The monograph presents the results of research by domestic and foreign psychologists in the field of psychology of general cognitive abilities (intelligence, creativity, learning ability). The data obtained by the author and his colleagues in the course of research on the development of abilities, the study of their structure, as well as the development of psychodiagnostic methods are presented. Particular attention is paid to the problem of the relationship between general intelligence and creative abilities. The book is intended for psychologists, educators, philosophers and other specialists in the humanities.
Foreword
This book is based on a course of lectures given by the author at the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University. Lomonosov and the faculty of elementary grades of Moscow State Pedagogical University. Communication with listeners, in addition to ordering one's own thoughts, is an incentive to write a text: it is easier to refer the student to the appropriate page than to retell it with inevitable distortions.
However, when presenting the material, I avoided the “top-down” position, and also tried not to resort to the usual popularization for a lecturer, explanation of terminology, “basics”, etc. A mental conversation with an equal, that is, with a reader who already knows the appropriate professional language, is always more interesting and productive. The book, although it is a monologue in the form of a written speech, is part of an ongoing dialogue between members of the professional community. So - the book is written for specialists - psychologists. I have tried to present mostly the facts, resorting to their own theoretical interpretations only as necessary. Whether this measure has been observed is for the reader to judge. I want to apologize for the fragmentary presentation: it is caused both by subjective reasons (it was difficult to find semantic connections between different pieces of information) and objective ones - by the obvious incompleteness of our knowledge about mental abilities.
We owe the existence and development of the psychology of abilities as a scientific direction in the Soviet period of the life of domestic psychology, first of all, to B. M. Teplov and his school.
Preface to the first edition .................................................................. ......................... 3
Preface to the second edition .................................................................. ...................... 5
Chapter 1
History of research and development of problems in the psychology of abilities. 7 Problems of general abilities (intelligence, learning, creativity).... 12
Literature................................................. ................................................. ... fifteen
Chapter 2
Factor models of intelligence .............................................................. ......................... 23
Ch. Spearman's model .............................................. ......................................... 24
Model L. Thurstone .................................................. ......................................... 27
J. Guildford's model.............................................. ............................................... 28
Model R. B. Cattell.................................................. ......................................... 29
Other hierarchical models (S. Barth, D. Wexler, F. Vernoy, L. Humphreys) …33
Monometric approach .............................................................. ............................... 35
Cognitive models of intelligence .............................................................. ................... 39
R. Sternberg's model.............................................. ............................................... 40
Other cognitive models .............................................................. ............................... 45
The concept of mental experience by M. A. Kholodnaya .............................................. ..47
Literature................................................. ................................................. ... 52
Chapter 3. DIAGNOSIS OF INTELLIGENCE .............................................. ...... 54
Psychometric remarks .................................................................. ......................... 54
Progressive matrices by J. Raven .............................................. ................ 61
D. Wexler's test ............................................... ............................................... 64
Intelligence Structure Tests .............................................................. ......................... 75
Literature................................................. ................................................. ... 82
Chapter 4. DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLIGENCE .............................................. ......................... 83
Psychogenetics of general abilities .............................................................. ................ 83
The influence of the environment on the development of intelligence .............................................. ........... 96
Development of intelligence and special cognitive abilities throughout life .............................................................. 104
Literature................................................. ................................................. .108
Chapter 5. INTELLIGENCE IN THE STRUCTURE OF THE PSYCHE .............................................. .. 110
Psychophysiology of the intellect .................................................. ....................... 110
Model A. N. Lebedeva .............................................. ................................. 113
Functional asymmetry of the brain and abilities ............... 115
Russian School of Differential Psychophysiology....................................... 120
Abilities of a woman and a man .............................................. ............... 123
Personality and intelligence .............................................................. .................................... 129
