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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TL;DR: The authors' intervention program may ameliorate the children's psychosocial problems related to parenting stress and increase their cognitive abilities.
Abstract: Background
We propose a new play activity intervention program for mothers and children. Our interdisciplinary program integrates four fields of child-related sciences: neuroscience, preschool pedagogy, developmental psychology, and child and maternal psychiatry. To determine the effect of this intervention on child and mother psychosocial problems related to parenting stress and on the children's cognitive abilities, we performed a cluster randomized controlled trial.
Methodology/Principal Findings
Participants were 238 pairs of mothers and typically developing preschool children (ages 4–6 years old) from Wakakusa kindergarten in Japan. The pairs were asked to play at home for about 10 min a day, 5 days a week for 3 months. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group by class unit. The Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (for mothers), the Goodenough Draw-a-Man intelligence test (DAM), and the new S-S intelligence test (NS-SIT) (for children) were administered prior to and 3 months after the intervention period. Pre–post changes in test scores were compared between the groups using a linear mixed-effects model analysis. The primary outcomes were the Total score on the child domain of the PSI (for child psychosocial problems related to parenting stress), Total score on the parent domain of the PSI (for maternal psychosocial problems related to parenting stress), and the score on the DAM (for child cognitive abilities). The results of the PSI suggested that the program may reduce parenting stress. The results of the cognitive tests suggested that the program may improve the children's fluid intelligence, working memory, and processing speed.
Conclusions/Significance
Our intervention program may ameliorate the children's psychosocial problems related to parenting stress and increase their cognitive abilities.
Trial Registration
UMIN Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000002265
25 citations
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...It is also closely related to professional and educational success [56,57,58], especially in a complex and demanding environment [59]....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed that cognitive readiness is not just one construct, but three inter-related constructs akin to the military levels of war and readiness (tactical, operational, and strategic).
Abstract: Military cognitive readiness is a somewhat new concept that has been defined many ways. In this article, I review these definitions and propose that cognitive readiness is not just one construct, but three inter-related constructs akin to the military levels of war and readiness (tactical, operational, & strategic). Each of these constructs requires cognitive performance in complex, uncertain, and stressful military operations. However, the nature of performance is different for each. Thus, each level of cognitive readiness requires different measures. As a first step in the development of measures for operational and strategic cognitive readiness, a review of research related to predicting cognitive performance in complex, uncertain, and stressful operations was conducted. From this review a set of inherent psychological factors and their measures were identified. The article concludes by indicating what future steps are needed to develop measures of both operational and strategic readiness.
25 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used an ex-post facto approach to assess emotional intelligence in the Nigeria Police and found that Nigerian police are not emotionally intelligent when they were tested on the following variables: gender (t =.692, > 0.05), age, job status, marital status, and years of experience.
Abstract: This study used an ex-post facto approach to assess emotional intelligence in the Nigeria Police. In the study, emotional intelligence of participants was content-rated using Emotional Intelligence Test. With a sample of 285 police (officers and men), the results indicated that Nigerian police are not emotionally intelligent when they were tested on the following variables: gender (t = .692, > 0.05), age (t = .66, > 0.05), job status (t = .36, > 0.05), marital status (t = 1.1, > 0.05), and years of experience (F = 1.372, > 0.05). The results indicate the need for the Nigerian Police to embrace emotional intelligence.
25 citations
Cites background from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...Intelligence is described as a strong correlate of many life’s outcomes like educational and occupational attainment (Gottfredson, 1986)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented the results of a TSER-funded research at University College Dublin, Ireland with the Faculty of Commerce Research Award and the Department of Education and Science (Ireland).
Abstract: University College Dublin. Faculty of Commerce Research Award; Department of Education and Science (Ireland); European
Commission, TSER programme
24 citations
Cites background or methods from "Why g matters: The complexity of ev..."
...11 See Gottfredson (1997) for evidence that intelligence affects both social and economic life. Arguably prose literacy is more likely to generate this consumption effect through leisure time reading. 12 For example, using a coefficient of 0.023 and given the quartiles of -2.19, 0.37 and 2.41. 13 One could consider the returns to schooling separately for different parts of the ability distribution. Given the size of the sample this is probably not practical. Ashenfelter & Rouse(1998) find, using the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, that returns to education do not depend on measured ability....
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...11 See Gottfredson (1997) for evidence that intelligence affects both social and economic life....
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...Interpretation of these result is not 11 See Gottfredson (1997) for evidence that intelligence affects both social and economic life....
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...5 See Denny, Harmon,Redmond (1999) for a review of recent findings in this literature for the Republic of Ireland, Harmon and Walker (1999b) for an analysis of Northern Ireland and Dearden (1999), Harmon and Walker (1999a) for Britain....
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...The intuition for this is far from obvious: why would one acquire a skill which reduces one's 10 See Krueger & Lindahl (1998) for evidence in favour of the linear-in-schooling model....
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References
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