Linda Gottfredson
Encyclopedia
Linda Susanne Gottfredson (née Howarth, born June 24, 1947) is a professor of educational psychology
Educational psychology
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...

 at the University of Delaware
University of Delaware
The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

 and co-director of the Delaware-Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 Project for the Study of Intelligence
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...

 and Society. Gottfredson's work has been influential in shaping U.S. public and private policies regarding affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...

, hiring quotas, and "race-norming" on aptitude tests.

She currently sits on the boards of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences
International Society for the Study of Individual Differences
The International Society for the Study of Individual Differences is a scientific society founded in 1983 that fosters research on the measurement, structure, dynamics and biological bases of individual differences in temperament, intelligence, attitudes, and abilities...

 (ISSID), the International Society for Intelligence Research
International Society for Intelligence Research
The International Society for Intelligence Research is a scientific society for researchers in human intelligence.Founded in 2000, ISIR hosts an annual conference offering an opportunity for those interested in intelligence to meet, present their research, and discuss current issues...

 (ISIR), and the editorial boards of the scientific journals Intelligence
Intelligence (journal)
Intelligence is a peer-reviewed academic journal of psychology that covers intelligence and psychometrics. It is published by Elsevier and the official journal of the International Society for Intelligence Research.The journal was established in 1977 and the editor in chief is Douglas K. Detterman...

, Learning and Individual Differences
Learning and Individual Differences
Learning and Individual Differences is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier dealing with individual differences within an educational context....

, and Society
Society (journal)
Society is a scientific journal that publishes discussions and research findings in the social sciences and public policy.It was founded as Transaction: Social Science and Modern SOCIETY by Irving Louis Horowitz in 1962. It was published by Transaction Publisher for decades before being purchased...

. Gottfredson has received research grants worth $267,000 from the Pioneer Fund
Pioneer Fund
The Pioneer Fund is an American non-profit foundation established in 1937 "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences." Currently headed by psychology professor J. Philippe Rushton, the fund states that it focuses on projects it perceives will not be easily funded due to...

.

Life and work

Born in San Francisco, she and her first husband Gary Don Gottfredson received bachelor’s degrees in psychology in 1969 from University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, then worked in the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...

 in Malaysia until 1972. She also taught in disadvantaged schools for a time when she was young. http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0765804972&id=VLtTKixjfYQC&pg=PA97&lpg=PA97&dq=%22pioneer+fund%22&sig=gS1cy77SaGOZOKRLkCZF7WJOpvc They both then went to graduate school at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

, where she received a Ph.D. in sociology in 1977.

Gottfredson then took a position at Hopkins’ Center for Social Organization of Schools and investigated issues of occupational segregation and typology based on skill sets and intellectual capacity. She married at one point Robert A. Gordon
Robert A. Gordon
Robert A. Gordon is an American sociologist best known for his work on intelligence, criminality, and race.Born in New York City, he served in the United States Army from 1955-1957. Gordon earned his B.A. from the College of the City of New York in 1957, then attended the University of Chicago,...

, who works in a related area at Hopkins, and they divorced by the mid-90s.http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/1994/nov2894/gordon.html

In 1985, Gottfredson participated in a conference called "The g Factor
General intelligence factor
The g factor, where g stands for general intelligence, is a statistic used in psychometrics to model the mental ability underlying results of various tests of cognitive ability...

 in Employment Testing." The papers presented were later published in the December 1986 issue of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, edited by Gottfredson. In 1986, Gottfredson was appointed Associate Professor of Educational Studies at the University of Delaware
University of Delaware
The university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...

, Newark.

That year, she presented a series of papers on general intelligence factor
General intelligence factor
The g factor, where g stands for general intelligence, is a statistic used in psychometrics to model the mental ability underlying results of various tests of cognitive ability...

 and employment. Gottfredson has said "We now have out there what I call the egalitarian fiction that all groups are equal in intelligence. We have social policy based on that fiction. For example, the 1991 Civil Rights Act codified Griggs vs. Duke Power
Griggs v. Duke Power Co.
Griggs v. Duke Power Co., , was a court case argued before the United States Supreme Court on December 14, 1970. It concerned employment discrimination and the disparate impact theory and was decided on March 8, 1971...