Literature................................................. ................................................. .136
Chapter 6. SUBJECTIVE PARADIGM IN RESEARCH OF ABILITIES. IMPLICIT THEORIES OF ABILITIES ............... 138
Ordinary theories of personality and ideas about intelligence .................................... 138
Investigations into Ordinary Ideas of Ability .............................................. 142
Psychosemantic model of representation of abilities in consciousness..... 147
Literature................................................. ................................................. 154
Chapter 7. GENERAL CREATIVITY ............................................................. 156
Creativity and activity ............................................................... ............................. 156
The problem of creativity. The concept of reduction of creativity to intelligence .............................................. 168
Creative personality and its life path .............................................. ..... 171
Creativity and its diagnostics .............................................................. ...................... 183
The Concept of Creativity by J. Guildford and E. P. Torrens.................................. 183
The concept of M. Vollach and N. Kogan .......................................... .................... 188
The concept of S. Mednik. ................................................. ............................... 191
"Investment Theory" by R. Sternberg .............................................. ........... 196
Approach of V. N. Druzhinin and N. V. Khazratova .............................................. ......... 199
Literature................................................. ................................................. .208
Chapter 8
Psychogenetics of creativity .............................................................. ....................... 211
Formation of creativity and learning .............................................................. 217
Learning, creativity and intelligence .............................................. ...... 239
Literature................................................. ................................................. .242
Chapter 9
General intelligence and school performance .............................................................. .245
General intelligence and professional activity.................................................. 248
General intelligence and creativity .............................................................. ................. 250
"One-Dimensional Model" ............................................... ................................... 252
The structure of general intelligence. Implicative model .............................. 255
4D model ................. 259
Dependence of academic performance on the level of development of individual intellectual abilities .............................................................. ......................... 262
Literature.................. 264
AFTERWORD........ 266
APPENDICES ........... 276
Diagnosis of the structure of the intellect (R. Amthauer's test) .............................................. 276
Diagnosis of non-verbal creativity (short version of the Torrens test) ...... 281
Diagnostics of mathematical intelligence (test of mathematical analogies) ....... 310
Diagnosis of verbal creativity (adaptation of the test by S. Mednik - adolescent and adult versions) .... 322
BASIC TERMS.................................................................. ...................... 347
Other related news:
Preface to the third edition
It can be generally recognized that the main difficulty in the development of research on abilities is related to the definition of what abilities are. At the everyday, pre-scientific level, the understanding of abilities, it would seem, does not present difficulties. However, the scientific development of the problem of abilities is still to some extent dominated by the opinions that have developed in the previous period. Ever since the time of Aristotle and medieval scholasticism, abilities were considered as some hidden "qualities", "powers", "essences", etc. There is some element of mystery behind the abilities.
And if in 1923 Edouard Claparede, a professor at the University of Geneva, trying to define abilities, noted the complexity of this task and limited himself to the statement that “in the most general form, ability can be defined as any mental and physical property of an individual, taken from the point of view of its practical application ( implementation)”, then 20 years later the Soviet psychologist B. M. Teplov wrote: “I do not intend to give a general theory of giftedness, I do not even propose to develop any hypothesis about what such a theory should be. This is currently not feasible. Moreover, any attempts to compose theories or hypotheses about the nature of giftedness with the stock of positive knowledge that we now possess are harmful. A general theory should be created as a result of a lot of work on the study of specific facts and particular patterns. In the study of giftedness, Soviet psychology is only just starting to do this, and the scientifically processed material that we have is still very small.
Another well-known Soviet psychologist, S. L. Rubinshtein, wrote at the same time: “Abilities ... in the educational arsenal ... often served to get rid of the need to reveal the patterns of mental processes. Therefore, modern scientific psychology has grown to a large extent in the struggle against the psychology of abilities ... In view of this, before introducing the concept of "ability" into the system of psychological science, it is also necessary to outline its true content.
The monograph by V. N. Druzhinin, devoted to the problem of general abilities, was prepared in the framework of the project “Individualization of Education Based on the Personally-Oriented Curriculum of a General Education School” and published in 1995. After that, it was published twice and received the most favorable assessment both from the academic community and from practical educators.
