Intelligence Tests, Effect of Culture and Ethnicity on

The nature of intelligence and its measurement continues to be complex. The concept of fairness is central to the accurate measurement of this construct, according to the guidelines developed by the American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education and published as Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests. Yet although there is no universal definition of intelligence, the assessment of intelligence and cognitive functioning often reflects Westernized concepts and values. This becomes a potential problem when an individual’s demographic background differs from the characteristics of the assessment tool, and it certainly becomes a pitfall when the examiner is not culturally competent.

Assessments of intellectual abilities can, therefore, result in the misclassification of individuals as having disabilities or the ...