, which said that if you have disproportionate hiring by race, you are prima facie -- that's prima facie evidence of racial discrimination. ...Differences in intelligence have real world effects, whether we think they're there or not, whether we want to wish them away or not. And we don't do anybody any good, certainly not the low-IQ people, by denying that those problems exist..."

Keith Booker, president of the Wilmington, Del., chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...

, says that Gottfredson's research "... is being done in the name of white supremacy
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...

... the Pioneer Fund supports only research that tends to come out with results that further the division between races...by justifying the superiority of one race and the inferiority of another."

In 1988 Gottfredson received the first of many grants from the Pioneer Fund
Pioneer Fund
The Pioneer Fund is an American non-profit foundation established in 1937 "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences." Currently headed by psychology professor J. Philippe Rushton, the fund states that it focuses on projects it perceives will not be easily funded due to...

 for work on educational differences and occupational policy. She was promoted to full professor at the University of Delaware in 1990.

Gottfredson's research and views have stirred considerable controversy, especially her testimony on public affirmative action policy and her defense of The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve
The Bell Curve is a best-selling and controversial 1994 book by the Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray...

,
especially Mainstream Science on Intelligence
Mainstream Science on Intelligence
Mainstream Science on Intelligence was a public statement issued by a group of academic researchers in fields allied to intelligence testing that claimed to present those findings widely accepted in the expert community...

, an editorial written by her, signed by 51 colleagues, and published in the Wall Street Journal. Since that time she has written a number of articles on race and intelligence
Race and intelligence
The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early 20th century...

, especially as it applies to occupational qualification.

Professional service

  • Board of directors, International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, 2005–present.
  • Editorial board
    Editorial board
    The editorial board is a group of people, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take.- Board makeup :...

    , Learning and Individual Differences, 2004–present.
  • Editorial board, Intelligence, 2004–present.
  • Advisory board
    Advisory board
    An advisory board is a body that advises the board of directors and management of a corporation but does not have authority to vote on corporate matters, nor a legal fiduciary responsibility...

    , International Society for Intelligence Research, 2000–present (Founding Member).
  • Board of editorial advisors, Society, 1997–present.
  • Editorial board, The Psychologist-Manager Journal
    The Psychologist-Manager Journal
    The Psychologist-Manager Journal is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal, founded in 1997 by the Society of Psychologists in Management. The journal is published by Taylor & Francis...

    , 1997-2000.
  • National Council
    National Council
    -Conservation:* National Council for Science and the Environment, a US-based non-profit organization which has a mission to improve the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking...

    , Federation of American Scientists
    Federation of American Scientists
    The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...

    , 1995-1999.
  • Testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Oversight hearing on the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
    Washington, D.C.
    Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

    , May 20, 1997.
  • Board of directors
    Board of directors
    A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

    , Society of Psychologists in Management, 1994-1997.
  • Board of directors, Society for the Study of Social Biology, 1990-1994.
  • Editorial board, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 1983-1990.
  • Consultant, Department of Labor (DOT revision [APDOT, contract to American Psychological Association], implementation of "Goals 2000" [contract to Institute for Educational Leadership]), 1992-1995.
  • Consultant
    Consultant
    A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...

    , Department of Defense Student Testing Program contract awarded to Booz-Allen, Inc. 1989-1991.
  • Panel member, Advisory Panel on the Identification of Alternative Approaches for reporting Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) scores. U.S. Manpower Entrance Processing Command, San Antonio, TX, November 1987.
  • Consultant, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1987-1989.

Honors

  • George A Miller Award (for outstanding journal article across specialty areas), Society for General Psychology, American Psychological Association
    American Psychological Association
    The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States. It is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 154,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. The APA...

    , 2008
  • Mensa Press Award, 2005.
  • Mensa Award for Excellence in Research, 2005.
  • Faculty Senate Commendation for Extraordinary Leadership and Service, University of Delaware, awarded May 2, 2005.
  • Mensa Education and Research Foundation Award for Excellence in Research, 1999-2000.
  • Fellow, Association for Psychological Science, elected 1998.
  • Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars, elected 1995.
  • Fellow, American Psychological Association, elected 1994.
  • Fellow
    Fellow
    A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

    , Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, elected 1994.

Selected articles and papers


External links

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