14, Nis v6. will is forgetting; Ebbirghaus's curve of Forgetting, Types of forgetting; Theories of forgetting—The trace decay theory; The interference theory; The repression theory; Summary; References and Suggested Readings. INTELLIGENCE Introduction; Defining intelligence; Theories of intelli- gence—Unitary theory, Multifactor theory; Two factor theory; Group factor theory; Vernon's hierarchical theory; Guilford’s model of intellect; Conclu- sion “about theories of intelligence; Nature of intelligence; Effect cf heredity and environment on intelligence; Distribution of intelligence; Individual differences in intelligence; Intelligence and changes in age; Intelligence and sex differences; Intelligence and racial or cultural differences; Assessment of intelligence; Individual verbal tests; Individual performance tests; Group verbal tests; Group Non-verbal tests; Concept of Mental age and 1.Q.; The constancy of I.Q.; The Classification of I.Q.; Mentally retarded; Gifted; Summary; References and Suggested Readings. APTITUDES Meaning and nature of aptitudes; Aptitude-Ability and achievement; Intelligence and aptitudes ; Aptitude and interest; Measurement of aptitudes; Utility of aptitude; tests; Summary; References and Suggested Readings. PERSONALITY .~ Meaning and Nature; Definitions: Distinguished features and characteristics of personality; Theories of personality; Type approach— Hippocrates Kretschmer; Sheldon; Jung; Trait approach — Allport; Cattell; Type-cum-trait approach—Eysenck's theory; Developmental approach — Freud's psychoanalytic theory; Adlers theory Carl Roger's Self-theory; Dollard Miller's Learning theory of personality; Bandura & Walters Social tearning theory; Assessment of persona- lity—Difficulties in the measurement of personality Observation Situational tests; Questionnaire; Personality iventory, Rating scale Interview, Pro- jective technigues—The Rorschach Ink-blot test; TAT; CAT; Word association tests; Sentence-completion test; Summary: References and Suggested Readings. Glossary Index 320 242 253 285 29914 INTELLIGENCE Trour day foahiy eonveration we eflen comment that a part cubic oll OF HIVATIAL by vory TIGHT ont Or possoases mere OF lov. intelligence, Our all seh commonta are baved on the observation at the performance OF bohaviowt of the tidividial concerned preter ably iy comparison With others of hie owe group. The question atives what makes an tidividial behave of portorm se well ar pootly, No doubtinterest, attitude, desired Knowledge okil andl similar other attributes count toward sueh performance or behaviour but sill thers dy something loft that can weigh more. Li payohotogy the tern uved is intelligence, Tn anciont India our geoat riide named Vi Defining lutolligenc Intelligence asa concept has boon understood in diferont ways by tho dilforont prychologiits and sonsoquontly Chore stands a wale varioty of dolinitions, Lot us start with the reproduction of a tow, Woodworth and Marquis: “Latolligence moans intellect pur (0 Use. It is the ase of intellectual abllition for handling a) situation or accomplishing any task." (1948, p. 43). Stern: “Intolligonco is a gonoral capagity of an individual cou sciously to adjust his thinking to now roquiremonts. Ut is goucral mental adaptability to now problems and conditions of lite.” (INE, pd). Terman: “Aw individual ts intelligent in proportion as he is able to carry on abstract thinking.” (1921). Wagnon: y intel gence Is tho capacity to learn and adit 0 relatively new and changing conditions.” (1937, p. 401). Thorndike; Antelligenco may bo dotined ax “the power of good responses from the point of view of truth or fact." (191). Apart from the above given definitions, more of such detliitions can furthor be chted. All those dofinitions, when taken separatelys give an incomplete pleture because they partly emphasise that! intelligence is the ability to learn it is the ability to deal with abstraction,Intelligence 221 —it is the ability to make adjustment or to adapt to new situations. —it is the ability or power of making appropriate responses to certain stimuli in a given situation. In view of the weaknesses of the existing definitions, David Wechsler, author of the adult intelligence test, tried to provide a somewhat comprehensive definition of the term intelligence fy saying that “Intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of an individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment,” (1944, p. 3). In his further attempt Wechsler also provided a criterion for defining intelligent behaviour in terms of the four characteristics i.e., intelligence involves awareness, it is goal directed, it is rational, and it has value. Taking the cue from this criterion Stoddard tried to define intelligence as “the ability to under- take activities that are difficult, complex and abstract and which aro adaptive to a goal, and are done quickly and which have social