PT10603 PERSONALITY DAN

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

INTELLIGENCE (PART 1)
DEFINING INTELLIGENCE

General ability or form of mental power

that develops in the first five years of
life to remain relatively stable after that.
Observable behavior
Is directly inferred from the relationship
between test scores (IQ) & other criteria
(performance in school/ work)
THE ENCARTA DICTIONARY

Definitions of intelligence:
1. Ability to think & learn
2. Secret information
3. Gathering of secret information
4. People gathering secret information
5. Intelligent spirit
STERNBERG (1981)

6 aspects to intelligence:
1) Practical problem- solving ability
2) Verbal ability
3) Intellectual balance & integration
4) Goal orientation & attainment
5) Contextual intelligence
6) Fluid thought
CONCEPTUALIZING
INTELLIGENCE
HISTORY OF INTELLIGENCE
TESTING
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)
1965- began to study heredity
Argued that genius is hereditary & normally
distributed in the population
Published Hereditary Genius (1869)- higher
intelligence was due to superior qualities
passed down to children through heredity
Interested in showing that human beings did
differ in intelligence
 Forefather of intelligence test
Hypothesis- there were differences in
intelligence
Measurements- based on a biological
background
Intelligent people khow the ability to
respond to the large range of information
experienced through the senses
Idiotic people demonstrate problems
dealing with information gained through
the senses
 People with low intelligence will show
less response to sensory information
Methods- Reaction of time & eye
judgment etc as a way to determine
intelligence through responsiveness to
stimuli
His work presented the first attempt to
measure intelligence directly
Hereditary genius: the idea that different
levels of intelligence are determined by
hereditary/ genetic factors
J.M. CATTELL
Galtons statistical & methodological approach
was emulated in the US by James Mc Keen
Cattell (1860-1944)
Devised a psychometric instrument to measure
individual differences in these basic processes.
First time received the name of mental test to
measure individual differences in basic
psychological functions such as tactile
discrimination, hearing & weight discrimination)
ALFRED BINET
Created the first intelligence test
In 1905, with Theodore Simon, he produced the Binet-
Simon Scale
Binet & Simon choose a series of 30 short tasks related
to everyday life which included these tasks:
Following a lighted match with your eyes
Shaking hands
Naming parts of the body
Counting coins
Naming objects in a picture
Recalling a number of digits after being shown a long list
Word definitions
Felling in missing words in a sentence
 The test questions were arranged in an
increasing degree of difficulty to indicate
levels of intelligence
Each level of test was designed to match a
specific development level for children
based on age ranging from 3-10 years old
Could be used to determine a childs
mental age & whether a child was
advanced/ backward for their age.
Turning point in psychology- performance of
the child was compared to the performance
of children of the same age.
Final publication (1911)- further tests for
12- & 15- year- olds & adults
 Termans large- scale studies allowed him
to test & improve the reliability of the scale
& thus extend it to subtest.
A childs score would now expressed as
intelligent quotient/ IQ ( a term introduced
by Stern, 1912)- a score derived from
standardized tests of intelligence usually
combining several subtests of different
cognitive ability tests
The mental age divided by the chronological/
real age, multiplied by 100
 In 1960s, these normative difference
were standardized through a measure
called standard deviation (SD)
The concept of IQ is almost
synonymous with intelligence
represented by bell curve of scores
(pg 69)
Bell curve- referring to the graph that
represents the frequency of scores/
values of any variable.
In psychology many variables, notably
IQ scores are normally distributed in
the population
CHARLES SPEARMEN

