Theories of Intelligence

Theories of Intelligence

1. Galton

   • Influenced by his cousin, Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution
   • Intelligence was a general ability that showed itself in different ways
   • Believed it could be measured by simple tests

2. Spearman

   • Influenced by Galton
   • Found a moderate positive correlation between doing well in one intelligence test, and another eg good result in memory test often means a good result in a language test.
   • General mental ability, named g
   • Moderate (not strong) positive correlation indicates all tests have a factor specific to that test, s.
   • Performance on any test is reliant on g and s = 2 factor theory

3. Binet/Simon

   • Did not develop a theory of intelligence, he devised a way to measure it
   • Developed Binet-Simon test which identified children with learning difficulties at school
   • They tested 50 students of different ages to get a baseline measure of “normal” functioning.
   • Later developed the concept of mental age (MA)
     • Allowed for comparison of general intelligence
     • If a child’s chronological age (CA) is 10 years old and answers questions that the average 10 year old can answer, then their MA is 10.
     • If your MA was 2 years below your CA you were classed as needing special help at school.

4. Terman

   • Took the Binet-Simon Scale and adapted it for use with the US military - now called the Stanford Binet Scale.
   • This test was the basis of such tests, the Intelligent Quotient (IQ) was developed.
   • IQ = (MA/CA) x 100
   • This equation is no longer used as it is only applicable to children, not adults.

5. Weschler

   • Wechsler wasn’t happy with traditional tests that relied on verbal tasks, and thought definitions and measurement of intelligence should be based on behaviour in real life situations.
     • He developed the WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children), and WPPSI (Wechsler Preschool and Primary scale of Intelligence)
       • Wechsler’s tests measured; Vocabulary Arithmetic Object assembly Picture arrangement
       • They measured both verbal and non verbal ability to gain a picture of general intelligence
   • Wechsler standardised his tests to ensure generalisability.
     • Standardise = test a large, representative sample of the population, and the average scores for each age group were used as the norm against which later test takers would be compared.

6. Gardner

   • Proposed that instead of one general intelligence, there are 7
   • Linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal
     • Later added 2 more: naturalistic and existential
   • Criticised for not being a well developed theory

7. Goleman

   • Academic achievement is not the only way to predict success
   • Goleman developed a theory regarding intelligence related to social interaction, and Salovey and Mayer came up with the term EQ.
   • Emotional Intelligence
     • Defined as “the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions”