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.
Did you find this useful? Give us your feedback
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: Combined with other risk factor information in an actuarial approach to assessment and diagnosis, the CBCL and YSR Internalizing scales provide valuable information about whether a youth is likely suffering from an anxiety disorder.
Abstract: Anxiety disorders are common among children but can be difficult to diagnose. An actuarial approach to the diagnosis of anxiety may improve the efficiency and accuracy of the process. The objectives of this study were to determine the clinical utility of the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self Report (YSR), two widely used assessment tools, for diagnosing anxiety disorders in youth and to aid clinicians in incorporating scale scores into an actuarial approach to diagnosis through a clinical vignette. Demographically diverse youth, 5 to 18 years of age, were drawn from two samples; one (N = 1,084) was recruited from a research center, and the second (N = 651) was recruited from an urban community mental health center. Consensus diagnoses integrated information from semistructured interview, family history, treatment history, and clinical judgment. The CBCL and YSR internalizing problems T scores discriminated cases with any anxiety disorder or with generalized anxiety disorder from all...
42 citations
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...…across jobs (r¼ .25), and is equivalent to verbal GRE score predicting grade point average (r¼ .28), yet these pieces of information are commonly used—along with other signals—to forecast health risk or academic and professional success (Gottfredson, 1997; Lubinski, 2004; Neisser et al., 1996)....
[...]
...28), yet these pieces of information are commonly used—along with other signals—to forecast health risk or academic and professional success (Gottfredson, 1997; Lubinski, 2004; Neisser et al., 1996)....
[...]
TL;DR: NBPs account for a significant proportion of variance in measures of cognitive performance and functional brain network efficiency, and motivate a multidisciplinary approach that applies methods from nutritional epidemiology and cognitive neuroscience to characterize the impact of nutrition on human health, aging, and disease.
42 citations
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...Accumulating neuroscience evidence demonstrates that variation in the synchronization or efficiency of communication between brain regions reliably predicts individual differences in cognitive ability (Gottfredson, 1997)....
[...]
TL;DR: The Spearman's g is a highly useful psychological construct as discussed by the authors, and it has been used extensively in education research, especially in the field of general intelligence, g, or Spearman g.
Abstract: Human intelligence (also called general intelligence, g, or Spearman’s g) is a highly useful psychological construct. Yet, since the middle of the 20th century, gifted education researchers have be...
42 citations
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...As Gottfredson (1997b) explained, Research in educational settings finds that low-g learners require highly structured, detailed, concrete, and “contextualized” instruction that omits no intermediate steps, but that such “complete” instruction is actually dysfunctional for high-g individuals....
[...]
...Nevertheless, in many aspects of life, it seems preferable to have more intelligence than less (Gottfredson, 1997b), and the benefits of higher cognitive tests scores seem to increase indefinitely (Lubinski, Webb, Morelock, & Benbow, 2001)....
[...]
...For example, one robust finding in intelligence research is that people with higher intelligence learn more quickly than people with lower intelligence (Carroll, 1993; Gottfredson, 1997b; Hollingworth, 1936; Jensen, 1980; Robinson, Zigler, & Gallagher, 2000; Terman & Chase, 1920)....
[...]
...As a result, according to Nisbett et al. (2012), “The measurement of intelligence is one of psychology’s greatest achievements . . . ” (p. 131), and modern intelligence tests are among the best designed and developed psychological tests in existence (Gottfredson, 1997a)....
[...]
...However, none of these “other things” by itself is as strongly associated with general outcomes in academics, work, or physical health (Gottfredson, 1997b, 2000)....
[...]
TL;DR: The relationship between national personality traits and intelligence from 51 countries were examined in this article, and it was found that extraversion, openness to experience and agreeableness measured at the national level were significantly and positively correlated with national IQs; however, in the regression model only the former two were marginally significant.
41 citations
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this article, a study of the ajuste entre the competencias del psicologo and the necesidades of their perfiles in three areas: salud, education, and trabajo, was conducted.
Abstract: La disminucion del empleo tanto a nivel nacional como internacional deriva en una sobreoferta de jovenes con dificultades para encontrar trabajo. Esto trae como consecuencia un aumento en los estandares para contratar nuevos profesionales a quienes se les exigen competencias altamente especializadas. El objetivo general de esta investigacion fue analizar el ajuste entre las competencias del psicologo y las necesidades de sus perfiles en cuatro grandes areas: salud, educacion, justicia y trabajo, desde el punto de vista de los usuarios del sistema. En el presente trabajo se informa acerca de los datos aportados por 109 empleadores de psicologos en distintas areas, a quienes se les solicito que especificaran las competencias requeridas a los psicologos para un desempeno idoneo, en cada ambito particular. Se recolectaron asimismo datos de 499 psicologos a quienes se les administro una encuesta similar para relevar la propia autopercepcion de competencia en 57 habilidades basicas identificadas por los empleadores. Se analizaron las diferencias individuales segun sexo, edad e institucion de graduacion. Los resultados senalan la falta de ajuste entre necesidades sociales varias areas de la psicologia. Las competencias referidas al area clinica son las unicas que permiten diferenciar a los grupos de profesionales mas jovenes con respecto a los mas antiguos.
41 citations
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...bajo mas simples y rutinarios y comienzan a proliferar aquellos con tareas mas complejas para los cuales es necesario contar con personal altamente entrenado ( Gottfredson, 1997; Zalaquett & Turner, 1997)....
[...]
...…tienden a extinguirse los puestos de tra- INTERDISCIPLINARIA, 2004, 21,2, 117-152 119 bajo más simples y rutinarios y comienzan a proliferar aquellos con tareas más complejas para los cuales es necesario contar con personal altamente entrenado (Gottfredson, 1997; Zalaquett & Turner, 1997)....
[...]
References
More filters
TL;DR: The ten-year edition of the 10th anniversary edition as mentioned in this paper is devoted to the theory of multiple intelligences and its application in the socialization of human intelligence through Symbols Implications And Applications.
Abstract: * Introduction to the Tenth Anniversary Edition Background * The Idea of Multiple Intelligences * Intelligence: Earlier Views * Biological Foundations of Intelligence * What Is an Intelligence? The Theory * Linguistic Intelligence * Musical Intelligence * Logical-Mathematical Intelligence * Spatial Intelligence * Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence * The Personal Intelligences * A Critique of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences * The Socialization of Human Intelligences through Symbols Implications And Applications * The Education of Intelligences * The Application of Intelligences
11,512 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1983
TL;DR: The Tenth Anniversary Edition of Intelligence explains the development of intelligence in the 21st Century through the applications of language, linguistics, mathematics, and more.
Abstract: * Introduction to the Tenth Anniversary Edition Background * The Idea of Multiple Intelligences * Intelligence: Earlier Views * Biological Foundations of Intelligence * What Is an Intelligence? The Theory * Linguistic Intelligence * Musical Intelligence * Logical-Mathematical Intelligence * Spatial Intelligence * Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence * The Personal Intelligences * A Critique of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences * The Socialization of Human Intelligences through Symbols Implications And Applications * The Education of Intelligences * The Application of Intelligences
9,611 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the relation of the Big Five personality dimensions (extraversion, emotional stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skilled/semi-skilled).
Abstract: This study investigated the relation of the “Big Five” personality dimensions (Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skilled/semi-skilled). Results indicated that one dimension of personality, Conscientiousness, showed consistent relations with all job performance criteria for all occupational groups. For the remaining personality dimensions, the estimated true score correlations varied by occupational group and criterion type. Extraversion was a valid predictor for two occupations involving social interaction, managers and sales (across criterion types). Also, both Openness to Experience and Extraversion were valid predictors of the training proficiency criterion (across occupations). Other personality dimensions were also found to be valid predictors for some occupations and some criterion types, but the magnitude of the estimated true score correlations was small (ρ < .10). Overall, the results illustrate the benefits of using the 5-factor model of personality to accumulate and communicate empirical findings. The findings have numerous implications for research and practice in personnel psychology, especially in the subfields of personnel selection, training and development, and performance appraisal.
8,018 citations
TL;DR: An up-to-date handbook on conceptual and methodological issues relevant to the study of industrial and organizational behavior is presented in this paper, which covers substantive issues at both the individual and organizational level in both theoretical and practical terms.
Abstract: An up-to-date handbook on conceptual and methodological issues relevant to the study of industrial and organizational behavior. Chapters contributed by leading experts from the academic and business communities cover substantive issues at both the individual and organizational level, in both theoretical and practical terms.
7,809 citations
TL;DR: Because of the extraordinary clarity and importance of the Commission's Report, the editors of the Communica t ions decided to reprint the Report's main section in its entirety and present it to you here.
Abstract: released a remarkab le report, A Nation at Risk. This Report has s t imulated in the media considerable discussion about the problems in our schools, speculation about the causes, and ass ignment of blame. Astonishingly, f e w of the media reports have focused on the specific f indings and recommendat ions of the Commission. A lmos t none of the med ia reports tells that the Commission i tsel f re frained f rom speculation on causes and f rom assignment of blame. Because of the extraordinary clarity and importance of the Commission's Report, the editors of the Communica t ions decided to reprint the Report's main section in its entirety. We are p leased to present it to you here.
5,832 citations