Personality, Individual Differences and Intelligence

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Sternberg, R. J., Conway, B. E., Ketron, J. L., & Bernstein, M. (1981). People's conceptions of intelligence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41(1), 37-55

Veselka, L., Petrides, K.V., Schermer, J.A., et al. (2010). Phenotypic and genetic relations between the HEXACO dimensions and trait emotional intelligence. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 13, 66–71. The amount of shared variance, and the relative contributions of the various subtests to it, can be measured using principal components analysis or PCA. In PCA, the first principal component or general factor, which is often taken as the operational definition of g, is simply the linear combination of the standardized scores on the subtests that accounts for the greatest amount of variance. If one thinks of each individual's subtest scores as a point in a space with as many dimensions as there are subtests, then PCA weights these scores so as to minimize the sum of the squared perpendicular distances from the data points to the line corresponding to the component axis. Importantly, the weight given a specific subtest in this linear combination, which is frequently referred to as its loading on g, corresponds to the correlation between individuals' scores on that subtest and their component scores, calculated as the weighted sum of their scores on all of the subtests. A remarkable feature of most They were then compared to the eastern definitions of intelligence including: general cognitive factor of intelligence, this referring to something similar to the western ideal of problem solving, and also is related to one’s cognitive ability – so this refers to higher cognitive competency would lead to better ability to problem solve. Interpersonal intelligence refers to the ability to communicate with others and be adept in social situations, also being able to change from one social situation to another without difficulty. Intrapersonal skills, this is one which was not seen in the western ideal of intelligence and refers to ones modesty as such, for it includes one’s ability to know their abilities and values to a true level and thus one's ability to view themselves objectively. Intellectual self-assertions links strongly to the previous point as it would involve one's ability to successfully take charge of their own skills and use their most beneficial expertise. Intellectual self-effacement which refers to the ability to be modest about intellect. Extremely intelligent individuals are not unhealthy or poorly adjusted, but rather are above average in physical health and taller and heavier than individuals in the general population.

Intelligence is arguably psychology’s best-attested and most important variable. Britain has made notable contributions to intelligence since the late 19th century (Deary, 2001), and researchers continue to apply the principles and theories in areas of vital importance to society. Research has found that stereotype threat is caused by both cognitive and emotional factors (Schmader, Johns, & Forbes, 2008). On the cognitive side, individuals who are experiencing stereotype threat show an increased vigilance toward the environment as well as increased attempts to suppress stereotypic thoughts. Engaging in these behaviours takes cognitive capacity away from the task. On the affective side, stereotype threat occurs when there is a discrepancy between our positive concept of our own skills and abilities and the negative stereotypes that suggest poor performance. These discrepancies create stress and anxiety, and these emotions make it harder to perform well on the task. Professor Ann Macaskill has lectured on Personality and Individual Differences for many years. She is also trained in Counselling and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Saletan, W. (2018, April 27). Stop talking about race and IQ [Web log post]. Slate. Retrieved from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/stop-talking-about-race-and-iq-take-it-from-someone-who-did.html

Halpern, D. F., Benbow, C. P., Geary, D. C., Gur, R. C., Hyde, J. S., & Gernsbache, M. A. (2007). The science of sex differences in science and mathematics. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 8(1), 1–51. Additional data showing the same pattern from 6 different individuals as well as the fast and slow quartiles of this sample may be seen in Figures 1 and 8 of Myerson et al. (2003). Comparable data from a separate study using seven different tasks are presented in Hale and Jansen (1994). Taken together, these results strongly support the idea that an individual's speed is a general characteristic of that individual, and has equivalent, multiplicative effects on the time required for any information processing task, regardless of the task being performed (for more details and a formal model, see Myerson et al., 2003). Deary, I.J., Batty, G.D., Pattie, A. & Gale, C.G. (2008). More intelligent, more dependable children live longer. Psychological Science, 19, 874–880.Glaser, R. (1976). Components of a Psychology of Instruction: Toward a Science of Design. Review of Educational Research, 46(1), 1–24.

There can be little doubt that a substantial fraction of the variance in intelligence scores is related to measures of processing speed (for a review, see Vernon, 1983), but numerous investigators have questioned its adequacy as a complete account of g (e.g., Stankoff & Roberts, 1997). A popular alternative to processing speed as the major correlate of g is working memory capacity. Cognitive psychologists continue to disagree about specific aspects of the working memory construct, but it is generally assumed that information is maintained in a temporary memory buffer while it is being processed as well as while other information is being processed. Separate buffers for verbal and visuospatial information have been proposed, along with an executive function to organize and allocate limited attentional resources ( Baddeley, 1986). Various other executive functions also have been proposed, such as updating and monitoring, switching between mental sets, and inhibiting competing responses (e.g., Miyake, Friedman, Emerson, Witzi, & Howerth, 2000). On average, men do better than women on tasks requiring spatial ability, whereas women do better on verbal tasks and score higher on emotional intelligence. Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Harlaar, N., Greven, C.U. & Plomin, R. (2010). More than just IQ. Intelligence, 38, 385–392. Deary, I.J. (2001). Individual differences in cognition. British Journal of Psychology, 92, 217–237.

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The surprising and consistent empirical finding in psychometric intelligence research is that people who do well on one mental task tend to do well on most others, despite large variations in the tests' contents… This was Spearman's (1904) discovery, and is arguably the most replicated result in all psychology. ( Deary, 2000, p. 6)

Luciano, M., Hansell, N., Lahti, J. et al. (2011). Whole genome association scan for genetic polymorphisms influencing information processing speed. Biological Psychology, 86, 193–202.Dr Liz Day is a lecturer in psychology at Sheffield Hallam University. She has over 30 publications in the area of Individual Differences and Positive Psychology. She has also trained as a Clinical Hypnotherapist. Johnson, W., Brett, C.E. & Deary, I.J. (2010). Intergenerational class mobility in Britain. Intelligence, 38, 268–281. Ocr tesseract 5.1.0-1-ge935 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9937 Ocr_module_version 0.0.16 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000640 Openlibrary_edition