This book contains unique material on the characteristics of the main approaches to the study of general intellectual abilities with a deep author's interpretation and assessment. The author considers theoretical and experimental diagnostic approaches to understanding the essence and structure of the intellect, creativity and its diagnostics, and the development of creative abilities.
Of particular interest are the results of the author's studies of abilities, presented in separate chapters of this work.
The book is also distinguished by the fact that it is written in a clear and scientific language, describes modern tools for diagnosing intelligence and creativity and will be useful for anyone interested in psychology.
Doctor of Psychology, Professor,
Academician of the Russian Academy of Education V. D. Shadrikov
April, 2006
Moscow
From the author (preface to the first edition)
This book is based on a course of lectures that I read at the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University. Lomonosov and the Faculty of Primary School of Moscow School of Management.
However, I tried not to engage in popularization, explaining the “basics”, etc. This book is part of an ongoing dialogue between members of the professional community. Basically, it is written for psychologists and for students of 4-5 courses. I have tried to state the facts, resorting to theoretical interpretations only as necessary. Whether this measure has been observed is for the reader to judge.
We owe the existence and development of the psychology of abilities as a scientific direction of Russian psychology in the Soviet period primarily to B. M. Teplov and his school. It is impossible not to pay tribute to the conscientiousness of the researchers, the wealth of actual results and methodological findings.
The second name is the name of K. K. Platonov, whose book “Problems of Ability” has long been the main guide for teachers and practicing psychologists. Although K. K. Platonov was more of a popularizer than a theorist, and more of a practitioner than an experimenter and methodologist (which affected the content of his monograph), the role of his work in reviving and maintaining the interest of psychologists in the psychological and applied problems of abilities is very great.
In the 60-70s, research work in the field of the psychology of abilities was divided into a number of particular areas: the study of mathematical, mental, literary and other abilities. In this regard, mention should be made of V. D. Shadrikov. Domestic psychology owes him the development and implementation of a number of research programs in the field of professional and general abilities, and most importantly, the resumption of work on understanding the theoretical foundations of the psychology of general abilities.
One could name more than a dozen Russian researchers who contributed to the development of the problems of psychology and psychodiagnostics of abilities. Some of this is done in the book. The authors whose work I, by chance or ignorance, have not mentioned, I hope will forgive me.
The book is devoted, as the title implies, to the problems of psychology and psychodiagnostics of general abilities, therefore, it does not contain a presentation of research and development in the field of psychology of special abilities, psychology of professional abilities, etc. Less attention than we would like is paid to general problems of psychodiagnostics. Practically failed to highlight the problem of learning. The author is not an expert in this field, but the works of domestic and foreign educational psychologists contain enough relevant information.
The author would like to thank post-graduate students and staff members of the laboratory of psychology of abilities of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, whose research provided material for the book: E. G. Alieva, A. N. Voronina, T. V. Galkina, N. M. Gnatko, E. Yu. Samsonova, N. V. Khazratov, L. G. Khusnutdinov, A. E. Chernina, F. M. Yusupova.
I would especially like to thank A. B. Barsukova and E. V. Tolokonnikova for their help in preparing the manuscript for publication.
From the author (preface to the second edition)
In addition to the commercial motivation that is now natural for a Russian scientist, the following considerations prompted me to prepare the second edition. Firstly, some of the material inevitably becomes outdated and needs to be supplemented, reinterpreted, etc. Over the past 5-6 years, psychologists (both in our country and abroad) have obtained new results in the field of the psychology of abilities, creativity, intelligence . The Laboratory for the Psychology of Abilities of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, headed by the author of this book, also actively worked in this direction. In addition, fundamental monographs by V. D. Shadrikov, V. S. Yurkevich, E. A. Golubeva, M. A. Kholodnaya and other authors, as well as collective works edited by N. A. Leites, D. B. Bogoyavlenskaya, which complement and indirectly argue with the content of the book brought to your attention.
