]] were unreliable or fraudulent.
 +
 +
In 1976, London's ''Sunday Times'' claimed two of Burt's collaborators, Margaret Howard and J. Conway, were made up by Burt himself. They based this on the lack of independent articles published by them in scientific journals, and the fact that they only appeared in the historical record as reviewers of Burt's books in the ''Journal of Statistical Psychology'' when the journal was redacted by Burt. Supporters claim the assistants have since been located.
 +
 +
Many of Burt's supporters believe the discrepancies were mostly caused by negligence rather than deliberate deception. In 1995, [[Cambridge University]] professor of psychology Nicholas Mackintosh edited a volume which found the case against Burt "not proven" (see Mackintosh, 1995)
 +
 +
===Other research===
 +
In addition to his work on [[intelligence]], Burt studied [[juvenile delinquency]]. Interestingly enough, unlike his claims of intelligence, he believed that delinquency was almost completely environmentally determined. While working at the Liverpool University, he spent many hours in the University Settlement, a housing project designed by the University for research purposes. Based on his experience there he concluded that environmental conditions lead to social and legal problems, and that inheritance plays minor role in delinquency.
 +
 +
In addition to his delinquency studies, Burt was responsible for the creation of the "Eleven-Plus" program, a national testing program that aimed to identify bright children from all socioeconomic levels. Burt believed that all children, regardless of their socioeconomic status, should have the same educational opportunities. He thus advocated for the creation of the system that could identify intelligent children and help them in their education. Eleven-Plus was created with that purpose. The name “Eleven” denotes Burt’s belief that intelligence is not entirely formed until children reach approximately age of eleven. A version of this program is still in use in the [[United Kingdom]] today.
 +
 +
Furthermore, Burt used his ideas on intelligence in the studies on race. He was a proponent of [[eugenics]] and was a member of the ''British Eugenics Society''. He believed that European races were intellectually superior to other races. He did not, however, attribute that difference entirely to genetics, leaving significant room for the influence of environment.
 +
 +
==Legacy==
 +
 +
Cyril Burt left a significant mark on the development of psychology as an independent field of study. He expanded the statistical technique of factor analysis, making psychology more scientific. He developed the field of [[Educational Psychology]] in [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]] through creating a system that could identify both “gifted” and mentally retarded students. His Eleven-Plus testing program is still used in Great Britain today.
 +
 +
Burt propagated the hereditarian position, where “nature”, not “nurture”, plays key role in individual development. Regardless of whether it was fraudulently obtained, Burt's twin data, such as the IQ correlation between twins, .77, is similar to modern estimates by psychologists and geneticists. For example, the [[American Psychological Association]]'s 1995 task force concluded that within America's white population the heritability of IQ is “around .75” (75%) (see [http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/taboos/apa_01.html APA], p. 85), and more recent genetics textbooks give the figure at roughly 80% (see Plomin et al. 2001).
 +
 +
Burt had a large influence on many psychologists - [[Raymond Cattell]], [[Hans Eysenck]], and towards the end of his life, [[Arthur Jensen]] and Chris Brand.
 +
 +
Since he had suggested on radio in 1946 the formation of an organization for people with high [[IQ]] scores, he was made honorary president of [[Mensa International]] in 1960, in a gesture of recognition.
  
−
{{epname}}
+
==Publications==
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1921. ''Mental and scholastic tests''. London: P.S. King and Son
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1925. ''The young delinquent''. London: University of London.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1977 (original published 1935). ''The subnormal mind''. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192611305
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1940. ''The factors of the mind: An introduction to factor analysis in psychology''. London: University of London.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1946. ''Intelligence and fertility''. London: Eugenics Society/Hamish Hamilton
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1949. An autobiographical sketch. ''Occupational Psychology'', 23, 9-20.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1957. ''The causes and treatments of backwardness'' (4th ed.). London: University of London.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1958. Definition and scientific method in psychology, ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'', 11, 31-69.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1958. The inheritance of mental ability, ''American Psychologist'', 13, 1-15.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1959. General ability and special aptitudes, ''Educational Research'', 1, 3-16.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1960. The mentally subnormal, ''Medical World'', 93, 297-300.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1961. Factor analysis and its neurological basis, ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'', 14, 53-71.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1963. [http://www.abelard.org/burt/burt-ie.asp Is Intelligence Distributed Normally?]. The ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'', 16(2)
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1971. Quantitative genetics in psychology, ''British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology'', 24, 1-21
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1972. Inheritance of general intelligence, ''American Psychologist'', 27, 175-190.
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1974. ''The backward child''. Hodder & Stoughton Educational Division. ISBN 0340085495
 +
 
 +
* Burt, C.L. 1976. ''The gifted child''. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 047015196X
  
−
Sir '''Cyril Lodowic Burt''' ([[March 3]], [[1883]] – [[October 10]], [[1971]]) was a prominent [[United Kingdom|British]] educational [[psychology|psychologist]]. He was a member of the [[Individual differences psychology|London School of Differential Psychology]]. Some of his work was controversial for its conclusions that [[genetics]] substantially influences mental and behavioral traits. After his death, he was famously accused of [[scientific misconduct|scientific fraud]].
+
* Burt, C.L., & Gregory, W.L. 1958. Scientific method in psychology: II, ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'', 11, 105-128.  
  
−
Burt supported [[eugenics]] and was a member of the [[British Eugenics Society]]. Since he had suggested on radio in [[1946]] the formation of an organization for people with high [[IQ]] scores, he was made honorary president of [[Mensa International|Mensa]] in [[1960]], in a gesture of recognition.
+
* Burt, C.L., & Williams, E.L. 1962. The influence of motivation on the results of intelligence tests, ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'', 15, 129-135.
  
−
==Biography==
+
==References==
−
Burt was born in [[Stratford-upon-Avon]], [[Warwickshire]], [[England]]. Early in Burt’s life he showed a precocious nature, so much so that his father, a physician, often took the young Burt with him on his medical rounds. One of the elder Burt’s more famous patients was [[Darwin Galton]], brother of [[Francis Galton]]. The visits the Burts made to the Galton estate not only allowed the young Burt to learn about the work of Francis Galton, but also allowed Burt to meet him on multiple occasions and to be strongly drawn to his ideas — especially his studies in statistics and individual differences, two defining characters of the [[London School of Psychology]] whose membership includes both Galton and Burt.
 
  
−
At the age of 11, Burt won a scholarship to [[Christ's Hospital]], where he first developed his appreciation of psychology. Not too long after, he won a classical scholarship to Oxford, where he specialized in philosophy and psychology, the latter under a fairly new faculty member, [[William McDougall]]. McDougall, knowing Burt’s interest in Galton’s work, suggested that he focus his senior project on psychometrics (although not then an official discipline), thus giving Burt his initial inquiry into the development and structure of mental tests— an interest that would last the rest of his life. In 1901, McDougall was appointed the secretary of the British Association Committee that planned to carry out, at Galton’s suggestion, a nation-wide survey of physical and mental characteristics. McDougall invited Burt to help him with this project along with J. C. Flugel, William Brown, and later [[Charles Spearman]].  
+
* American Psychological Association. 1996. Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns. ''American Psychologist''
  
−
In 1908, Burt took up the post of Lecturer in Psychology and Assistant Lecturer in Physiology at Liverpool University, where he was to work under famed physiologist [[Sir Charles Sherrington]]. While at this post, Burt was able to further both his knowledge of how human anatomy and physiology affect human psychology as well as his interest and research into individual differences.
+
* Banks, C., & Broadhurst, P.L. (eds.). 1966. ''Stephanos: Studies in psychology presented to Cyril Burt''. New York: Barnes & Noble.
  
