Scope and Contents

The lecture outlines the concept and possible explanations for a differential birth rate, and the relationship between family size and intelligence. Thomson describes the purpose and findings of the Scottish Mental Surveys and follow-up studies.

Also includes invitation from the BBC to undertake the talk, and copy of the agreement form.

Scope and Contents Thomson discusses how intelligence is distributed between the various social or occupational levels of society. He explains the normal distribution of intelligence within the population, drawing parallels with the distribution of height. Thomson refers to inquiries carried out by him in Northumberland in 1922, and inquiries carried out in the Isle of Wight in 1924, which demonstrated that individual differences outweigh social differences, and supported the notion that heredity...

Scope and Contents Thomson begins by introducing the concept of individual differences in general terms, before moving on to his own topic of intelligence, and discussing the extent of individual intelligence differences. He illustrates the wideness of the intellectual range within the population by reproducing Cyril Burt's table, Distribution of Intelligence among Children and Adults, which contains suggested IQ scores for different levels of schooling and occupational complexity in...