value en sikichy lend to the creation of something new and different,” 1943, p. 4). However, both these so-called comprehensive definitions have also come under severe criticism due to difference of opinion among psychologists. However, leaving aside the nature of the terminology and language used in defining intelligence, there seems to be some agreo- ment among the psychologists as below: Intelligence must be understood as the mental capacity or mental enorgy available with an icdividual at a particular time ina particular situation, —This mental capacity helps him in the task of theoretical as well as practical manipulation of the things, objects or events present in one's environment in order to adapt or face new challenges and problems of life as successfully as possible. —Judgment about one’s capacity or fund of mental energy available with him can only be considered in terms of the quality of his behaviour or performance. Keeping in view all these basic factors, We may have some works able definition of the term intelligence as under: Aoeltizence may be veparded aso sort of mental enerty (athe form of mental ive abilities) available. with un individval to enable. him to bundle his in terms of adaptation and facing novel situations as effectively as Evaluating on (he basis of the above workable definition we can call 8 person intelligent in proportion to his being able to use his mental energy in handling his actual !ifs" yroblems and leading a happy and well contented life, .2m General Paychology Theories of intelligence With the help of definitions, we are able to understand how intelligence operates—what type of behaviour of an individual makes him intelligent of unintelligent, But it does not explain what ts the structure of intelligence or in other words, what are the different components or, elements of intelligence. ‘The theories of intelligence propagated by psychologists from time to time have tried to answer this question. Below we examino some of these theories: 1, Unitary theory or monarchic theory: This theory, oldest in origin, holds the view that intelligence consists of one factor namely a fund of intellectual competence, which is universal for all the activities of the individual. A man who has vigour can move as much to the east as to the west, Ina similar way if one has a fund of intelligence he can utilize it to cover any area of his life and can be as successful in one area asin the other depending upon his fund of intelligence, But in actual life situations, the ideas propagated by this theory do not seem to fit well, We fing that children who aro bright in mathomatics may, despite serious interest and hard work, not be so good in. civics, A student very good in conducting science experiments does not find himself equally competent in learning languages, This brings us to the conclusion that there is nothing like one single unitary factor in intelligence. Therefore the unitary theory stands rejected, 2. Anarchie theory or multifector theory: The ) propagator of this theory was E.L, Thorndike. As the namo suggests, this theory. also named as atomistic theory of intelligence, considers intelligence a combination of numerous separate elements of factors, cach one being a minute clement of an ability, So there is no such thing as general intelligence (a single factor) but there are many highly independent specific abilities which go into different tasks. In this way Monarchic and Anarchic theories hold two extremes. Just as We caiinot assume good intelligence a guarantee of success in all the fields of human life so also we cannot say which certain specific type of abilities one will be entirely successful in a particular area and completely unsuccessful in another, Actually Gardner Murphy puts it, “there isa certain positive relationship between brightness in one field and brightness in another and so on." (1968, p. 358). This brings us .o the conclusion that there should be # common factor running through all tasks. The failure to explain such phenomenon gave birth (o another theory named Spearman's two factor theory, 3. Spearman's two factor theory: This. theory was advocated by Spearman. According to him evory different intellectual activity involves a general factor ‘g’ which is shared with all intellectzal activities and a specific factor ‘s’ which it shares with none. In this way, he suggested that there is something which might b* called genoral intelligence—a sort of general mental energy, runningIntelligence 223 through all different tasks but in addition to this general factor thero are specific abilities, which make an individual able to deal with particular kinds of problems. For example, an individual's perfor- mance in Hindi is partly due to his general intelligence 2nd partly to some kind of specific ability in language which he might possess ie. g-++s1 or in mathematics his performaace will be due to