General Psychology

Scripture• James 1:27

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Those who need it most. In their affliction - In their most helpless and hopeless state. And to keep him/herself unspotted from the world - From the sayings, tempers, and customs of it. But this cannot be done, till we have given our hearts to God, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

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What is Intelligence?

Intelligence (in all cultures) is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and

use our knowledge to adapt to new situations.

In research studies, intelligence is whatever the intelligence test measures.

This tends to be “school smarts.”

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Intelligence: Ability or Abilities?

Have you ever thought that since people’s mental abilities are so diverse, it may not be justifiable to

label those abilities with only one word, intelligence?

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General Intelligence

The idea that general intelligence (g) exists comes from the work of Charles Spearman (1863-1945) who helped develop the factor

analysis approach in statistics.

Athleticism, like intelligence, is many things

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General Intelligence

Spearman proposed that general intelligence (g) is linked to many clusters that can be analyzed by factor analysis.

For example, people who do well on vocabulary examinations do well on

paragraph comprehension examinations, a cluster that helps define verbal intelligence. Other factors include a spatial ability factor,

or a reasoning ability factor.

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Contemporary Intelligence Theories

Howard Gardner (1983, 1999) supports the idea that intelligence comes in

multiple forms. Gardner notes that brain damage may diminish one type of ability

but not others.

People with savant syndrome excel in abilitiesunrelated to general intelligence.

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Howard GardnerGardner proposes eight types of intelligences and

speculates about a ninth one — existential intelligence. Existential intelligence is the ability

to think about the question of life, death and existence.

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Robert Sternberg

Sternberg (1985, 1999, 2003) also agrees with Gardner, but suggests three intelligences rather than eight.

1. Analytical Intelligence: Intelligence that is assessed by intelligence tests.

2. Creative Intelligence: Intelligence that makes us adapt to novel situations, generating novel ideas.

3. Practical Intelligence: Intelligence that is required for everyday tasks (e.g. street smarts).

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Intelligence and Creativity

Creativity is the ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable. It correlates

somewhat with intelligence.1. Expertise: A well-developed knowledge base.2. Imaginative Thinking: The ability to see things in

novel ways.3. A Venturesome Personality: A personality that seeks

new experiences rather than following the pack.4. Intrinsic Motivation: A motivation to be creative

from within.5. A Creative Environment: A creative and supportive

environment allows creativity to bloom.

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Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, understand, and use emotions (Salovey and others, 2005). The test of emotional intelligence measures overall

emotional intelligence and its four components.

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Emotional Intelligence: Components

Component Description

Perceive emotionRecognize emotions in

faces, music and stories

Understand emotion

Predict emotions, how they change and blend

Manage emotionExpress emotions in different situations

Use emotionUtilize emotions to adapt or

be creative

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Alfred Binet

Alfred Binet and his colleague Théodore Simon practiced a

more modern form of intelligence testing by developing questions

that would predict children’s future

progress in the Paris school system.

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Lewis TermanIn the US, Lewis

Terman adapted Binet’s test for American school children and named the test the Stanford-Binet Test. The following is

the formula of Intelligence Quotient (IQ), introduced by

William Stern:

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David Wechsler

Wechsler developed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

(WAIS) and later the Wechsler Intelligence

Scale for Children (WISC), an

intelligence test for school-aged children.

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WAISWAIS measures overall intelligence and 11 other aspects related to intelligence that are designed

to assess clinical and educational problems.

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Principles of Test Construction

For a psychological test to be acceptable it must fulfill the following three criteria:

1. Standardization2. Reliability3. Validity

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Standardization

Standardizing a test involves administering the test to a representative sample of future test takers in order to establish a basis for

meaningful comparison.

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Normal Curve

Standardized tests establish a normal distribution of scores on a tested population in a bell-shaped pattern called the normal curve.

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Reliability

A test is reliable when it yields consistent results. To establish reliability researchers

establish different procedures:

1. Split-half Reliability: Dividing the test into two equal halves and assessing how consistent the scores are.

2. Test-Retest Reliability: Using the same test on two occasions to measure consistency.

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Validity

Reliability of a test does not ensure validity. Validity of a test refers to what the test is

supposed to measure or predict.

1. Content Validity: Refers to the extent a test measures a particular behavior or trait.

2. Predictive Validity: Refers to the function of a test in predicting a particular behavior or trait.

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Extremes of IntelligenceA valid intelligence test divides two groups

of people into two extremes: the intellectually disabled (IQ 70) and

individuals with high intelligence (IQ 135). These two groups are significantly different.

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Intellectual Disability

Intellectually disabled individuals required constant supervision a few decades ago, but with

a supportive family environment and special education they can now care for themselves.

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Flynn Effect

In the past 60 years, intelligence scores have risen steadily by an average of 27 points. This

phenomenon is known as the Flynn effect.

