two cultures controversy

Review: "The Two Cultures Controversy: Getzels, Jackson and Hudson"
From "Maps of the Mind" by Charles Hampden-Turner p. 104

Intelligence is a nebulous characteristic, consisting of the mind's ability to comprehend and gain knowledge through experience. Neither parts of this definition can be truly calculated, yet the school-boards around the US accept the results of the Binet IQ test as though it is an accurate measurement. Even Binet second guess the use of such a test to deliver desired data.

"Since, according to Binet, intelligence could not be described as a single score, the use of the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) as a definite statement of a child's intellectual capability would be a serious mistake. In addition, Binet feared that IQ measurement would be used to condemn a child to a permanent “condition” of stupidity, thereby negatively affecting his or her education and livelihood." (IQ Test: Where Does It Come From and What Does It Measure? by Jan Strydom)

Learning from experience would have to be measured after an experience, but can comprehension be measured with an IQ test? Getzels and Jackson showed that comprehension is a two step process of 'convergent' and 'divergent' thought processes; Convergent thinking, like deductive thinking, is when one takes in information and formulates an opinion. Divergent thinking is an unconventional and creative problem solving type, and includes reformulation, elaboration and play.
Getzels and Jackson found that although both processes occur during the solving of a problem, a person can rely heavily on just one type. Liam Hudson tested Getzels's and Jackson's theories in England, where he found students with strong convergent thinking tended towards the sciences, while those with a penchant for divergent thought steered towards the humanities. Yet Hudson thought the two criteria superficial and impercise indicators of a persons true intelligence. This is due to his finding that his test subjects claimed an 'inner' thought process opposite to their exterior perceived cognitive thinking (divergents were inner convergers and vis versa).

"An examination of the neurotic defenses and personal limitations of those in each major category revealed that both divergers and convergers tended to over-use their strong suits to escape being found out. Convergers learned to evade many issues by placing them 'outside sciences'. If a problem could not be formulated precisely enough to permit a technical solution it was no problem! They tended to take refuge from people in things. Divergers would often side-step unpleasant facts, by using their capacities for conceptual leaping to reach sager ground. By concentrating on problem presentation, the solution could be indefinitely postponed.
They tended to take refuge from things in people." (p. 107 Maps of the Mind)

The mind relies on which ever of the two types it feels more comfortable with, meanwhile creating a defense mechanism to hide behind - "that's not logical," says the convergent thinker. Yet, science relies on the imagination to consider solutions to the unknown just as much as the humanities rely on economics and biology to explain the imagination of authors. So, convergent and divergent categories are just another tool of the mind to deal with the world and not mere components of comprehension.
Perhaps the IQ test's merit was only in estimating the student's ability for convergent thought? If the two processes are occurring and learned from experience information is utilized, then how can an accurate measurement of one component be considered a valid measure?? Yet from another prospective, isn't it interesting that we rely on a test we consider scientific (convergent thought) to measure an abstract concept of intelligence (mared in the divergent).

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Museum Debate

Today's art museums are committed to completing major expansion and renovation projects, and vigorously carrying out their stated missions. ¹ These missions typically are concerned with processes of acquisition, preservation, exhibition, and education. The National Gallery of Art, for example, is dedicated to "preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and fostering the understanding of works of art." ² Similarly, the Getty Museum at the J. Paul Getty Center seeks to "delight, inspire, and educate the public by acquiring, conserving, studying, exhibiting, and interpreting works of art." ³ Such processes are strategic, of course, and give direction and purpose to the range of programs and services offered by these institutions. Ensuring that visitors are surrounded by works of art, "at the highest quality," these processes also give rise to a particular view of the museum as an "object of reflection, contemplation, and discussion." ⁴

Although unstated, I shall argue that art museums typically have other missions that are actively, if insidiously implemented through processes of representation (re-presentation), socialization, institutionalization, and commodification.The museum functions as a "socializing institution," that both represents and presents cultural assumptions, as well as social and aesthetic values to young and old alike. ⁵ These processes succeed in establishing an "ideology of aesthetic autonomy — the compartmental conception of fine art that segregates it to the separate realm of the museum." ⁶ Simultaneously, they present "ideology in material form." The museum itself is a representation that tends to take on an independent and ultimately self-reflecting existence. In a Debordian view, "it is a spectacle, which, in its generality, is a concrete inversion of life, and as such, the autonomous movement of non-life." Through processes of representation and commodification, the spectacular museum is constructed as a frame that influences the public perception of art and society. Moreover, this ideological frame influences how the public experiences constructs of time and place, and how it comes to know about art in relation to the real world.

For more information on this article: Museum as Process

The Journal of Aesthetic Education 37.1 (2003) 107-119

Carol S. Jeffers

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