−
In 1913, Burt took the position of a [[school psychology|school psychologist]] for the London County Council (LCC), which was in charge of all the London schools. This was the first appointment of this kind in the world, or at least in the United Kingdom. Initially, Burt’s LCC appointment was only a part time position, which allowed him to use the rest of his workweek gathering and publishing data. He notably established that girls were equal to boys in general intelligence — a change from contemporary Edwardian beliefs. During his tenure at the LCC, Burt gathered so much data that he was still publishing it long after he retired.
+
* Fancher, R.E. 1987. ''The intelligence men: Makers of the I.Q. controversy''. New York: Norton. ISBN 0393955257
  
−
In 1931 he resigned his position at the LCC when he was appointed Professor and Chair of Psychology at University College, London, taking over Spearman's position, thus ending his almost 20 year career as a school psychological practitioner. While at London, Burt had a large influence on many students, (e.g., [[Raymond Cattell]], [[Hans Eysenck]]), and towards the end of his life, [[Arthur Jensen]] and Chris Brand [http://www.crispian.demon.co.uk/index.htm].
+
* Fletcher, R. 1991. ''Science, ideology, and the media''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction. ISBN 0887383769
  
−
Burt was a consultant with the committees that developed the [[Eleven Plus]] examinations. This issue, and the allegations against him, are discussed further in [[The Mismeasure of Man]].
+
* Gillie Oliver. 1976. ''Who do you think you are: Man or superman—the genetic controversy''. Saturday Review Press. ISBN 0841503974
  
−
==The Burt Affair==
+
* Gould Stephen J. 1996. ''The Mismeasure of man''. (2nd ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393314251
−
Over the course of his career Burt published numerous articles and books on a host of topics ranging from psychometrics to philosophy of science to parapsychology. It is his research in [[quantitative genetics|behavior genetics]], most notably in studying the heritability of intelligence (as measured in IQ tests) using [[twin study|twin studies]] that have created the most controversy.
 
  
−
From the late 1970s it has been generally accepted that at least a majority of this research was fraudulent, due in large part to research by [[Oliver Gillie]] (1976) and [[Leon Kamin]] (1974). The possibility of fraud was first brought to the attention of the scientific community when Kamin noticed that Burt's correlation coefficients of [[Twin#Identical twins|Monozygotic]] and [[Twin#Fraternal twins|Dizygotic]] twins' IQ scores were the same to three decimal places, across articles – even when new data were twice added to the sample of twins. [[Leslie Hearnshaw]], a close friend of Burt and his official biographer, concluded after examining the criticisms that most of Burt's data from after [[World War II]] were unreliable or fraudulent.
+
* Hearnshaw, L. 1979. ''Cyril Burt: Psychologist''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801412447
  
−
In 1976, London's ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|Sunday Times]]'' claimed two of Burt's collaborators, Margaret Howard and J. Conway, were made up by Burt himself. They based this on the lack of independent articles published by them in scientific journals, and the fact that they only appeared in the historical record as reviewers of Burt's books in the ''Journal of Statistical Psychology'' when the journal was redacted by Burt. Supporters claim the assistants have since been located.[http://www.mugu.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/rushton-burt?embedded=yes&cumulative_category_title=J.+Phillipe+Rushton&cumulative_category_id=Rushton]
+
* Joynson, R.B. 1989. ''The Burt Affair''. New York: Routledge. ISBN 041501039X
  
−
Two independent authors, [[Ronald Fletcher]] (1991) and [[Robert Joynson]] (1989) published books that, while not totally exonerating Burt, criticized the methods and motives of his accusers.
+
* Kamin, Leon. 1974. ''The Science and politics of IQ''. Potomac, MD: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0898591295
  
−
Many of Burt's supporters believe the discrepancies were mostly caused by negligence rather than deliberate deception. In 1995, Cambridge University professor of psychology Nicholas Mackintosh edited a volume published by Oxford University Press which found the case against Burt "not proven" – the argument was summarized in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' by Edinburgh psychologist Christopher Brand. Brand especially observed that Burt could have obtained some of his data that came from an unknown source from the detailed 1962 work on monozygotic twins published by James Shields (Cambridge University Press).
+
* Lamb, K. 1992. Biased tidings: The media and the Cyril Burt controversy, ''Mankind Quarterly'', 33, 203.
  
