Psychological Perspectives on IQ

The ability to solve any practical or conceptual problems is generally considered to be an important expression of intelligence. The world is now familiar with the term "IQ" which is associated with an idea of intelligence. IQ stands for intelligence-quotient and it is useful in describing a score that is obtained from the test which is developed to measure the intelligence of any individual. The IQ test is the most common approach used by the group of psychologists to understand but it needs a medical license for use. Thus by using this approach or tool the intelligence can easily be measured with a number of methods or calculations. It was found that in the year 1880, Sir Francis Galton developed the first test for measuring intelligence (Flanagan & Kaufman, 2004). It is found that in early 1900, the French psychologist Alfred Binet and one of his colleague started working in Paris with an aim to develop a measure that will help to differentiate student that learns faster with that of one who learns slower than them. The researcher concluded that most of the psychologist considered intelligence-test in school that consisting of the ability to name objects, define words as well as complete any sentence or drawing for measuring intelligence. Thus it is analyzed by both the researcher that even a student who got one item correct fails to give the right answer to others. The American psychologist Lewis Terman developed or produce an American version of the Binet’s test and later it is known as Standford-Binet Intelligence Test. The Standford-Binet test is useful in measuring the intelligence of students based on vocabulary, memorizing pictures, and drawing it, and also writing commands that are provided (opentextbc.ca, 2020).

The British psychologist Charles Spearman had described a useful and clear concept about the general intelligence or the g-factor. The expert after analyzing the factor analysis with an aim to examine some of the aptitude tests that are based on the mental ability of the individual concluded that scores that were obtained are much similar. It had been analyzed that the people who had performed better in one test scored well in other tests too. The psychologist also found that one who scores bad or having poor mental ability scored badly in every test (Acosta et al. 2019). Therefore, he concluded finally that intelligence is nothing but a type of general cognitive ability that can be calculated or measured and also gets numerically expressed. Another psychologist Louis Thurstone added a differing theory related to intelligence and he defined that intelligence can be measured by using seven different abilities of mental health within an individual. The abilities which he defined are verbal comprehension, word fluency, associative memory, Numerical ability, Reasoning, Perceptual speed, and Spatial-visualization. The multiple intelligence theory that is proposed by psychologist Howard Gardner contradicted that the IQ test which is a type of numerical expression test of human-Intelligence as proposed by some of the psychologists cannot provide full information about an individual’s intelligence. According to Gardner there are people who failed to score well in intelligence tests overall but having exceptional skills in art, music, or able to recite any statistics in sports. The different kinds of intelligence that are defined by Gardner's theory are Logical-mathematical intelligence, Interpersonal intelligence, Musical intelligence, Visual-spatial intelligence, Naturalistic intelligence, and many others (verywellmind.com, 2020).

The implicit theory is also intelligence theory that is related to intelligence is belief about the malleability of a list of different skills (Dweck et al. 1995). The people with that of an entity-theory believe that certain skills like intelligence-mathematics, music can be determined by the natural-talent and it is resistant to any change. But according to the incremental theory of intelligence proofs and states that with an effort and regular practice the intelligence capacity can be improved. It is found through the research that in academics the student who has adopted the incremental theory of intelligence is proved to be more successful in that of performance domain (Hilton et al. 2017). The implicit theory of intelligence helps in providing or supporting the casual relationship between beliefs and the existing performance of an individual. The middle school students who were encouraged or have learned the incremental theory earned higher grades in math than those who only are directed about the normal study strategies. (Brown et al. 2019). There are different psychological approaches that can be used to measure intelligence like DNA Analysis of an individual and also imaging of the living brain. The Chronometric is also a study that deals with the identification of different factors like perception, attention, and decision making process of the human brain. It is considered as a process that helps in indicating how fast the individual can able to execute the task that is relevant to the mental operations. The behavioral factors like eye movements, vocal responses can be used to examine the intelligence percentage in an individual. [Referred to Appendix 1]

In order to measure intelligence the IQ test is designed in such a manner that it can able to check verbal and non-verbal ability, reasoning, correct sentence or jumble words check, and mathematical concepts too. The test is basically online and having a number of short questions or multiple-choice questions. For example one of the questions which is included in IO test is (4, 5, 16, 25, 36,?, 64. What is the number missing from the sequence?). Thus the time is set in which the expert or examiner checks that candidate can attempt how many correct or incorrect questions and based on that the Bell graph chart is prepared which shows the relationship between age and IQ level. It is found that most of the education system or institution is using this technique nowadays to check and compare the mental ability of a different individual. The researcher also studies different IQ test results for identification of genetic relations, social-economic status and many others. The individual who is having less IQ score is also advised through it to improve the intelligence ability by practicing more with online tests, Puzzles, and others. The U.S system of Education also from the early 1990s identifies talented and weak students through online IQ system (psmag.com, 2020). [Referred to Appendix 2]

According to the IQ Bell curve the scores of the IQ Test are normally distributed and that is equal to 15 points it is like when an individual goes one standard deviation above of the mean of 100 then the score of 115 can be given. At the same time when the individual gets one point below mean then the actual score will be 85. The values of two standard-deviations are equal to 30 points and it goes to 45 and others. It is found that 68% of the people actually score between 85 to 115 and 95% of the population scored in between 70-130 points. It is also found that a total of 99% of the population used to score in between the range of 55 and 145. Thus it can be concluded that intelligence can be measured might not accurately but through simple IQ tests the ability of an individual according to their intelligence can be identified.

Reference List

Journal

Acosta, G., Smith, E., and Kreinovich, V., 2019. Why IQ Test Scores Are Slightly Decreasing: Possible System-Based Explanation for the Reversed Flynn Effect.

Brown, C.M., Hanson, A.E.S., Goodie, A.S., Fortune, E.E., Shotwell, J., Meyer, J., Oguz, P.G., Moore, K.S., Shermeyer, L., Morrow, M.T. and Mediate, N., 2019. Pre-post changes in Implicit Theories of Second Language Acquisition After a Successful Learning Experience. Front. Educ. 4: 135. doi: 10.3389/feduc.

Hilton, E., Liao, Q. and Poggio, T., 2017. Spatial IQ Test for AI.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Implicit theory of Intelligence

Appendix 2: Intelligence Quotient