ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews a body of data and theory that controverts the contention, casts doubt on the conclusion that a deficit exists in minority group children, and even raises doubts as to whether any non-superficial differences exist among different cultural groups. Anthropological critiques of psychological experimentation have never carried much weight with psychologists, nor have anthropologists been very impressed with conclusions from psychological tests. The central thesis derives from a re-examination of the distinction between competence and performance. The psychological status of the concept of competence is brought deeply into question when one examines conclusions based on standard experiments. Competence so defined is both situation blind and culture blind. If performance is treated only as a shallow expression of deeper competence, then one inevitably loses sight of the ecological problem of performance. For one of the most important things about any ‘underlying competence’ are the nature of the situations in which it expresses itself.