−
IQ critic [[William H. Tucker]] concludes in a 1997 article that, "A comparison of his twin sample with that from other well documented studies, however, leaves little doubt that he committed fraud." [http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/45746/ABSTRACT] Racial psychologist [[J. Philippe Rushton]] claims that the disparagement of Burt was conducted for ideological reasons.[http://www.mugu.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/rushton-burt?embedded=yes&cumulative_category_title=J.+Phillipe+Rushton&cumulative_category_id=Rushton] Regardless of whether it was fraudulently obtained, Burt's controversial twin data, such as the IQ correlation between twins, .77, is similar to [[Intelligence quotient#Genetics vs environment|modern estimates]] by psychologists and geneticists.
+
* Mackintosh, N.J. 1995. ''Cyril Burt: Fraud or Framed?'' Oxford University Press. ISBN 019852336X
−
For example, the [[American Psychological Association]]'s 1995 task force on "Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns"[http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/taboos/apa_01.html] concluded that within America's [[White American|white]] population the heritability of IQ is “around .75” (75%) (p. 85), and more recent genetics textbooks give the figure at roughly 80% ([[Race and intelligence (References)#Plomin et al. 2001|Plomin et al. 2001]]).
 
  
−
==Further reading==
+
* Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., McClearn, G. E. and McGuffin, P. 2001. ''Behavioral genetics'' (4th Ed.). New York: Freeman. ISBN 0716751593.
−
===Biographies===
 
−
*Banks, C., & Broadhurst, P.L. (eds.). (1966). ''Stephanos: Studies in psychology presented to Cyril Burt''. New York: Barnes & Noble.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1949). An autobiographical sketch. ''Occupational Psychology'', 23, 9-20.
 
−
*Fancher, R.E. (1985) ''The intelligence men: Makers of the I.Q. controversy''. New York: Norton.
 
−
*Hearnshaw, L. (1979). ''Cyril Burt: Psychologist''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
 
−
*(1983) "Sir Cyril Burt". ''AEP (Association of Educational Psychologists) Journal'', 6 (1) [Special issue]
 
−
*Scarr, S. (1994). "Burt, Cyril L.", in R.J. Sternberg (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of intelligence'' (Vol. 1, pp. 231-234). New York: Macmillan.
 
  
−
===Books by Burt===
+
* Rowe, D., & Plomin, R. 1978. The Burt controversy: The comparison of Burt's data on IQ with data from other studies, ''Behavior Genetics'', 8, 81-83.  
−
*Burt, C.L. (1975). ''The gifted child''. New York: Wiley.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1962). ''Mental and scholastic tests'' (4th ed.). London: Staples.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1957). ''The causes and treatments of backwardness'' (4th ed.). London: University of London.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1940). ''The factors of the mind: An introduction to factor analysis in psychology''. London: University of London.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1935). ''The subnormal mind''. London: Oxford University.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1946). ''Intelligence and fertility''. London:
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1925). ''The young delinquent''. London: University of London.
 
  
−
===Articles by Burt===
+
* Rushton, J.P. 1994. Victim of scientific hoax (Cyril Burt and the genetic IQ controversy), ''Society'', 31, 40-44.
−
*Burt, C.L. (1972). "Inheritance of general intelligence", ''American Psychologist'', 27, 175-190.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1971). "Quantitative genetics in psychology", ''British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology'', 24, 1-21
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1963). ''[http://www.abelard.org/burt/burt-ie.asp Is Intelligence Distributed Normally?]''.
 
