Perhaps the most common criticism of the IQ tests, is that most only test two or three different areas of intellectual qualities, such as mathematical, spatial awareness (to a certain degree), and grammar skills, however as there is no accurate or certain definition of intelligence, it begs the question: How can you have an intelligence test when you don’t know specifically what to test for? Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences backs up this criticism, and he identified 8 areas in which a person could have a certain amount of ability, which does explain individual difference quite well.
He suggests that each individual has a certain amount of: Linguistic intelligence, musical intelligence, mathematical/logical intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, and the recently added naturalistic intelligence (the recognition and categorisation of natural objects). If Gardner’s theory is correct then the intelligence tests are obviously flawed because they can’t test for abilities such as dexterity of movement or linguistic ability.
It is also worth noting that the Intelligence tests ignore the existence of idiot savants, and those who are exceptionally able in certain areas, but who are not deemed to be ‘smart’, whereas Gardner’s theory accepts those as intelligent in those specific areas.
He states that those who dis-agree with his ideas of multiple intelligences are simply scared about moving away from the idea of standardized tests, and that linguistic, musical, and kinaesthetic abilities are just talents.
Gardner agrees with the notion that these areas may be ‘just talents’ as long as exceptional logical or mathematical ability is also acknowledged as ‘just a talent’.
In short theories such as Gardner’s have questioned the ultimate validity of standardized intelligence tests. It is not just the validity that is questionable about IQ tests, as the reliability must also be taken into consideration. For example, some IQ tests are timed in order to test the speed at which a person can look at and solve a problem, however, this begs the question, can the inability to complete a test in time affect a person’s IQ?
And what if it is a physical, rather than psychological problem which hinders a person’s test speed? The elderly for instance may be suffering from age related problems such as arthritis, or heart problems, which generally slow the movement of an individual down, but does not necessarily affect the mind, but if they were asked to take a timed IQ test, they might not get a result which reflects their intellectual ability.
Another area of disapproval over IQ tests is the culture-fair testing debate, which takes into account the types of questions that are put into the tests. Any verbal style questions, even if they are translated into different languages tend to be culturally biased and so the best way to remedy this situation is to create questions which use shapes and self explanatory style tasks, however even they will sometimes favour one type of culture over another, and it is virtually impossible to create a totally culture-free test.
The next area of criticism is the famous nature debate that runs alongside almost every area of psychology, and which always has strong support from both sides, and the idea of stability of intelligence in particular. It has been said that the natural intelligence of an individual cannot be changed, and that we must simply utilize what we are born with.
If we look at both Binet’s IQ testing, and Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, we can see that both of these theories tend to support the nature side of the debate, and although Gardner does look at different intelligences or ‘talents’, he does not suggest that a person can learn intelligence. Sternberg (1985), and his ‘Triarchic Theory of Intelligence’ (TTI) disagrees with this, and whilst he accepts that there might be different types of intelligence, he suggests that there are only really three; the componential intelligence, the contextual intelligence, and the experiential intelligence.
The componential is used to explain the academic side of brain, the cognitive problem solving, and information processing ability of a person. The contextual tries to explain the ability to adapt to different situations, either cultural or environmental, and is often referred to as ‘street-smart’, and the experiential intelligence of an individual is their ability to acquire a skill and make it routine.
Sternberg considers intelligence to be a series of skills that can be nurtured rather than a set of inbuilt abilities which cannot be changed. He also devised a different sort of test which utilises his theory and accounts for the speed in which a person can acquire and use a new skill called: the Sternberg Multidimensional Abilities Test. Results from this test will help individuals to look at where they require improvement and can be much more helpful to participants than IQ tests.
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