Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

Key Concepts 
What are the diff erent defi ni-
tions and conceptions of 
intelligence? 
What are the major approaches 
to measuring intelligence, and 
what do intelligence tests 
measure?
M O D U L E 2 6 
What Is Intelligence?
What does the Trukese people’s method of navigation—which is done 
without maps or instruments—tell us about the nature of intelligence?
feL82795_ch09_276-305.indd Page 279 7/31/10 2:30 AM user-f465
feL82795_ch09_276-305.indd Page 279 7/31/10 2:30 AM user-f465
/Users/user-f465/Desktop
/Users/user-f465/Desktop

---

280 Chapter 
9 
Intelligence
to psychologists. For years they have grappled with the issue of devising a general 
defi nition of intelligence. Ironically, laypersons have fairly clear ideas of what intel-
ligence is, although the nature of their ideas is related to their culture. Westerners 
view intelligence as the ability to establish categories and debate rationally. In con-
trast, people in Eastern cultures and some African communities view intelligence 
more in terms of understanding and relating to one another (Nisbett, 2003; Brislin, 
Worthley, & MacNab, 2006; Sternberg, 2005, 2007). 
The defi nition of intelligence that psychologists employ contains some of the 
same elements found in the layperson’s conception. To psychologists,  intelligence  is 
the capacity to understand the world, think rationally, and use resources effectively 
when faced with challenges.
This defi nition does not lay to rest a key question asked by psychologists: Is 
intelligence a unitary attribute, or are there different kinds of intelligence? We turn 
now to various theories of intelligence that address the issue.
Theories of Intelligence: 
Are There Diff erent Kinds 
of Intelligence?
Perhaps you see yourself as a good writer but as someone who lacks ability in math. 
Or maybe you view yourself as a “science” person who easily masters physics but 
has few strengths in interpreting literature. Perhaps you view yourself as generally 
fairly smart with intelligence that permits you to excel across domains. 
The different ways in which people view their own talents mirror a question that 
psychologists have grappled with. Is intelligence a single, general ability, or is it 
multifaceted and related to specifi c abilities? Early psychologists interested in intel-
ligence assumed that there was a single, general factor for mental ability, which they 
called g, or the  g -factor  . This assumption was based on the fact that different types 
of measures of intelligence, whether they focused on, say, mathematical expertise, 
verbal competency, or spatial visualization skills, all ranked test-takers in roughly 
the same order. People who were good on one test generally were good on others; 
those who did poorly on one test tended to do poorly on others.
Given that there was a correlation between performance on the different types of 
tests, the assumption was that there was a general, global intellectual ability underly-
ing performance on the various measures—the g-factor. This 
general intelligence factor was thought to underlie performance 
in every aspect of intelligence, and it was the g -factor that was 
presumably being measured on tests of intelligence (Spearman, 
1927; Colom, Jung, & Haier, 2006; Haier et al., 2009). 
More recent theories explain intelligence in a different 
light. Rather than viewing intelligence as a unitary entity, 
some psychologists consider it to be a multidimensional con-
cept that includes different types of intelligence (Tenopyr, 
2002; Stankov, 2003; Sternberg & Pretz, 2005).