On Sun, 27 Oct 2002 10:46:13 -0500 Charlotte Manly
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I agree. Gazzaniga would want to know. And while we're on the topic
> of pictures, I'll mention that our department dropped the use of a
> particular text based on the nature of its biased coverage of race in
> the context of IQ and cognitive & social development, and the problem
> came to light starting with a picture of three African-American women
> of varying hue, the caption of which discussed the relationship
> between skin color and degree of African heritage. Apparently racial
> purity and genetic testing are hot-button issues for
> African-Americans, and that's not counting the other hot-button
> issues revolving around the history of IQ testing and the various
> uses to which it has been put.
>
> Charlotte
>
This example illustrates another problem I have noted in intro
textbooks. The figure captions are written by in-house editors,
who are not psychologists. I have run across several examples
like the above where there is an assertion of an empirical
generality ("People think/feel/do ...") which are either
unsubstantiated or are in conflict with material in the text
itself.
In this case, I did a brief search on PubMed and found no
evidence to support the caption. Instead, the references seem
to suggest material like the following...
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1: Hum Biol 2000 Oct;72(5):773-80
Human skin color diversity is highest in sub-Saharan African populations.
Relethford JH.
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York College at Oneonta,
13820, USA.
Previous studies of genetic and craniometric traits have found higher levels of
within-population diversity in sub-Saharan Africa compared to other geographic
regions. This study examines regional differences in within-population diversity
of human skin color. Published data on skin reflectance were collected for 98
male samples from eight geographic regions: sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa,
Europe, West Asia, Southwest Asia, South Asia, Australasia, and the New World.
Regional differences in local within-population diversity were examined using
two measures of variability: the sample variance and the sample coefficient of
variation. For both measures, the average level of within-population diversity
is higher in sub-Saharan Africa than in other geographic regions. This
difference persists even after adjusting for a correlation between
within-population diversity and distance from the equator. Though affected by
natural selection, skin color variation shows the same pattern of higher African
diversity as found with other traits.
PMID: 11126724 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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Ken
----------------------
Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dept. of Psychology
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
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