−
*Burt, C.L., & Williams, E.L. (1962). "The influence of motivation on the results of intelligence tests", ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'', 15, 129-135.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1961). "Factor analysis and its neurological basis", ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'', 14, 53-71.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1960). "The mentally subnormal", ''Medical World'', 93, 297-300.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1959). "General ability and special aptitudes", ''Educational Research'', 1, 3-16.
 
−
*Burt, C.L., & Gregory, W.L. (1958). "Scientific method in psychology: II", ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'', 11, 105-128.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1958). "Definition and scientific method in psychology", ''British Journal of Statistical Psychology'', 11, 31-69.
 
−
*Burt, C.L. (1958). "The inheritance of mental ability", ''American Psychologist'', 13, 1-15.
 
  
−
===Readings on the Burt Affair===
+
* Scarr, S. 1994. Burt, Cyril L. In R.J. Sternberg (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of human intelligence'' (Vol. 1, pp. 231-234). New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0028974077
−
*Fletcher, R. (1991). ''Science, Ideology, and the Media''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction.
 
−
*[[Stephen Jay Gould|Gould, S.J.]] (1996). ''[[The Mismeasure of Man]]''. (2nd ed.).
 
−
*Gillie, O. (1976, October 24). ''Crucial data was faked by eminent psychologist.'' London: Sunday Times.
 
−
*Hearnshaw, L. (1979). ''Cyril Burt: Psychologist''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
 
−
*Joynson, R.B. (1989). ''The Burt Affair''. New York: Routledge.
 
−
*[[Leon Kamin|Kamin, L.J.]] (1974). ''[[The Science and Politics of IQ]]''. Potomac, MD: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
 
−
*Lamb, K. (1992). "Biased tidings: The media and the Cyril Burt controversy", ''Mankind Quarterly'', 33, 203.
 
−
*Rowe, D., & Plomin, R. (1978). "The Burt controversy: The comparison of Burt's data on IQ with data from other studies", ''Behavior Genetics'', 8, 81-83.
 
−
*[[J. Philippe Rushton|Rushton, J.P.]] (1994). "Victim of scientific hoax (Cyril Burt and the genetic IQ controversy)", ''Society'', 31, 40-44.
 
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
−
*[http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/burt.shtml Concise summary of Cyril Burt]
 
−
*[http://www.individualdifferences.info/LondonBurt.htm The London School of Differential Psychology: Cyril L. Burt]
 
−
*[http://sca.lib.liv.ac.uk/collections/archive/burt.html The Cyril Burt Archives]
 
−
*[http://www.hirhome.com/rr/rrchap6.htm "Resurrecting Racism: The modern attack on black people using phony science."] 2004,
 
  
 +
* [http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/burt.shtml Concise summary of Cyril Burt] - Short biography on Indiana State University website
 +
 +
* [http://www.individualdifferences.info/LondonBurt.htm Cyril L. Burt] - Biography and bibliography on The London School of Differential Psychology website
 +
 +
* Francisco Gil-White. 2004. [http://www.hirhome.com/rr/rrchap6.htm ''Resurrecting Racism: The modern attack on black people using phony science''.] - Article about Cyril Burt, IQ testing and Eugenics
 +
 +
* Parrington, J. 1996. [http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr196/parrington.htm The intelligence fraud]. ''Socialist Review'', 196
 +
 +
* Sternberg, Robert J., Elena L. Grigorenko, & Kenneth K. Kidd. 2005. [http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/amp60146.pdf Intelligence, Race, and Genetics]. ''American Psychologist'', 60, 46–59
  
 
{{Credit1|Cyril_Burt|93272470|}}
 
{{Credit1|Cyril_Burt|93272470|}}

Revision as of 07:44, 12 December 2006

Cyril Lodowic Burt (born March 3, 1883 – died October 10, 1971) was an British educational psychologist, famous for his claims that genetics substantially influences mental and behavioral traits.