Secondly, I took into account the critical remarks made by my colleagues and made corrections to the text, and a number of chapters were completely rewritten and supplemented with new material. I also excluded a number of unjustifiably categorical assessments and conclusions that were present in the text of the first edition: tolerance, unfortunately, comes only with age.
In 1996, the publishing house "Academy" published the book "Psychodiagnostics of General Abilities", which is an abbreviated (by about one third) version of the first edition of "Psychology of General Abilities". Her text contains the same shortcomings, which I already wrote about above.
In this edition, sections devoted to the psychometrics of intelligence, models of intelligence, theories of creativity, and the development of general abilities have been significantly revised and supplemented. The concepts of the structure of general abilities and their development are described in more detail. The work includes materials of the latest research by IPRAN staff and postgraduate students.
I am grateful to the publishing house "Peter" for the invitation to cooperate. To be published in the Masters of Psychology series is an honor that does not correspond to my current scientific achievements. Rather, it corresponds to the importance of scientific problems, which I deal with of my own free will and due to circumstances.
Chapter 1
Problems of psychology of abilities
History of research and development of problems in the psychology of abilities
Experimental psychology was born in the middle of the 19th century. Genetics and experimental physiology, scientific anthropology can be considered her peers, and scientific chemistry and geology can be considered her older sisters (mid-18th century).
The works of science methodologists - O. Comte, G. Spencer, D. S. Mill - only stated the beginning of a new era of civilization based on the achievements of scientific and technological progress, which, in turn, are inconceivable without human creativity and labor.
O. Comte considered rational, “positive” behavior to be a sign of the modern stage in the development of civilization, and the sociologist V. Pareto believed that only a minority was capable of logical-experimental (expedient) behavior even at the end of the 19th century, while the majority behaved irrationally. Nevertheless, the social elite of Europe perceived a rational approach to reality as a norm of behavior. After the great European revolutions and wars, the era of positivism began, ending in the madness of the 20th century.
But back to psychology.
Almost all the main branches of modern fundamental psychology arose at the end of the 19th century: experimental psychology of cognitive processes - in the works of G. Fechner, G. Helmholtz, I. Muller, differential psychology - in the works of D. Cattell, F. Galton, social psychology - in the works E. Durkheim, W. Wundt, V. M. Bekhterev, etc. The psychology of abilities was no exception. We can say that experimental psychology of abilities and psychodiagnostics are twins, and their father is Francis Galton, who, by the way, proposed the twin method in psychogenetic research.
Since any science contains the remnants of irrationalism (“Existing is not divided into reason without a remainder,” said Goethe), the psychology of abilities also needs an initial authority, a “founding father.”
Galton has the right to apply for this role. It was he who became the founder of the empirical approach to solving the problem of abilities, giftedness, talent, proposed the main methods and techniques that researchers use to this day, but most importantly, the main tasks of differential psychology, psychodiagnostics and developmental psychology crystallized in his works, which to this day day are decided by the researchers.
Francis Galton himself could rightfully claim the title of genius. The breadth of Galton's scientific interests and his abilities were extraordinary. Having received medical and biological education, he initially took up geography and meteorology. Fame brought him the discovery of the anticyclone. He later took up forensic science and contributed to fingerprinting.
From the early 1960s, he became fascinated with the idea of the heredity of talent (not without the influence of his cousin Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species).
Galton invented the questionnaire as a research method and surveyed more than 300 members of the English intellectual elite. He believed that talent is a hereditary trait and manifests itself in a number of generations and that, consequently, the social elite is formed on the basis of inherited talent.
Along the way, the scientist invented a lot of psychodiagnostic methods and devices: Galton's whistle for measuring sound-pitch sensitivity, Galton's ruler, the method of free associations, etc. He was the first to study the personal characteristics of a man of science ("An Englishman in Science, His Nature and Upbringing", 1874) .
