Transcript Psychology 3533 Understanding Human Sexuality

INTELLIGENCE
 What
is it? Difficult to define.
 Associated with problem-solving ability,
speed of processing, large number of
items in working memory, learning
capacity, logic.
 One or many?
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Psychometric approach
 Early attempts at quantification
 Simon and Binet, France (children)
 Concept of intelligence quotient: mental
age divided by chronological age x 100.
 Adapted for adults in U.S., army selection:
Stanford-Binet. Instead of individual
testing, group testing.
 Fuelled the philosophical current that
intelligence is innate. Misuses.
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 Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale (WAIS):
Verbal and Performance Scales
Biases:
• educational level
• SES
• culture and subculture
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Factors affecting test performance:
• health
• exercise, fitness
• anxiety
• motivation
• experience with tests
• vision and hearing
Probably inappropriate for older adults.
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Issues in adult intelligence:
• One or many?
• Increment, decrement or no change?
• How much interindividual variability?
• Can it be improved?
Theories of adult intelligence:
• Spearman’s g (factor analysis)
• Thurstone: PMAs (primary mental abilities)
• Cattell and Horn: fluid and crystallized
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Theories of adult intelligence (Cont’d):
• Gardner: multiple intelligences
• Sternberg: triarchic
• Baltes: dual process
• Piaget: organismic
• Perlmutter: three tier
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Gardner’s Theory: Seven different abilities
or talents
•
linguistic
•
logical-mathematical
•
musical
•
spatial
•
bodily-kinesthetic
•
interpersonal
•
intrapersonal
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STERNBERG’S TRIARCHIC THEORY:
1. Componential element: efficiency in
information processing, analytic capacity.
2. Experiential element: approach to tasks, new
or old, originality of thinking. Old tasks
automatic, leaves more working memory for
new tasks.
3. Contextual element: relationship to
environment, social skills, “street smarts”.
Knowledge of “unwritten rules”, ability to pick
up “what’s going on”.
•
The last two are not measured by classical IQ
tests.
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Psychometric Approach to Intelligence
Primary Mental Abilities: intelligence is composed
of several independent abilities (Thurstone):
• number
• word fluency
• verbal meaning
• associative memory
• reasoning
• spatial orientation
• perceptual speed
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Secondary Mental Abilities: relationships
amongst primary abilities:
• crystallized intelligence
• fluid intelligence
• visual organization
• auditory organization
• short-term acquisition and retrieval
• long-term storage and retrieval
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Cattell and Horn: Fluid and Crystallized
Intelligence
• Fluid intelligence: encompasses the
abilities needed to solve problems, e.g.
abstract thinking, inductive reasoning. It is
high in early adolescence and decreases
with age. Thought to be biologically
determined.
• Crystallized intelligence acquired
knowledge, e.g. vocabulary, historical
facts. It starts low, but increases with age.
Considered culturally determined.
Performance
Crystallized
Fluid
12
60
Age
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Cohort differences: education
Declines accounted for by:
• perceptual speed
• working memory
• inability to inhibit actions and thoughts
(interference)
These three items are correlated
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Several factors correlate with intellectual
ability in old age:
• high standard of living (SES): above
average education and income
• lack of chronic diseases
• engaging in reading, travel, cultural
events, educational clubs and professional
associations
• willingness to change
• having a smart spouse
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Several factors correlate with intellectual
ability in old age (Cont’d):
• ability to grasp new ideas quickly
• satisfaction with accomplishments
• internal locus of control: belief that what
people do makes a difference in their lives
Even when mental activity shows losses due
to disuse, it can be reclaimed through
training
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Importance of education: seems to increase
number and strength of synaptic
connections
Regular exercise improves blood flow to the
brain and maintains good lung function to
oxygenate the brain adequately.
Brain plasticity: learning and relearning can
take place at any age.
INTELLECTUAL PERFORMANCE AND AGE
HIGH
EXCELLENT HEALTH
PERFORMANCE
ILL-HEALTH
LOW
TERMINAL DROP
YOUNG
AGE
CROSS-SECTIONAL DATA
OLD
LONGITUDINAL DATA
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FORMAL OPERATIONS (Piaget)
Similar to scientific method:
• logical structure
• hypothesis formulation
• systematic testing
• acceptance or rejection of hypothesis
• aim is to find one unambiguous solution
Not all adults attain formal operations.
Depends on area of expertise.
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Post-formal thought:
• there is no absolute truth
• right answer varies with situational factors
• solutions must be realistic
• ambiguity and contradiction are the rule
• emotion and subjectivity influence our
reasoning
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Reflective judgment:
• several stages
• only the last two are true reflective
judgment
• used for world problems e.g. religion,
current affairs, science and ethics.
Absolutist thinking: there is only one right
solution
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Relativistic thinking: many sides to an issue,
right solution depends on situation
Dialectical thinking: sees merits in various
proposed solutions and synthesizes them
into one.
This type of thinking is necessary for true
conflict resolution.
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Gender differences:
According to some researchers, women “know” differently
from men:
•
silent: passive acceptance of others’ knowledge
•
received: accepting authority’s ideas, rigid (good/bad)
•
subjective: personal, private intuitions
•
procedural: two ways:
1.
2.
•
Justice and fairness concepts from society (Kohlberg)
Interdependence and caring will lead to the truth
constructed: one’s own point of view, respecting
others, accepting contradiction and ambiguity