Life

Cyril Burt was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. Early in his life he showed a precocious nature, so much so that his father, a physician, often took the young Burt with him on his medical rounds. One of his father’s more famous patients was Darwin Galton, brother of Francis Galton. The visits the Burts made to the Galton estate not only allowed the young Burt to learn about the work of Francis Galton, but also allowed Burt to meet him on multiple occasions and to be strongly drawn to his ideas, especially to his studies in statistics and individual differences, that Burt will later become famous for.

At the age of 11, Burt won a scholarship to Christ's Hospital, where he first developed his appreciation of psychology. Not too long after, he won a classical scholarship to Oxford, where he specialized in philosophy and psychology, the latter under a fairly new faculty member, William McDougall. McDougall, knowing Burt’s interest in Galton’s work, suggested that he focus his senior project on psychometrics (although not then an official discipline), thus giving Burt his initial inquiry into the development and structure of mental tests. In 1901, McDougall was appointed the secretary of the British Association Committee that planned to carry out, at Galton’s suggestion, a nation-wide survey of physical and mental characteristics. McDougall invited Burt to help him with this project along with J. C. Flugel, William Brown, and later Charles Spearman.

In 1908, Burt obtained his teacher’s diploma and subsequently took up the post of Lecturer in Psychology and Assistant Lecturer in Physiology at Liverpool University, where he was to work under famed physiologist Charles Sherrington. While at this post, Burt was able to further both his knowledge of how human anatomy and physiology affect human psychology as well as his interest and research into individual differences. In 1908 he spent several months in Germany, where he studied psychology under Oswald Külpe at the University of Würzburg.

In 1913, Burt took the position of a school psychologist for the London County Council (LCC), which was in charge of all the London schools. Initially, Burt’s appointment was only a part time position, which allowed him to use the rest of his workweek gathering and publishing data. During his tenure at the LCC, Burt gathered so much data that he was still publishing it long after he retired.

In 1931 he resigned his position at the LCC when he was appointed Professor and Chair of Psychology at University College, London, taking over Spearman's position. He stayed there until 1950. He also served there as the head of the department of psychology.

In addition to teaching and research, Burt was a consultant with the committees that developed the Eleven-Plus examinations. In 1942 he became president of the British Psychological Society. He was knighted in 1946, being the first British psychologist to receive this recognition. He also served as editor and co-editor of the British Journal of Statistical Psychology (1947-1963)

Burt retired in 1950, but continued to write. He published around 200 works only after his retirement. He died in London in 1971, at the age of eighty-eight.

Work

Burt remains most famous for his work on intelligence, juvenile delinquency, and development of some tests and measures. In his studies, he pioneered the method of factor-analysis, which was rather novel in the time when psychology struggled to part from philosophy and psychiatry, to become an independent discipline. At the time of Burt already few researchers, like Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, and Charles Spearman used factor analysis in studying human intelligence. Burt developed new statistical techniques in it, and applied them to his research

Intelligence

One of the first studies Burt conducted was his 1909 study of intelligence of boys enrolled in elite school versus boys enrolled in a regular school. Based on the results he concluded that the elite-school boys had higher innate intelligence, which they inherited from their parents. In yet another study of intelligence, this time of gender differences in intelligence, Burt concluded that girls were equal to boys in general intelligence — a belief that was different from contemporary claims in Burt’s time.

Based on his studies, Burt concluded that heredity plays greater role in the development of intellectual ability than does the environment. He writes:

”That children of better social status succeed better with the Binet- Simon scale is not necessarily an objection to that scale; nor is it necessarily a ground for constructing separate norms: for, by birth as well as by home training, children who are superior in social status may be equally superior in general ability. Conversely, if a child proves defective according to a scale that is otherwise authentic, the mere fact that his family is poor and his dwelling a hovel does not of itself condone his deficiency. His parents' home may be mean precisely because their hereditary intelligence is mean. Whether poverty and its accompaniments affect the child's performances in any direct fashion-whether, for example, in the Binet-Simon tests a child that inherits an abundance of natural ability may be handicapped through a lack of cultural opportunities-is a further and a separate issue (Burt, 1921, p. 192).