Galton tried to explain the individual differences between people by the influence of heredity, and it is no coincidence that his work served as the starting point for the development of differential psychology. Two factors - heredity and environment - influence the development of a person. And, in order to reveal the relative influence of heredity and environment during life, in 1876 he proposed using the method of comparing test twins who grew up in the same and different social environments (separated twins).
Specialists in the field of experimental psychosemantics recognize Galton's priority in the study of ordinary ideas about the personal characteristics of people. He suggested that the most basic individual differences - "basic dimensions" - are fixed in speech, and the analysis of ordinary language can provide information about the most significant psychological characteristics of people.
To process experimental results, Galton needed new statistical methods, and together with his cousin Charles Pearson, a well-known mathematician, he developed the foundations of correlation analysis, which allows one to draw a conclusion about the magnitude, as well as patterns or randomness of the relationship between two different personality parameters (for example, intelligence and growth) measured in a group of people.
In the end, Galton came to the conclusion that it is necessary to artificially maintain the intellectual potential in the human community, and was the founder of eugenics.
In 1883, Galton's next work, An Inquiry into Human Faculties and Their Development, was published. Believing that since the time of the Athenian civilization, humanity has been degenerating, he proposed replacing natural selection with artificial. Concerned about the development of the science he created, Galton in 1904 donated a laboratory to University College (it was headed by C. Pearson).
It must be said that the empirical results of Galton's research did not always confirm his theoretical assumptions. So, for example, he was convinced that members of the social elite were both biologically and intellectually superior to members of the social lower classes, and that women were much less talented and smart than men.
In 1884, Galton organized an anthropometric laboratory at the London International Health Exhibition, where each visitor, having paid 3 pence and filled out a questionnaire, could test their intellectual abilities and determine their muscle strength, weight, height, etc. Galton examined over ten thousand subjects. As a result, it turned out that scientists did not differ in any way from ordinary ("average") visitors to the exhibition, and women surpassed men in a number of indicators (including visual acuity).
Galton came to the conclusion that measurement in psychology is possible only on the basis of comparing the spread of measured variables, since the “psychological ruler” has neither an absolute unit nor zero. He formulated a hypothesis about the relationship between the intensity of a mental property and the probability of its manifestation, and thus laid the foundations of psychometrics. Having established that the height of sons depends on the height of the father, but is more closely grouped around the middle of the distribution, he decided to express this relationship graphically and found a regression line. Actually, Charles Pearson only created the apparatus of the mathematical theory of correlation and regression analysis. The idea is entirely Galton's.
Summing up the works of Sir Francis, we highlight a list of problems and methodological approaches that have become the basis of the psychology of abilities as a scientific branch.
The first problem: the development of abilities and their determinants. The main link in the determination of abilities is the ratio of heredity and environment.
The second problem: the relationship of special and general abilities. Galton believed that by measuring the parameters of the simplest mental processes, it is possible to determine the level of a person's creative endowments. In the future, it turned out that the relationship between creativity, intelligence and the simplest cognitive abilities is more complex than it seemed at first.
A third problem is closely related to this problem: the creation of methods for measuring abilities, in a broader sense, methods for measuring the mental properties of an individual. The psychodiagnostics and psychometrics of ability begin with the work of Galton and Pearson.
As I have noted, Galton believed that tests of sensory discrimination could be used to measure a person's intelligence. He approached the idea of the cognitive complexity of the intellect as one of its main characteristics, believing that the field on which our intellect and reason operate is the wider, the better the sense organs respond to external stimuli. Noticing a violation of the ability to distinguish heat, pain, cold in idiocy, he finally became convinced that intellectual giftedness can be determined by sensory distinctive sensitivity.
In the end, the problem of ability structure and the problem of ability measurement turned out to be closely related.
The next most important problem: abilities and activities.
The isomorphism of ability and activity, which boils down to a simple formula: there are as many abilities as there are types of activity, is the primary and naive solution to the problem. Other options, primarily the concept of complex relationships between abilities and activities, are more scientifically based.
