The controversial concept of IQ
Have you ever taken an intelligence or “IQ” test? Many of us have taken IQ tests at some point during our school experiences. Occasionally “pop psychology” IQ tests appear in popular magazines. These days you can even find IQ tests on the internet. Are IQ tests valid measures of intelligence? Perhaps more to the point, what is intelligence? Is there such a thing, really?
The notion of intelligence begins with the observation that we humans seem to differ from one another in our ability to perform various mental tasks. At one extreme we find that a relatively small percentage of people demonstrate remarkably high levels of performance of complex and sophisticated tasks. Some individuals perform amazing mental feats which demonstrate remarkable innovation, creativity and/or ingenuity.
At the other extreme, we find an equally small minority of people labeled as “mentally retarded” who have difficulty performing the most basic tasks necessary for their own safety and survival. They usually have difficulty learning to read and write. They seem incapable of understanding abstract concepts, or using language in a way most of us do. They may even have trouble performing so-called “motor tasks” involving complex movement and coordination.
Artists, creative writers, talented musicians, brilliant scientists, skilled athletes, and others seem to have an abundance of something which seems in shorter supply within the general population. By comparison, others seem to be severely lacking in that same something. Most of us seem to have it in various quantities in between. That “something” is what psychologists refer to as intelligence.
Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of the famous Charles Darwin, was the first to devise tests of intelligence over a century ago. Since then, psychologists have attempted to further develop and refine IQ tests. Whether our modern IQ tests are measuring what they purport to measure is an open question among today’s psychologists. The nature of intelligence and our methods of measuring it are issues that have been hotly debated over the years. A hundred years after Galton, the controversy is still not settled.
There is a strange truth to the circular definition of intelligence provided by the psychologist E.G. Boring; “Intelligence is whatever it is that IQ tests measure.” Since intelligence cannot be observed directly, we are left to infer its existence and measurement from a person’s performance on a test. A test simply provides a sample of behavior. Since intelligence is conceived to be something other than behavior, we are left to wonder whether it is really intelligence we are measuring. This is a question about the validity of IQ tests.
Psychologists have tried to establish the validity of IQ tests by measuring the relationship between measures of IQ and other tests measuring things like aptitude, achievement, and cognitive abilities. When they find a strong relationship or correlation with such measures, they usually feel more confident in the validity of the IQ test. Other psychologists consider IQ tests to actually be measures of achievement, reflecting more about knowledge gained, as opposed to actual abilities. That would also explain their strong correlation with measures of achievement.
The disagreements don’t stop there. Those psychologists who do believe in IQ generally do not agree on a theory of intelligence. Some believe in a single “general intelligence” factor, dubbed “g” by the psychologist Charles Spearman. The idea is that a person could be determined to be generally bright or generally dull, according to the amount of “g” he or she has available. Furthermore, special intelligence factors, called “s” are proposed to have affects on particular abilities.
Other psychologists have proposed that, rather than a general factor, intelligence consists of a combination of primary abilities that can individually vary from person to person. Louis Thurston suggested seven such factors. Other investigators have proposed that intellectual abilities can be represented by anywhere from 20 to 150 factors.
One of the most controversial issues concerning intelligence has come from who have tried to find IQ differences among different “races.” Because high intelligence is highly valued by our societies, some have tried to suggest that racial superiority could be demonstrated using IQ tests. The main problem with this approach is that the notion of “race” is not a scientific concept, but rather a social one (see last week’s Psychological Perspectives for more on that). Also, IQ tests have been demonstrated to be culturally biased, meaning that they do not measure the same thing among culturally distinct people.
There is a funny story about a man waiting at a bus stop who encounters a mother with a small child. “My, what a lovely child you have!” says the man. “Oh, don’t go by that,” replies the woman. “You should see her photographs!” Some treat IQ scores like that. The usefulness of IQ derives from its ability to make predictions about future behavior. We make a mistake when we treat the scores as more important than the person whose behavior they are intended to predict.
The notion of intelligence begins with the observation that we humans seem to differ from one another in our ability to perform various mental tasks. At one extreme we find that a relatively small percentage of people demonstrate remarkably high levels of performance of complex and sophisticated tasks. Some individuals perform amazing mental feats which demonstrate remarkable innovation, creativity and/or ingenuity.
At the other extreme, we find an equally small minority of people labeled as “mentally retarded” who have difficulty performing the most basic tasks necessary for their own safety and survival. They usually have difficulty learning to read and write. They seem incapable of understanding abstract concepts, or using language in a way most of us do. They may even have trouble performing so-called “motor tasks” involving complex movement and coordination.
Artists, creative writers, talented musicians, brilliant scientists, skilled athletes, and others seem to have an abundance of something which seems in shorter supply within the general population. By comparison, others seem to be severely lacking in that same something. Most of us seem to have it in various quantities in between. That “something” is what psychologists refer to as intelligence.
Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of the famous Charles Darwin, was the first to devise tests of intelligence over a century ago. Since then, psychologists have attempted to further develop and refine IQ tests. Whether our modern IQ tests are measuring what they purport to measure is an open question among today’s psychologists. The nature of intelligence and our methods of measuring it are issues that have been hotly debated over the years. A hundred years after Galton, the controversy is still not settled.
There is a strange truth to the circular definition of intelligence provided by the psychologist E.G. Boring; “Intelligence is whatever it is that IQ tests measure.” Since intelligence cannot be observed directly, we are left to infer its existence and measurement from a person’s performance on a test. A test simply provides a sample of behavior. Since intelligence is conceived to be something other than behavior, we are left to wonder whether it is really intelligence we are measuring. This is a question about the validity of IQ tests.
Psychologists have tried to establish the validity of IQ tests by measuring the relationship between measures of IQ and other tests measuring things like aptitude, achievement, and cognitive abilities. When they find a strong relationship or correlation with such measures, they usually feel more confident in the validity of the IQ test. Other psychologists consider IQ tests to actually be measures of achievement, reflecting more about knowledge gained, as opposed to actual abilities. That would also explain their strong correlation with measures of achievement.
The disagreements don’t stop there. Those psychologists who do believe in IQ generally do not agree on a theory of intelligence. Some believe in a single “general intelligence” factor, dubbed “g” by the psychologist Charles Spearman. The idea is that a person could be determined to be generally bright or generally dull, according to the amount of “g” he or she has available. Furthermore, special intelligence factors, called “s” are proposed to have affects on particular abilities.
Other psychologists have proposed that, rather than a general factor, intelligence consists of a combination of primary abilities that can individually vary from person to person. Louis Thurston suggested seven such factors. Other investigators have proposed that intellectual abilities can be represented by anywhere from 20 to 150 factors.
One of the most controversial issues concerning intelligence has come from who have tried to find IQ differences among different “races.” Because high intelligence is highly valued by our societies, some have tried to suggest that racial superiority could be demonstrated using IQ tests. The main problem with this approach is that the notion of “race” is not a scientific concept, but rather a social one (see last week’s Psychological Perspectives for more on that). Also, IQ tests have been demonstrated to be culturally biased, meaning that they do not measure the same thing among culturally distinct people.
There is a funny story about a man waiting at a bus stop who encounters a mother with a small child. “My, what a lovely child you have!” says the man. “Oh, don’t go by that,” replies the woman. “You should see her photographs!” Some treat IQ scores like that. The usefulness of IQ derives from its ability to make predictions about future behavior. We make a mistake when we treat the scores as more important than the person whose behavior they are intended to predict.
posted by Michael | Saturday, March 25, 2006
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