His most influential work in the area of intelligence involved the study of twins. In the period from 1943 to 1966 he conducted several researches on identical twins who had been raised apart. Almost every study revealed that twins' intelligence test scores were extremely similar, pointing to the conclusion that nature, not nurture, plays key role in intelligence.

Controversy

It is his research on twin studies that have created the most controversy. After his death in 1971, many researchers tried unsuccessfully to repeat or verify Burt’s data. Many started to accuse Burt of fabricating data to conclude that intelligence is genetically determined. The possibility of fraud was first brought to the attention of the scientific community when Oliver Gillie (1976) and Leon Kamin (1974) noticed that Burt's correlation coefficients of Monozygotic and Dizygotic twins' IQ scores were the same to three decimal places, across articles – even when new data were twice added to the sample of twins. Leslie Hearnshaw (1979), a close friend of Burt and his official biographer, concluded after examining the criticisms that most of Burt's data from after World War II were unreliable or fraudulent.

In 1976, London's Sunday Times claimed two of Burt's collaborators, Margaret Howard and J. Conway, were made up by Burt himself. They based this on the lack of independent articles published by them in scientific journals, and the fact that they only appeared in the historical record as reviewers of Burt's books in the Journal of Statistical Psychology when the journal was redacted by Burt. Supporters claim the assistants have since been located.

Many of Burt's supporters believe the discrepancies were mostly caused by negligence rather than deliberate deception. In 1995, Cambridge University professor of psychology Nicholas Mackintosh edited a volume which found the case against Burt "not proven" (see Mackintosh, 1995)

Other research

In addition to his work on intelligence, Burt studied juvenile delinquency. Interestingly enough, unlike his claims of intelligence, he believed that delinquency was almost completely environmentally determined. While working at the Liverpool University, he spent many hours in the University Settlement, a housing project designed by the University for research purposes. Based on his experience there he concluded that environmental conditions lead to social and legal problems, and that inheritance plays minor role in delinquency.

In addition to his delinquency studies, Burt was responsible for the creation of the "Eleven-Plus" program, a national testing program that aimed to identify bright children from all socioeconomic levels. Burt believed that all children, regardless of their socioeconomic status, should have the same educational opportunities. He thus advocated for the creation of the system that could identify intelligent children and help them in their education. Eleven-Plus was created with that purpose. The name “Eleven” denotes Burt’s belief that intelligence is not entirely formed until children reach approximately age of eleven. A version of this program is still in use in the United Kingdom today.

Furthermore, Burt used his ideas on intelligence in the studies on race. He was a proponent of eugenics and was a member of the British Eugenics Society. He believed that European races were intellectually superior to other races. He did not, however, attribute that difference entirely to genetics, leaving significant room for the influence of environment.

Legacy

Cyril Burt left a significant mark on the development of psychology as an independent field of study. He expanded the statistical technique of factor analysis, making psychology more scientific. He developed the field of Educational Psychology in Great Britain through creating a system that could identify both “gifted” and mentally retarded students. His Eleven-Plus testing program is still used in Great Britain today.

Burt propagated the hereditarian position, where “nature”, not “nurture”, plays key role in individual development. Regardless of whether it was fraudulently obtained, Burt's twin data, such as the IQ correlation between twins, .77, is similar to modern estimates by psychologists and geneticists. For example, the American Psychological Association's 1995 task force concluded that within America's white population the heritability of IQ is “around .75” (75%) (see APA, p. 85), and more recent genetics textbooks give the figure at roughly 80% (see Plomin et al. 2001).

Burt had a large influence on many psychologists - Raymond Cattell, Hans Eysenck, and towards the end of his life, Arthur Jensen and Chris Brand.

Since he had suggested on radio in 1946 the formation of an organization for people with high IQ scores, he was made honorary president of Mensa International in 1960, in a gesture of recognition.