(1904, 1927) over the course of 2

publications- General Intelligence:
Objectively determined & measure &
The abilities of man.
Introduced one of the most influential
ideas in psychology, general
intelligence/ g- underlying performance
which can be extracted statistically from
scores on a range of ability tests
 Spearmans first 24 participants were the
oldest pupils of the village school in Berkshire
Spearmen moved onto the next 36 oldest
children in the school & then to a local school
which sent a lot of its pupils to Harrow.
1904-1921, he analysed the relationships
between the data collected using a variety of
intelligent tests & subjected them to factor
analysis
A person who does well on 1 intelligence test
will perform equally well on a variety of
intellectual tests- Positive manifold
 Used this idea to purpose a 2-factor
theory of intelligence
s- Specific abilities (the name given to
each type of intelligence needed for
performing well on each different
intelligence task
g- general intelligence (underlying all the
positive correlations & was the
intelligence required for performance on
intelligence tests of all types
A kind of mental energy that underlies
specific factors of intelligence
Saw a persons ability in one specific
ability test. eg. mathematics ability
L.L. THURSTONE
Was a US psychologist & psychometrician
Completed PhD at the University of Chicago
Used factor analysis & explored the
relationship between a number of
intelligences & looked for underlying
patterns & structures.
Agreed with Spearmans hypothesis of a
general factor but view g differently
A general factor of intelligence was
influencing all single aspects of intelligence
Thurstones seven primary abilities
Associative memory - ability for rote memory
Number - ability to accurately carry
mathematical operations
Perceptual speed - ability to perceive details,
anomalies, similarities in visual stimuli
Reasoning- ability in inductive & deductive
reasoning
Space (spatial visualisations) - ability to
mentally transform spatial figures
Word fluency - ability to express ideas,
generate & use effectively a large number of
words/ letters
 Verbal comprehension ability to reading,
comprehension skills, verbal analogies
General intelligence was the result of
these seven different aspects of
intelligence
The first multifactor approach to
intelligence
CATTELLS THEORY OF FLUID
& CRYSTALLIZED
INTELLIGENCE
Raymond B. Cattell was born, studied, lectured in
the U.K. Later moved to US where he became a
Research Associate of E.L. Thorndike at Columbia
University in New York
Used factor analysis in his studies of intelligence
Acknowledged Spearmans work in accepting that
there was general intelligence but suggested that
g comprised two related but distinct
components: crystallized intelligence & fluid
intelligence
 Crystallized intelligence
acquired knowledge & skills
generally related to a persons
stored information & to their
cultural influences
Tests: Knowledge of vocabulary,
comprehensive & general
knowledge
abbreviated this components as
Gc
 Fluid intelligence ability
A primary reasoning ability; the
ability to solve abstract relational
problems, free of cultural influences
Defined by intelligence abilities
such as acquisition of new
information & understanding new
relationships
Abbreviated this components as Gf
 Saw a dynamic relationship between
these two intelligence components.
Gc- intelligence that increases
throughout life & is a reflection of
ones cumulative learning experience.
Gf- thought to be present from birth &
then meant to stabilise in adulthood.
Gc & Gf inform certain types of
thinking
GENETIC VS. ENVIRONMENTAL
Galton- not only talent but also character
were largely inherited.
Binet & Spearmen- pioneers in the
psychological study of intelligence believed
that there was a strong hereditary basis for
individual differences in intellectual ability.
Also acknowledged the influence of social &
culture factors on the development of specific
skills
Environments & opportunities are often a
function of social class/ socioeconomic status
(SES)- significant correlate of intelligence
 Linda Gottfredson (1997,1998,2004) showed
how intelligence may be identified as the
fundamental cause not only of social
inequalities but also SES- leading to the
conclusion that measures of g are better
predictors of these outcomes than parental
SES.
g can explain frequently large disparities in
life opportunities among siblings who grow
up in the same environment/ home
Because g remains stable from a very early
age, influence of SES on an individuals
intelligence seem unlikely
 Modern individual differences researchers
compare different theories in psychology in
order to find the best explanation for how
and why individual differ.
Modern individual differences theories also
combine different theories in order to better
understand possible theoretical overlaps
and discover new underlying ideas.
The application of individual differences
now features in a variety of areas of human
experience.
 gs effects are consistent & pervasive;
the aggregate performance of an
individual in domains are diverse to a
substantial degree affected by his/ her
level of intelligence.
Adoption & twin studies provided
evidence in support genetic &
environmental influences on
intelligence
Individual differences in ability are
determined by genes & environment
 Newman, Freeman & Holzinger (1937)
found that identical twins had a greater
similarity in intelligence than non-
identical twins even when the former
were raised apart.
Studies of adopted children confirmed
these findings because they reported
larger correlations in intelligence between
natural parents & their children than
between adoptive parents & children,
even where children had virtually no
contact with their natural parents
 Most data showed that less than 20% of the
variance in IQ could be accounted for by
environmental factors.
Twin studies have come to show that
although intelligence is largely inheritable,
there are some environmental influences
that cause siblings raised in the same
family to have different level os intelligence
No one would argue:
A simple measure of intelligence can map out
an individuals future in all domains of life
Key decisions determining life-changing events
are the mere product of ones cognitive ability
JEAN PIAGET (1896-1980)