g-+sz; in drawing it will be due to g+-s) and so or and so forth. Tho factor g (in lesser or greater degree) will enter in all specific activities. The total ability or intelligence of such an individual (symbolized as A), thus, will be expressed by, the following: ots +2 tot... ed This two-factor theory of Spearman has been criticized on various grounds. The main reasons are given below: (i) Spearman said that there are only two factors expressing intelligence but as wo have seen above there are noi only two but several factors (g, 51, 52, 53 +++. ete.), (ii) According to Spearman each job requires some specific ability. This view was not proper as it implied that there waz acthing com- mon in the jobs except a general factor and professions such as those of nurses, compounders and ¢octors could pot be put in a group. In fact the factors 51, 52, 53, $4... tC. ate not mutua'ly exclusive. They overlap and give birth to certain commoa factors. This idea of overlapping and grouping consequently led toa new theory called Group Factor theory. 4, Group factor theory: For the factors not commoa to all of the intellectual abilities, but common to certain activities comprising a group, the term ‘group factor’ was suggested. Prominent among tho propagators of this theory is L.L. Thurstone an American psychologist. hile working on a test of primary mental abilities, he came to the conclusion that certain mental operations have in common a primary factor which gives them psychological and functional unity and which differentiates them from other mental operations. These mental Operations constitute a group factor. So there are a numer of groups of mental abilities. each of which has its own primary “actor. ‘Thur- Stone and his associates have’ differentiated nine such faciors. They are: . (i) Verbal factor (V); concerns comprehension of verbal rela- tions, worde arc’ ideas, (ii) Spatial factor “S): involved in any task in which the subject . manipulates an object imaginatively in space. (iil) Numerical factor (N): ability to do numerical calculations, rapidly and accurately. (iv) Memory factor (M): involving the ability to memorize quickly. (v) Word Fluency Factor (W): involved whenever the subject is asked to think of the isolated words at a rapid rate,224 General Psychology (si) Inductive reasoning factor (RI): ability to draw inferences on usions on the basis of specific instances. c reasoning factor (RD): ability to make use of olving ability factor (PS); ability to solve pro- ndent efforts. weakest link in the group factor theory was that it discarded t of common factor. [t did not take Thurstone very long to realise his mistake and to reveal a general factor in addition to group factors. 5. This theory was propagated by G.H. Thompson, a British vlogist. It assumes that the mind is made up of many independ- nt bonds or elements. Any specific test or school activity samples some of these bonds [1 is possible that two or more tests sample and utilize some bonds, then a general common factor can be said to exist m. It is also possible that some other tests sample different amon| bonds, then the tests have nothing in common and each is specific. ‘The sampli ‘ory seems tocombine various theoretical view- points ! (i) It appears to be similar to Thorndike’s multifactor theory excep! that he concedes to the practical usefulness of a concept (ii) At the same time Thompson seems to maintain that the concept of group factor (G) is of equal practical usefulness. Vernon's Hierarchical Theory. British psychologist P.E. Vernon suggested a hierarchical structure for the organisation of one’s intelli- gence as illustrated in the figure given below: > MUI Fig. Vernon's hierarchical structure of human intelligenceIntelligence 225 Consequently, as Vernon (1950) suggested we could think of mind asa kind of hierarchy where 'G! is tho most prominent mental ability (i.e. an overall factor measured through intelligence tests). Uncer 'G* we have two major group factors, called Ved and KM, representing two main types of mental abilities, Where the first major group factor, Ved, is concerned with the verbal numerical and educational abilities, the other major group factor KM is related with practical, mechanical, spatial and physical abilities. These two major factors can be divided into minor group factors and ultimately these minor factors may be further sub-divided into various specific factors related with minute specific mental abilities. Guilford's theory involving a model of intellect J. P. Guilford and his associates while working in the psychologir cal laboratory at the University of Southern California developed a model of intelligence on the basis of the factor analytical research studies conducted by them with the help of a number of intelligence tests. They arrived at the conclusion that every mental process or intellectual activity can be described in terms of three