Rust and Golombok (2014) suggest that psychometrics play an increasingly significant role in an individual’s life, as assessment and testing occurs from nursery until retirement. The nomothetic and idiographic debate is one of the main discussions within psychology; the nomothetic approach focuses on studying what individuals share with one and other such as law, whereas the idiographic approach is concerned with what makes the individual unique. Lewis and Crozier (2012) believe that psychometrics is a standardised test that evaluates the individual’s critical thinking abilities and personality using a variety of evaluation tools. Within the nomothetic approach, psychometric tests are used as part of the research as quantitative measures are …show more content…
Intelligence is having the ability to have reason and logic, the act of understanding and having the capability to apply aspects of knowledge and skill to everyday life. Throughout psychological research there are many psychometric theorists with a range of significant theories for intelligence, examples include; Charles Spearman and his theory of ‘g’ in 1927, Cattell’s 1963 theory of fluid ‘Gf’ and crystallized intelligence ‘Gc’, John Carroll’s 1997 three tiered model of intelligence, Sternberg’s layperson’s definition, Howard Gardner’s 1983 theory of multiple intelligence and Salovey and Mayer’s 1990 theory of emotional intelligence. Lovie posited the idea that Charles Spearman’s early statistical contributions are regarded as “the earliest version of a factor analysis” (Dreary et al, 2008, p. 2). Spearman’s many works on human intelligence differences include the paper where he discovered the general factor in human intelligence and his accounts of the measurement of human …show more content…
Spearman also believed that the performance of any test of mental ability called for the use of a specific ability factor he titled ‘s’, examples include; being logical, spatial, arithmetical and mechanical. Spearman also believed that all intelligent abilities have an area of overlap which is what he called ‘g’ and this is also dependent on the ‘s’ factor, but general ability is dominant when doing tasks. An advantage of Spearman’s theory of ‘g’ is that it is a good predictor of performance in an academic setting such as a school environment as it is objectively defined and measured by an IQ score; this can also be used in later life in a work environment as it can also predict performance in certain careers. Beaujean (2015) suggests that many theorists who did not deny the existence of ‘g’ wanted to do further research to extend this theory so it will account for group factors, an example of this is the theorist John Carroll and his 1997 Three-Stratum Theory of Intelligence. This theory is a hierarchal theory that is a compromise between the general and distinct abilities views of
General intelligence tends to relate to various degrees with each other (Cohen 2012). An example of this is that if an individual is good in math, they may also be good in spelling. In this weeks reading we reviewed several different models of measurement of intelligence. In regard to these theories and general intelligence (g), the theories are various but have commonality and overlap. The Spearman's two-factor theory is if a test has high correlation with other test than the measurement of g is highly saturated (Cohen, 2012). The greater the importance of g on a test, the better the test is believed to predict intelligence
Terman, L. M. (1916). The measurement of intelligence: an explanation of and a complete guide for the use of the Stanford revision and extension of the Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale. Massachusetts: The Riverside Press.
Intelligence tests have been developed by scientists as a tool to categorize army recruits or analyze school children. But still discussing what intelligence is, academics have a difficult time defining what intelligence tests should measure. According to the American researcher Thorndike, intelligence is only that what intelligence tests claim it is (Comer, Gould, & Furnham, 2013). Thus, depending on what is being researched in the test and depending on the scientist’s definition of intelligence the meaning of the word intelligence may vary a lot. This essay will discuss what intelligence is in order to be able to understand the intelligence theories and aims of intelligence tests.
Mr. Gardner defines it as, [Intelligence is] the ability to solve problems, or to create products, that are valued within one or more cultural settings (Helding, 2009). Learning is a skill acquired by action, it is by being taught, reading or by doing. Once the information that is being comprehended is understood the learning process is complete; however, no one is ever done learning.
Spearman believed that two factors affect performance on mental ability tests. One was the general factor or general intelligence this factor focused on the mutual relation of all mental tests. Scores on all of these tests were generally related. The second factor was the specific factor "The specific factor related to whatever unique abilities a particular ...
In the following essay, we discuss different theoretical perspectives from Nomothetic and Idiographic approach. How they apply to both Personality (pattern of behavior and thinking) and Intelligence (thinking and behavior). Arguments for both sides are base on what psychologists generally use them as, because some might disagrees with the usage of the word nomothetic and idiographic, orientated by Kantian and Wilhelm Windelband.
