Lecture 4- Uses of Intelligence, Critiques of Intelligence

Question 1

What are the critiques of intelligence?

Answer 1

• Lame
• Criticisms of the construct of intelligence
• criticism of the validity of intelligence tests

Question 2

What are the Lame critiques of intelligence?

Answer 2

• no one agrees on a definition of intelligence so there is no basis for taking it seriously
• not fully understood so it is wrong to use tests to make decisions that affects people future

Question 3

What are the arguments against Lame critiques?

Answer 3

1) definition share common features
2) agreement amongst researchers for how to measure intelligence

Question 4

What does Howe think about the construct of intelligence?

Answer 4

• intelligence is not an explanation
• it is so poorly understood there is nothing useful underlying this word

Question 5

What does Simon (1990) state about intelligence?

Answer 5

• it is irrelevant
• performance is determined by experience/practise
• no role for intelligence as a predictor

Question 6

What are the important roles of intelligence predicting?

Answer 6

1) Rate of expertise acquisition
2) effective use of expertise in novel situations

Question 7

what does Medawar (1982) state about intelligence?

Answer 7

• intelligence is an oversimplification
• it is attempt to summaries human intellectual potential as one single number (soil quality, economic health)

Question 8

What does the straw man argue about the oversimplification of intelligence?

Answer 8

• g is not claimed to be an absolute predictor
• hierarchal theorists try to summarise human potential with multiple numbers

Question 9

What does Howe (1990) also state about intelligence?

Answer 9

• intelligence is really something else
• general motivation trait, personality traits, socio-economic status

Question 10

In what cases does intelligence predict people futures?

Answer 10

1) Educational settings
2) occupational settings

Question 11

why does intelligence predict futures in educational settings?

Answer 11

Jensen found correlations
- higher scorers acquire knowledge more quickly so more likely to get better marks

Question 12

what are the objections of intelligence testing?

Answer 12

1) predictive validities are not high
2) tests are invalid, not measure intelligence
3) tests discriminate unfairly
4) various moral/political objections

Question 13

what are the disadvantages of the Need for cognition scale?

Answer 13

• only 18 questions , SEM issues
• subjective

Question 14

How would social class effect intelligence test?

Answer 14

• intelligence test scores is an expression of socio-economic status (SES)