Browsing by Subject "Mensa"

Objectives. Studies show that intelligence is declining in Western countries. Researchers ’concerns have widened into a debate over whether society is depleting or whether there is an issue in statistics. The purpose of this study is to sort out the epistemological beliefs of the Mensians in relation to the decline in intelligence. It also explores how incremental theory of intelligence is reflected in the beliefs of Mensians. The aim of the study is to give people who are found to be intelligent the opportunity to describe the evolution of intelligence to broaden the understanding of the phenomenon. Because intelligence is a complex concept, the theoretical background of the study contains broad research of measurement and definition of intelligence. Methods. This qualitative research is part of a phenomenographic research tradition. The material of the study is secondary data from a previous master’s thesis, which examined the beliefs of Mensians in the development of intelligence. This study focuses on the open-ended response in the data, in which Mensians describe why they believe intelligence is declining in the West. In accordance with the phenomenographic research approach, the material was first analysed by classifying the beliefs found in the material into units. Those units were formed into descriptive categories that reflect the relationship between the beliefs associated with the phenomenon in a larger picture. Results and conclusions. According to the results of the study, Mensians widely believe that intelligence is built on a person’s own making. Therefore, incremental beliefs were strongly present in the epistemological beliefs, but entity-theoretic beliefs were also found. The Mensians saw many reasons for the decline in intelligence, the most common being digitalisation and transition in society. Other answers include the breeding of stupid people, chemicalization and life habits. There was concern about the decline in intelligence and it was understood to be part of the negative development of modern society. On the other hand, many Mensans also questioned the whole phenomenon and suspected it as a misunderstanding.