different basic dimensions of parameiers known as Operations—the act of thinking; contents—the terms in which we think (such as words or symbols); and products—the ideas we come up with (Guilford, 1961). Each of these parameters—operations, contents and products— can be further sub-divided into some specific factors of elem.nts as @esctibed below: J Operations UM Contenus MI Products Evaluation (BE) Pigura! Factor (F) Units (U) (i.e, concrete material Convergent perceived through Clauses (C) Thinking. (C) senses) Relations (RY Divergent Symbolic (5) Thinking (D) material in the form Systems (S) of signs and symbols), Memory (M) Transformation (T) Semantic (My Cognition (C) (i.e, material in the form Implication (1) of verbal meaning of ideas) The above classification in terms of the parameters and specific factors can be represented diagrammatically as given on the next page. \ In this way, according to tho model of intellect presented by Guilford, structure of human intelligence can be viewed in terms of the three basic parameters along with their divisions into specific number of fictors. There could be 4x 5x 6=120 factors in all whichwb ‘ General Psychology may constitute the human intelligence. Each one of these factors has trigram symbol i.e,, at least one factor from each category | of the three parameters must bo iecessarily present in any specific intellec- tual activity or mental task. . i PRODUCTS ‘Systems| Transformations, SS Implications} Fig. 14.2, Guilford’s three dimensicnal model of tho atructure of the intellect. Conclusion about theories of intelligence Each of the above theories of intelligence tries to provide a structure of intelligence in terms of its constituents or factors in its own way. The Unitary theory is right in claiming that intelligence in its functional form is always used as a whole in the form of a total fund of mental energy. However, for understanding what works insidp one's intelligence we must try to build an eclectic view by incorporating the essence of all the workable theories of intelligence. Consequently, any intellectual activity or montal task may be adjudged to involve the factors given below. These factors could be arranged in hierarchical order as suggested by Vernon or in the form of somo model as Cesigned by Guilford. (i) General factor g (common to all tasks) as advocated by Spearman in his two factor theory.dntells (i) Group factor 'G' (common to the take bel specific group) as advocated by Thurstone and « Group factor theory. (iii) Specitic factors sy. 9, fe. (Vory specific Co the task as adver cated by Thorndike in his multifactor theory), ers in the Nature of intelligence The problem regarding the identification of the true nature of intelligence can be solved by taking into consideration the different aspects given below: ~Defining intelligence for the understanding of its im Discussing various theories explaining its str of various constitutes or factors. —Deseribing various other aspects and characteristics related to intelligence and its functioning. Wo have already covered the first (wo points, above in the present chapter, let us now concentrate briefly on the last point through the headings mentioned below: minis wo in terms The effect of heredity and environment on intelligence The relative importance of nature and nurture has been investi- gated by different sociolcgists and psychologists, The conclusion of their studies reveals that intelligence is the product of heredity and environment. Both are necessary for the intellectual growth of an individual, and one cannot be considered more essential than the other, Distribution of Intelligence: The distribution of intelligence is not uniform among the human beings. It resembles the distribution of health, wealth, beauty and similar other characteristics. It is a normal dis'ribution that is governed by a definite principle which states that the majority of the people are at the average, a few very bright and a few very dull. Individual Difference in intelligence: There exists wide individual differences among individuals with regard to intelligence. ‘Truly speaking, no one of us even the identical twins or the individuals nurtured almost in similar environments have equal amount of mental energy flowing ir them, The assessment of intelligence through various tests has given use ough ground to believe that not only the intelligence varies from indivi>-al to individual bu; in {he saine indi- vidual from age to age and on to situation, Intelligence and Changes in age: As the child grows in age, so does tho intelligence as shown by intelligence tests. Now the ques.ion arises—at what age does this increase cease? The age of cessatio. of mental growth varies from individuul to individual, However ia a siajority of cases, intelligence reaches its maximum, somewha' at the age of 16 to 20 in tho individual, After that the vertical growih au