To a lesser extent, Galton paid attention to the role of social conditions in the development of abilities. However, later this gap was filled by other researchers. In particular, A. A. Bodalev believes that the social psychology of abilities is today perhaps the main problem area of the psychology of abilities in general.
From his point of view, the main problems that should be solved by a psychologist specializing in this direction are: the influence of micro-, meso- and macro-communities, in which a person is included, on the development of his abilities; establishing a connection between the formation of abilities and a change in social roles (note that there is also a feedback: abilities determine social status and role); the impact of evaluation standards and public opinion, as well as various forms of encouragement on the development of abilities; the study of the prestige of abilities, which is formed by the media.
The development of society is associated with a change in attitudes towards various abilities.
Perhaps the most detailed classification of the tasks of the social psychology of abilities is given by the same Bodalev.
The main task of social psychology, from his point of view, is to trace the relationships: the social need for certain abilities - the conditions for their development - the real development of abilities.
Society for the individual is just the conditions to which it either adapts, modifies itself, or transforms these conditions, or seeks a new environment (another "corner" of society).
From my point of view, "social need" is nothing more than a metaphor. And it is not she who is the driving force in relation to the abilities of a person, not to mention science, but personal motivation. The recognition of the need to psychologically test children who are unable to cope with regular schooling and send them to special classes by the French Ministry of Public Education is the result of many years of efforts by Alfred Binet. Society (or rather, its institutions) can, at best, become receptive to certain ideas and plans, but in no way form requirements.
Even the formulation of the problem of social development is the result of the activity of individual creative individuals. One can, of course, imagine sensitivity to certain ideas as a manifestation of the presence of a “need” in society, but it is better then to interpret “social need” as a metaphor, a replacement for the concept of “social problem”.
The list of problems, of course, is not exhausted by the above. In the book offered to the attention of readers, only the problems of the structure, diagnosis and development of general abilities will be considered: intelligence, creativity and, to a lesser extent, learning ability.
General ability problems (intelligence, learning, creativity)
The habit of starting with definitions, introduced into our psyche by the German scientific tradition, which traces its ancestry (through Hegel) to medieval scholasticism, forces us to give definitions of concepts at the beginning of the exposition. Although K. Popper believes that the definitions of concepts are the results of scientific communication, and not its prerequisite, it is customary to give an interpretation of the basic concepts before presenting the main material.
“Ability” is one of the most general psychological concepts. In domestic psychology, many authors gave him detailed definitions. In particular, S. L. Rubinshtein understood abilities as “... a complex synthetic formation, which includes a number of data, without which a person would not be capable of any specific activity, and properties that only in the process of organized activity in a certain way are being developed." Similar statements can be found in other authors.
B. M. Teplov singled out three signs of abilities, which formed the basis of the definition most often used by specialists: 1) abilities are individual psychological characteristics that distinguish one person from another; 2) only those features that are relevant to the success of the activity or several activities; 3) abilities are not reducible to knowledge, skills and abilities that have already been developed by a person, although they determine the ease and speed of their acquisition.
Thus, the field of psychology of abilities is a section of the psychology of individual differences (differential psychology).
Naturally, the success of the performance of an activity is determined by both motivation and personal characteristics, which prompted K. K. Platonov to attribute to abilities any properties of the psyche that to one degree or another determine success in a particular activity. However, B. M. Teplov goes further and points out that, in addition to success in activities, the ability determines the speed and ease of mastering this or that activity, and this changes the situation with the definition: the speed of learning may depend on motivation, but the feeling of ease in learning (in other words, “subjective price”, experiencing difficulties) is rather inversely proportional to motivational tension.
So, the more a person’s ability is developed, the more successfully he performs the activity, the faster he masters it, and the process of mastering the activity and the activity itself are subjectively easier for him than training or work in the area in which he does not have the ability.
This ability formula can be expressed in objective form:
or in subjective form:
That is, the incapable one sheds more sweat and tears than the capable one, to whom everything comes easier.