A famous developmental psychologists

Noted that the crucial question to enable
an understanding on intellectual ability
was not how many correct/ incorrect
responses children could give but why
children of the same age tended to
make exactly the same mistakes.
Concerned with how individuals develop
adult intellectual capacities
 Identified various developmental stages
in the evolution of adult intellect
His theory of intellectual development
is based on 4 universal stages
Believed in a general intelligence but
focused on the developmental aspects
of intelligence- result of qualitative
stage
Elaborating a theoretical framework for
understanding the development of the
processes underlying adult intelligence-
more to similarities
PIAGETS STAGES OF
INTELECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
Development stage Approximate age Characteristics
Sensorimotor 0-2 No mental representation of objects
outside childs immediate view, intelligence develops
through motor interactions with environment
Preoperational 3-7 Thought emerges; child is able to make
mental representations of unseen objects but cannot
use deductive reasoning yet
Development stage Approximate age
Characteristics

Concrete operations 8-12 Deductive reasoning,

conservation
of
number & distinction
between own &
others perspectives

Formal operations 13-15 Ability to think

abstractly
 Piagets theory is the universal
interaction between biological
(progressive construction) &
environmental variables.
Each stage is therefore genetically
prescribed & inherent in human
organisms
At each stage, there are certain cognitive
operations that an individual is able to
perform & others are not.
Only few attempts at applying Piagets
theory to individual difference because it
applies to children & adolescents (age
15) rather than to adults
 Some of the most comprehensive
& detailed definitions of the
concept of intelligence that have
been accepted in psychology field
as below:
Intelligence is an adaptation..
(Piaget,1963, pp.3-4)
Intelligence is assimilation to the extent
that it incorporates all the given data of
experience within its framework
(Piaget,1963,pp.6-7)
 G VS MULTIPLE ABILITIES
Individual differences in intellectual ability
should be defined in term of multiple
intelligences as individuals may be good at
some ability tests but bad at others.
Guilford (1959,1967,1977) developed the
most comprehensive catalogue of human
abilities that extended to 150 different type
based on a preliminary distinction between 3
dimensions:
Operation (cognition, memory, divergent &
convergent, evaluation production)
Products (units, classes, relations, system,
transformations, implication)
Content (auditory, visual, symbolic, semantic,
behavioral)
 In US psychometric study: correlations
between the 13 subtests of the
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
(WAIS-III) were significant & positive
supported Cattells idea that some types
of tests are more interrelated than others
General intelligence factor hypothesized
to be the source of variations between
individuals cognitive performance
 Carrolls (1993)- a single, general
intelligence factor can account for a
considerable amount of variance in ability
test performance & major determinant
(highest hierarchical) level of different
components of cognitive performance.
Processing speed
Cognitive speed
Memory & learning
gf
gc
Retrieval
Auditory perception
Visual perception
 Evidence for the existence of a
general intelligence factor & its
accurate predictive power with
regard to academic outcomes
Gottfredson (2003)- empirical evidence
mainly refutes theories of multiple
intelligence
CONCLUSIONS
Galton is the forefather of intelligence tests. His
central hypothesis was that there are differences in
intelligence & he set out to explore this hypothesis
Alred Binet created the first intelligence test. In
1905, with Theodore Simon, Binet produced the
Binet- Simot scale, the first intelligence test, which
Simon later described as practical, convenient &
rapid.
Charles Spearman introduced a 2-factor theory of
intelligence. The first factor of intelligence was
specific abilities, s. The second factor was that
Spearman thought was underlying all the positive
correlations between intelligence tests, general
ability, g.
 Thurstone agreed with Spearmans hypothesis
of a general factor of intelligence. He viewed
g differently from Spearman. He argued that
g results from, rather than lies behind, seven
primary mental abilities
Cattell acknowledged Spearmans work in
accepting that there was general intelligence
but he suggested g comprises two related
but distinct components:crystallised & fluid
intelligence
 Intelligence is measured through
standardized performance tests, which
require participants to identify the
correct solutions to cognitive problems
There is some debate about the
structure of intelligence, with some
viewing it as a general factor & others
seeing it as a set of largely independent,
more specific abilities.
 Hierarchical models recognize the
existence of general & specific factors (pg
75)
Wide consensus about two major aspects
of intelligence:
Fluid intelligence (gf): ability to learn new
things & solve novel problems
Crystallized intelligence (gc): the knowledge/
information that can be used to solve problems
related to what one has already learned
THANK YOU