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Genetic and Environmental Influences on Intelligence

No other topic in psychology is so passionately followed as the one that asks the question, “Is

intelligence due to genetics or environment?”

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Genetic InfluencesStudies of twins, family members, and adopted

children together support the idea that there is a significant genetic contribution to intelligence.

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Adoption Studies

Adopted children show a marginal correlation in verbal ability to their adopted parents.

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Heritability

The variation in intelligence test scores attributable to genetics. We credit

heredity with 50% of the variation in intelligence.

It pertains only to why people differ from one another, not to the individual.

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Environmental Influences

Studies of twins and adopted children also show the following:

1. Fraternal twins raised together tend to show similarity in intelligence scores.

2. Identical twins raised apart show slightly less similarity in their intelligence scores.

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Early Intervention Effects

Early neglect from caregivers leads children to develop a lack of personal control over the

environment, and it impoverishes their intelligence.

Romanian orphans with minimalhuman interaction are delayed in their development.

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Schooling Effects

Schooling is an experience that pays dividends, which is reflected in intelligence scores. Increased

schooling correlates with higher intelligence scores.

To increase readiness for schoolwork,projects like Head Start facilitate leaning.

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Gender Similarities and Differences

There are seven ways in which males and females differ in various abilities.

1. Girls are better spellers

2. Girls are verbally fluent and have large vocabularies

3. Girls are better at locating objects

4. Girls are more sensitive to touch, taste, and color

5. Boys outnumber girls in counts of underachievement

6. Boys outperform girls at math problem solving, but under perform at math computation

7. Women detect emotions more easily than men do

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The Question of Bias

Aptitude tests are necessarily biased in the sense that they are sensitive to performance differences caused by cultural differences.

However, aptitude tests are not biased in the sense that they accurately predict

performance of one group over the other.

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Test-Takers’ Expectations

A stereotype threat is a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based

on a negative stereotype.

Why Do Intelligent People Fail?

• Intelligent people sometimes make a mess of their lives.

Why? • Robert Sternberg describes 20 stumbling blocks

that can get in the way of even the brightest people. They also help explain why even the best measures of intelligence may account for only small proportions of the variance in real-world performance.

Why Do Intelligent People Fail? 1. Lack of motivation. A talent is irrelevant if a person is not motivated

to use it. Motivation may be external (for example, social approval) or internal (satisfaction from a job well-done, for instance). External sources tend to be transient, while internal sources tend to produce more consistent performance.

2. Lack of impulse control. Habitual impulsiveness gets in the way of optimal performance. Some people do not bring their full intellectual resources to bear on a problem but go with the first solution that pops into their heads.

3. Lack of perseverance and perseveration. Some people give up too easily, while others are unable to stop even when the quest will clearly be fruitless.

4. Using the wrong abilities. People may not be using the right abilities for the tasks in which they are engaged.

5. Inability to translate thought into action. Some people seem buried in thought. They have good ideas but rarely seem able to do anything about them.

Why Do Intelligent People Fail? 6. Lack of product orientation. Some people seem more concerned about the process than the result of activity.7. Inability to complete tasks. For some people, nothing ever draws to a close. Perhaps it’s fear of what they would do next or fear of becoming hopelessly enmeshed in detail.8. Failure to initiate. Still others are unwilling or unable to initiate a project. It may be indecision or fear of commitment.9. Fear of failure. People may not reach peak performance because they avoid the really important challenges in life.10. Procrastination. Some people are unable to act without pressure. They may also look for little things to do in order to put off the big ones.

Why Do Intelligent People Fail? 11. Misattribution of blame. Some people always blame themselves for even the slightest mishap. Some always blame others.12. Excessive self-pity. Some people spend more time feeling sorry for themselves than expending the effort necessary to overcome the problem.13. Excessive dependency. Some people expect others to do for them what they ought to be doing themselves.14. Wallowing in personal difficulties. Some people let their personal difficulties interfere grossly with their work. During the course of life, one can expect some real joys and some real sorrows. Maintaining a proper perspective is often difficult.15. Distractibility and lack of concentration. Even some very intelligent people have very short attention spans.

Why Do Intelligent People Fail? 16. Spreading oneself too thin or too thick. Undertaking too many activities may result in none being completed on time. Undertaking too few can also result in missed opportunities and reduced levels of accomplishment.17. Inability to delay gratification. Some people reward themselves and are rewarded by others for finishing small tasks, while avoiding bigger tasks that would earn them larger rewards.18. Inability to see the forest for the trees. Some people become obsessed with details and are either unwilling or unable to see or deal with the larger picture in the projects they undertake.19. Lack of balance between critical, analytical thinking and creative, synthetic thinking. It is important for people to learn what kind of thinking is expected of them in each situation.20. Too little or too much self-confidence. Lack of self-confidence can gnaw away at a person’s ability to get things done and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Conversely, individuals with too much self-confidence may not know when to admit they are wrong or in need of self-improvement.