The Difficulties in Defining and Measuring Intelligence
THE DIFFICULTIES IN DEFINING AND MEASURING INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence can be described in many ways with many tests focusing on an individual’s cognitive abilities and failing to account for the social and practical aspects of intelligence. Tests to measure intelligence vary immensely and test different types of intelligence; such as Emotional Intelligence, which has proved popular in more recent years. Although researchers are unable to agree upon a general definition of intelligence they do agree that there are 2 factors to be included in a broad definition: an individual’s ability to adapt to their environment and a capacity to learn from experience (Sternberg and Detterman, 1986). Tests do not , however, measure these components very effectively thus intelligence is sometimes defined operationally, in terms of what a particular test measures. This essay will outline some theories and will critically evaluate their capacity for measuring intelligence.
The standard and most widely accepted method of measuring intelligence is through psychometric tests that measure a person’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ). A person’s IQ is determined from a series of tests that assess various types of abilities such as mathematical, spatial, verbal, logic and memory. The results from these tests obtained from a wide population show a classic ‘bell-shape’ distribution, meaning that most people are of average intelligence with a few at the extreme ends of the scale. For example, an individual who had an IQ lower than 50 would be seen to be mentally inadequate while someone with an IQ above 130 is seen as gifted or, further still, a genius, but more about this later.
In 1904, Spearman suggested that intelligence is comprised of a general factor (g), which is shared with all other mental abilities, and other specific factors (s), which are shared with none. After using a technique known as factor analysis to examine a number of mental aptitude tests, he concluded that
Intelligence can be described in many ways with many tests focusing on an individual’s cognitive abilities and failing to account for the social and practical aspects of intelligence. Tests to measure intelligence vary immensely and test different types of intelligence; such as Emotional Intelligence, which has proved popular in more recent years. Although researchers are unable to agree upon a general definition of intelligence they do agree that there are 2 factors to be included in a broad definition: an individual’s ability to adapt to their environment and a capacity to learn from experience (Sternberg and Detterman, 1986). Tests do not , however, measure these components very effectively thus intelligence is sometimes defined operationally, in terms of what a particular test measures. This essay will outline some theories and will critically evaluate their capacity for measuring intelligence.
The standard and most widely accepted method of measuring intelligence is through psychometric tests that measure a person’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ). A person’s IQ is determined from a series of tests that assess various types of abilities such as mathematical, spatial, verbal, logic and memory. The results from these tests obtained from a wide population show a classic ‘bell-shape’ distribution, meaning that most people are of average intelligence with a few at the extreme ends of the scale. For example, an individual who had an IQ lower than 50 would be seen to be mentally inadequate while someone with an IQ above 130 is seen as gifted or, further still, a genius, but more about this later.
In 1904, Spearman suggested that intelligence is comprised of a general factor (g), which is shared with all other mental abilities, and other specific factors (s), which are shared with none. After using a technique known as factor analysis to examine a number of mental aptitude tests, he concluded that
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