The question arises, what is this mental essence - abilities? One indication of behavioral and subjective manifestations of it is not enough.
This issue is considered in most detail in the works of V. D. Shadrikov. He comes to the conclusion that the concept of "ability" is a psychological concretization of the category of property. The property of what “thing” is ability? According to V. D. Shadrikov, the most general concept that describes psychological reality is the concept of a mental functional system, the process of functioning of which (mental process) ensures the achievement of some useful result.
Hence, “... abilities can be defined as properties of functional systems that implement individual mental functions, having an individual measure of severity, manifested in the success and qualitative originality of the development and implementation of individual mental functions. When determining an individual measure of the severity of abilities, it is advisable to adhere to the same parameters as when characterizing any activity: productivity, quality and reliability (in relation to the function under consideration) ".
Since any mental process (including cognitive) is a temporal characteristic of the functioning of the corresponding system, V. D. Shadrikov singles out the abilities of thinking, perception, memory, and so on. Abilities, according to Shadrikov, are general in the sense of being related to specific types of activity: from this point of view, there are no “flying”, “culinary”, “musical”, “pedagogical” and other abilities. But it remains unclear, if we think in terms of Shadrikov, are there functional mental systems more general than those that correspond to individual cognitive processes described in textbooks on general psychology?
The purpose of this book is a presentation of the theoretical foundations of the psychology of the general abilities of a person (intelligence, learning ability, creativity). It analyzes the most famous and influential models of intelligence (R. Cattell, C. Spearman, L. Thurstone, D. Wexler, J. Gilford, G. Eysenck, E. P. Torrens, etc.), as well as data from the latest and classical experiments in the field of the study of general abilities, describes the modern tools for the psychodiagnostics of intelligence and creativity. The appendix contains the original methodological developments of the laboratory headed by the author at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Informative richness, correct presentation, integrity of the author's scientific position will certainly attract the attention of everyone who is interested in psychology, pedagogy, sociology to this book.
General intellectual abilities.
The term "intelligence", in addition to its scientific meaning (which each theorist has his own), like an old cruiser with shells, has acquired an endless number of everyday and popularizing interpretations. Abstracting the works of the authors, which in one way or another concerned this subject, would take more than one hundred pages. Therefore, we will conduct a brief review and choose the most appropriate interpretation of the concept of "intelligence".
The main criterion for distinguishing the intellect as an independent reality is its function in the regulation of behavior. When they talk about intelligence as a certain ability, they primarily rely on its adaptive significance for humans and higher animals. Intelligence, as V. Stern believed, is a certain general ability to adapt to new living conditions. An adaptive act (according to Stern) is a solution to a life task carried out through action with a mental (“mental”) equivalent of an object, through “action in the mind” (or, according to Ya. A. Ponomarev, “in the internal plan of action”). Thanks to this, the subject solves a certain problem here and now without external behavioral trials, correctly and one-time: trials, testing of hypotheses are carried out in the “internal plan of action”.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface to the third edition 3
From author 5
From author 7
Chapter 1. PROBLEMS OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ABILITIES 9
History of research and development of problems in the psychology of abilities 9
Problems of general abilities (intelligence, learning, creativity) 14
Literature 17
Chapter 2. GENERAL INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES 18
Factor Models of Intelligence 25
Model Ch. Spearman 26
Model L. Thurstone 29
Model J. Gilford 30
R. B. Cattell Model 31
Other hierarchical models (S. Barth, D. Wexler, F. Vernoy, L. Humphreys) 35
Monometric approach 37
Cognitive models of intelligence 41
Model R. Sternberg 42
Other cognitive models 47
The concept of mental experience M.A. Kholodnaya 49
Literature 54
Chapter 3. DIAGNOSIS OF INTELLIGENCE 56
Psychometric remarks 56
Progressive matrices J. Raven 63
D. Wexler test 66
Intelligence Structure Tests 77
Literature 84
Chapter 4. DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLIGENCE 85
Psychogenetics of general abilities 85
The influence of the environment on the development of intelligence 98
Development of intelligence and special
cognitive abilities throughout life 106
Software Literature
Chapter 5. INTELLIGENCE IN THE STRUCTURE OF PSYCHE 112
Psychophysiology of intelligence 112
Model A. N. Lebedeva 115
Functional asymmetry of the brain and abilities 117
Russian school of differential psychophysiology 122
Abilities of a woman and a man 125
Personality and intelligence 131
Literature 138
Chapter 6. SUBJECTIVE PARADIGM IN RESEARCH OF ABILITIES. IMPLICIT THEORIES OF ABILITIES 140
Ordinary theories of personality and ideas about intelligence 140
Investigations into Ordinary Concepts of Ability 144
Psychosemantic model of representation of abilities in consciousness 149
Literature 156
Chapter 7. GENERAL CREATIVITY 158
Creativity and activity 158
The problem of creativity.