In this world, there are many different individuals who are not only different in demographics but also different neurologically. Due to an immense amount of people it is important to first understand each individual, in order, to better understand them and to help them when it comes to certain areas such as education, the work force, and etc…. For this reason psychologists have aimed to further understand individuals through the use of psychological assessments. This paper aims to examine a particular assessment tool, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (Fifth Edition), which measures both intelligence and cognitive abilities (Roid, 2003). This assessment is usually administered by psychologists and the scores are most often used to determine placement in academics and services allotted to children and adolescents (despite their compatibility for adults) (Wilson & Gilmore, 2012). Furthermore before the investigation dives into the particulars of the test, such as its strengths and weakness’, it is best to first learn more about the intelligence scales general characteristics.
Verbal Intelligence; Non-verbal Intelligence; Concrete Reasoning; and Abstract Reasoning are several of the mental abilities that have been identified by psychologists (Santrock, 2013). Spearman’s thoughts were that intelligence is general cognitive ability that can be numerically expressed and measured.
In 1983, Howard Gardner came up with the theory of multiple intelligences. According to Gardner, intelligence is: the ability to solve problems that one encounters in real life; the ability to generate new problems to solve; and the ability to make something or offer a service that is valued with one’s culture (Hine). Initially, he came up with seven different intelligences that children develop, and they are verbal linguistic, logical/mathematical, musical, visual/spatial, body/kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Today, education focuses mainly on reading and writing, the verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligences. While both of these are indubitably important to the curriculum, they should not be considered any more important than the other intelligences. Gardner’s theory says that everyone is smart in each intelligence; the difference from one individual to another is what intelligence(s) they are strongest in and which one(s) could be developed more. Gardner believes that by teaching to all intelligences, students are exp...
Dictionaries add still more definitions: Funk & Wagnall’s defines intelligence as “The faculty of perceiving and comprehending meaning; mental quickness; active intellect; understanding” , while Webster’s defines it as “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations; the skilled use of reason.” While some of these definitions are similar, none of them are exactly the same.
Intelligence by definition is “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills” (Oxford Dictionary, 2014). However, many psychologists argue that there is no standard definition of ‘intelligence’, and there have been many different theories over time as psychologists try to find better ways to define this concept (Boundless 2013). While some believe in a single, general intelligence, others believe that intelligence involves multiple abilities and skills. Another largely debated concept is whether intelligence is genetically determined and fixed, or whether is it open to change, through learning and environmental influence. This is commonly known as the nature vs. nurture debate.
In 1983 an American developmental psychologist, Dr. Howard Gardner, at Harvard University released a document that outlined his theory about multiple intelligences. He believes that everyone has eight different intelligences that, those being linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, spatial intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence and naturalist intelligence, with the last one being added later in 1999. Even though everyone has each of these intelligences his theory advises that everyone exceeds or are more attuned more to certain ones than other, but through a long processing of learning we can exceed at any intelligence we choose. In the following paragraphs I have included some detail about each intelligence and the type of job a person that excelled in each of them might have.
In 1983, Howard Gardner a Harvard professor proposed the theory that individual can have multiple ways of learning and processing information. The multiple intelligences consist of 9 different ways and these include: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, existential, musical, naturalistic, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Every individual has a different amount of each intelligence but each intelligence is at a varying level. With the help of a multiple intelligences assessment, I found that my top three multiple intelligences are Intrapersonal, logical, and interpersonal. Within his research Gardner says that “Intrapersonal intelligence refers to people’s ability to recognize and assess those same characteristics
Since before 1900’s intelligence was the single most important aspect to achieving success and determining future ambitions. This is shown through Intellectual Quotient test commonly known as IQ tests. Tanner (2015) explains that the IQ test was developed by English and French psychologists during the start of World War One. IQ testing was established to decided potential officers from a vast amount of recruits. However, in recent history the theory of intelligence has been challenged due to an article written by William James which question why do some people achieve more than others with matched intelligence? (Duckworth et al. 2007). These sources identify whether character such as perseverance or intellectual ability are important for accomplishing
Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard, introduced his theory of multiple intelligences in 1983. Multiple intelligence’s is a theory about the brain that says human beings are born with single intelligence that cannot be changed, and is measurable by a psychologist. Gardner believes that there are eight different intelligences in humans. The eight are verbal linguistic, visual spatial, bodily kinesthetic, mathematical logic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Understanding these intelligence’s will help us to design our classroom and curriculum in a way that will appeal to all of our students. We might also be able to curve discipline problems by reaching a student in a different way. One that will make more sense to them and more enjoyable. We can include all of the intelligences in lessons to accommodate all of the students’ different learning styles at once. By reaching each students intelligence we can assume that a student will perform better which, could mean students retaining more important information. A students learning style can also help lead them into a more appropriate career direction. As a teacher you can also learn your own personal learning style or intelligence to help improve the way you learn and teach.