Why g matters: The complexity of everyday life
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide evidence that intelligence has pervasive utility in work settings because it is essentially the ability to deal with cognitive complexity, in particular, with complex information processing, and the more complex a work task, the greater the advantages that higher g confers in performing it well.
About: This article is published in Intelligence.The article was published on 1997-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 1300 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Everyday life & Cognitive complexity.
Summary (1 min read)
Jump to: [Why g Matters: The Complexity of Everyday Life] – [WHAT DOES “IMPORTANT” MEAN?] – [INFLUENCE OF INTELLIGENCE ON OVERALL LIFE OUTCOMES] and [THE FUTURE]
Why g Matters: The Complexity of Everyday Life
- This article provides evidence that g has pervasive utility in work settings because it is essentially the ability to deal with cognitive complexity, in particular, with complex information processing.
- Few claims in the social sciences are backed by such massive evidence but remain so hotly contested in public discourse.
- Besides demonstrating that g is important in practical affairs, I seek to demonstrate why intelligence has such surprisingly pervasive importance in the lives of individuals.
- I then use both the employment and literacy data to sketch a portrait of life’s challenges and opportunities at different levels of intelligence.
WHAT DOES “IMPORTANT” MEAN?
- The nature of the job and its context seem to determine whether g has any direct effect on task proficiency, net of job knowlege.
- As is well known in psychometrics (see also Gordon, 1997), the fact that an individual passes or fails any single test item says little about that person’s general intelligence level.
INFLUENCE OF INTELLIGENCE ON OVERALL LIFE OUTCOMES
- The effects of intelligence-like other psychological traits-are probabilistic, not deterministic.
- White adults in this range marry, work, and have children (Hermstein & Murray, 1994), but, as Table 10 shows, they are nonetheless at great risk of living in poverty (30%), bearing children out of wedlock (32%), and becoming chronic welfare dependents (31%).
- At this IQ level, fewer than half the high school graduates and none of the dropouts meet the military’s minimum AFQT enlistment standards.
- Most occupations are within reach cognitively, because these individuals learn complex material fairly easily and independently.
- Such as divorce, illness, and occasional unemployment, they rarely become trapped in poverty or social pathology.
THE FUTURE
- Complexity enriches social and cultural life, but it also risks leaving some individuals behind.
- Society has become more complex-and g loaded-as the authors have entered the information age and postindustrial economy.
- Accordingly, organizations are “flatter” (have fewer hierarchical levels), and increasing numbers of jobs require high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills (Camevale, 1991; Cascio, 1995; Hunt, 1995; Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, 1991).
- There is evidence that increasing proportions of individuals with below-average IQs are having trouble adapting to their increasingly complex modern life (Granat & Granat, 1978) and that social inequality along IQ lines is increasing (Herrnstein & Murray, 1994).
- As the military experience also illustrates, however, what is good pedagogy for the low-aptitude learner may be inappropriate for the high-aptitude person.
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01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: Timming explores the unique intersection of the biological sciences and human resource management as mentioned in this paper, answering pressing questions regarding employee selection and mobbing culture in the workplace, and explores the uniqueness of the intersection.
Abstract: Answering pressing questions regarding employee selection and mobbing culture in the workplace, Andrew R. Timming explores the unique intersection of the biological sciences and human resource management.
15 citations
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
..., IQ) are all negatively associated with perceived employability (Gottfredson, 1997; Koser et al., 1999; Gouvier et al., 2003)....
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TL;DR: It is argued that coping with the challenges of compositionality requires both software-level integration and holistic fusion of knowledge by means of semantic transformations, which entails the need for a multi aspect framework that is able to capture at least conceptual, functional, architectural, informational, interoperation, and behavioral aspects.
15 citations
TL;DR: Results suggests that even at low levels of ability, increments in g still have important consequences for human functioning, and the influence of g may not be equally strong across different areas of human functioning.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Previous analyses have found variable results when evaluating the size of the association between intellectual ability and adaptive functioning in individuals with impaired function.
METHODS: We assessed the association between intellectual ability measured as a latent higher-order g and three different areas of adaptive functioning in a sample of clinically referred individuals with low IQ.
RESULTS: Regressing g on conceptual, practical and social adaptive functioning yielded standardised regression coefficients of 0.65, 0.60 and 0.51 respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: Results suggests that even at low levels of ability, increments in g still have important consequences for human functioning. Further, the influence of g may not be equally strong across different areas of human functioning.
15 citations
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...In the normal range of intelligence, ability level is associated with educational, occupational and social success (Gottfredson 1997; Deary et al. 2007; von Stumm et al. 2010) and mortality (Calvin et al....
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01 Dec 2005
TL;DR: This paper reviewed modern theories of the structure of cognitive ability and the emergence of the concept of general cognitive ability, and discussed psychometric characteristics of tests including reliability and validity, and the issues to be considered when deciding whether to choose from among commercially available tests or develop a test.
Abstract: : This chapter consists of six parts. Part one briefly reviews the historical foundation of the concept of cognitive ability and early attempts to measure it. Part two reviews modern theories of the structure of cognitive ability and the emergence of the concept of general cognitive ability. Next, part three introduces the concepts of specific abilities, knowledge, and noncognitive traits. Part four discusses psychometric characteristics of tests including reliability and validity. Part five reviews the issues to be considered when deciding whether to choose from among commercially-available tests or develop a test. Example questions to help in test construction are provided. The sixth and final part is a general summary.
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TL;DR: The authors tested Spearman's hypothesis, comparing a group of Sudanese children and adolescents (N = 7226) with other groups of children and teenagers from Denmark, Cyprus, Croatia, Bosnia, South Africa, Estonia, Ukraine, Ireland, Russia, and Chile (total N = 13,105).
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References
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