Use of psychometric testing in defining intelligence / Aus der Reihe: e-fellows.net stipendiaten-wissen Bd.Band 686 (PDF)

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Psychology - Learning Psychology, Intelligence Research, grade: 20, University of St Andrews, language: English, abstract: Researchers widely disagree on a common definition of intelligence
(Sternberg & Berg, 1986), conceptually describing it as "a general capacity for
inferring and applying relationships drawn from experience" (Herrnstein &
Murray, 1994), emphasizing that "it is not merely book learning []; [it is] a
broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings []"
(Gottfredson, 1997). In stark contrast are more operational definitions based
on psychometric intelligence measures, such as "Intelligence is what the tests
test" (Boring, 1923), or "a person's score on a statistically determined set of
questions" (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994). Although having supported the
theoretical development of intelligence, psychometric tests have been
criticized for their over-simplification, inaccuracies and potential misuse
(Nisbett et al, 2012). This essay will focus on evaluating potential benefits and
drawbacks of using psychometric intelligence tests to help define intelligence,
concentrating on the most dominant 'IQ' test, for which the bulk of evidence
exists. [...]