Publications

  • Burt, C.L. 1921. Mental and scholastic tests. London: P.S. King and Son
  • Burt, C.L. 1925. The young delinquent. London: University of London.
  • Burt, C.L. 1977 (original published 1935). The subnormal mind. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192611305
  • Burt, C.L. 1940. The factors of the mind: An introduction to factor analysis in psychology. London: University of London.
  • Burt, C.L. 1946. Intelligence and fertility. London: Eugenics Society/Hamish Hamilton
  • Burt, C.L. 1949. An autobiographical sketch. Occupational Psychology, 23, 9-20.
  • Burt, C.L. 1957. The causes and treatments of backwardness (4th ed.). London: University of London.
  • Burt, C.L. 1958. Definition and scientific method in psychology, British Journal of Statistical Psychology, 11, 31-69.
  • Burt, C.L. 1958. The inheritance of mental ability, American Psychologist, 13, 1-15.
  • Burt, C.L. 1959. General ability and special aptitudes, Educational Research, 1, 3-16.
  • Burt, C.L. 1960. The mentally subnormal, Medical World, 93, 297-300.
  • Burt, C.L. 1961. Factor analysis and its neurological basis, British Journal of Statistical Psychology, 14, 53-71.
  • Burt, C.L. 1971. Quantitative genetics in psychology, British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology, 24, 1-21
  • Burt, C.L. 1972. Inheritance of general intelligence, American Psychologist, 27, 175-190.
  • Burt, C.L. 1974. The backward child. Hodder & Stoughton Educational Division. ISBN 0340085495
  • Burt, C.L., & Gregory, W.L. 1958. Scientific method in psychology: II, British Journal of Statistical Psychology, 11, 105-128.
  • Burt, C.L., & Williams, E.L. 1962. The influence of motivation on the results of intelligence tests, British Journal of Statistical Psychology, 15, 129-135.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • American Psychological Association. 1996. Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns. American Psychologist
  • Banks, C., & Broadhurst, P.L. (eds.). 1966. Stephanos: Studies in psychology presented to Cyril Burt. New York: Barnes & Noble.
  • Fancher, R.E. 1987. The intelligence men: Makers of the I.Q. controversy. New York: Norton. ISBN 0393955257
  • Fletcher, R. 1991. Science, ideology, and the media. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction. ISBN 0887383769
  • Gillie Oliver. 1976. Who do you think you are: Man or superman—the genetic controversy. Saturday Review Press. ISBN 0841503974
  • Gould Stephen J. 1996. The Mismeasure of man. (2nd ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393314251
  • Hearnshaw, L. 1979. Cyril Burt: Psychologist. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801412447
  • Kamin, Leon. 1974. The Science and politics of IQ. Potomac, MD: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0898591295
  • Lamb, K. 1992. Biased tidings: The media and the Cyril Burt controversy, Mankind Quarterly, 33, 203.
  • Mackintosh, N.J. 1995. Cyril Burt: Fraud or Framed? Oxford University Press. ISBN 019852336X
  • Plomin, R., DeFries, J. C., McClearn, G. E. and McGuffin, P. 2001. Behavioral genetics (4th Ed.). New York: Freeman. ISBN 0716751593.
  • Rowe, D., & Plomin, R. 1978. The Burt controversy: The comparison of Burt's data on IQ with data from other studies, Behavior Genetics, 8, 81-83.
  • Rushton, J.P. 1994. Victim of scientific hoax (Cyril Burt and the genetic IQ controversy), Society, 31, 40-44.
  • Scarr, S. 1994. Burt, Cyril L. In R.J. Sternberg (ed.), Encyclopedia of human intelligence (Vol. 1, pp. 231-234). New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0028974077

External links

  • Cyril L. Burt - Biography and bibliography on The London School of Differential Psychology website

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Cyril_Burt&oldid=156626

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Copyright Logo
Powered by MediaWiki