Development of Intelligence Theories

¶ … Intelligence

Over the years, there have been discussions surrounding the issue of intelligence and how it can be measured as well as what parameters determined who is more intelligent than the other. Controversy has surrounded the definition and measurement of intelligence and many scholars have opined that the controversy is mainly based on the fact that historically intelligence has been defined on the grounds of how much one knows rather than how well one processes (Fagan J.F., 2000:Pp1). IQ has been defined in perspective of how much an individual knows in relation to the age mates. This has been faulted several times and hence this paper will highlight some of the theories that have been historically used to define intelligence, the biases in the testing of intelligence and the controversies that have surrounded the entire aspect of intelligence.

On of the major theorists in intelligence is Galton, indeed, he is accredited for being the first person to systematically and scientifically present the understanding of human intelligence and the measuring of the same. Galton indicated that there are stable biological differences in intelligence between people. He considered intelligence to be a low-level property of the nervous system that is inherited from parents. To him, the individual differences in the intelligence levels showed the variance in efficiency in operation of the simplest of the neural processes. His theory was backed up by his scientific research and presentation of a family tree of 'persons of reputation' and their achievements within their families. He attempted to have a chronology of scientists, poets, musicians, painters and such like admired positions and used their achievements to support his claim on intelligence (Golstein H., 2012). Galton was basically the first psychometric professional who used the concept in studying intelligence and also believed in hereditary talent and intelligence.

Another person who contributed historically to the research and discussion on intelligence is Spearman with his theory g (for general) of intelligence. He studied the various correlations between the several tests done on mental ability and found out that they are almost always positively correlated. He then concluded that some simpler structure must be existing at the heart of these positive correlations. In order to explain his assertion of a simpler structure, he came up with two alternative; the oligarchic intelligence that indicated that there existed different compartments in the mind that were responsible for arithmetic, verbal, spatial and more such skills. The other alternative was the monarchic intelligence which explained that there was a single underlying factor that helped explain the positive correlation on intelligence (Kane H. & Brand C., 2003).

Yet another theory that was significant in the history of the construction of the theories on intelligence is the L.L. Thurstone-theory of multiple intelligences. He came up in the 1940s and argued that the previous theory by Spearmen was not real enough. He argued that the Spearman theory gave only a general factors which were depicted in the random averages of the tests that Spearman conducted or used. In this regard, Thurstone came up with seven specific areas that had to be looked at and he called these Primary Mental Abilities (PMA) and included Verbal comprehension, Word fluency, Number computation, Spatial visualization, Associative memory, Perceptual speed and Reasoning (McGraw Kevin, 2009). He proposed that the uniplanar ranking of people did not meet the proper definition of intelligence and argued that the essence of a person was their individuality and how their PMAs differed. In as much as he lobbied for the educational influence on intelligence, he still believed in the role of hereditary traits in intelligence.

Biases in mental testing

In as much as the development of IQ testing and theories behind it have helped in the development and growth of psychometrics in that field, there have been several questions levied against these theories that have structured approach to IQ testing and determining.