The concept of reducing creativity to intelligence 170
Creative personality and her life path 173
Creativity and its diagnostics 185
Concept of Creativity by J. Gilford and E. P. Torrens 185
The concept of M. Vollach and N. Kogan 190
Concept by S. Mednik 193
"Investment Theory" by R. Sternberg 198
The approach of V. N. Druzhinin and N. V. Khazratova 201
Literature 210
Chapter 8. DEVELOPING CREATIVITY 213
Psychogenetics of creativity 213
Formation of creativity and learning 219
Learnability, creativity and intelligence 241
Literature 244
Chapter 9. STRUCTURE OF GENERAL ABILITIES 246
General intelligence and school performance 247
General intelligence and professional activity 250
General intelligence and creativity 252
"One-dimensional model" 254
The structure of general intelligence. Implicative Model 257
4D model 261
The dependence of academic achievement on the level of development of individual
intellectual abilities 264
Literature 266
AFTERWORD 268
APPS 278
Diagnosis of the structure of intelligence (R. Amthauer test) 278
Diagnosis of non-verbal creativity (short version of the Torrens test) 283
Diagnostics of mathematical intelligence (test of mathematical analogies) 312
Diagnostics of verbal creativity
(adaptation of the test by S. Mednik - adolescent and adult versions) 324
BASIC TERMS 349.
It can be generally recognized that the main difficulty in the development of research on abilities is related to the definition of what abilities are. At the everyday, pre-scientific level, the understanding of abilities, it would seem, does not present difficulties. However, the scientific development of the problem of abilities is still to some extent dominated by the opinions that have developed in the previous period. Ever since the time of Aristotle and medieval scholasticism, abilities were considered as some hidden "qualities", "powers", "essences", etc. There is some element of mystery behind the abilities.
And if in 1923 Edouard Claparede, a professor at the University of Geneva, trying to define abilities, noted the complexity of this task and limited himself to the statement that “in the most general form, ability can be defined as any mental and physical property of an individual, taken from the point of view of its practical application ( implementation)”, then 20 years later the Soviet psychologist B. M. Teplov wrote: “I do not intend to give a general theory of giftedness, I do not even propose to develop any hypothesis about what such a theory should be. This is currently not feasible. Moreover, any attempts to compose theories or hypotheses about the nature of giftedness with the stock of positive knowledge that we now possess are harmful. A general theory should be created as a result of a lot of work on the study of specific facts and particular patterns. In the study of giftedness, Soviet psychology is only just starting to do this, and the scientifically processed material that we have is still very small.
Another well-known Soviet psychologist, S. L. Rubinshtein, wrote at the same time: “Abilities ... in the educational arsenal ... often served to get rid of the need to reveal the patterns of mental processes. Therefore, modern scientific psychology has grown to a large extent in the struggle against the psychology of abilities ... In view of this, before introducing the concept of "ability" into the system of psychological science, it is also necessary to outline its true content.
The monograph by V. N. Druzhinin, devoted to the problem of general abilities, was prepared in the framework of the project “Individualization of Education Based on the Personally-Oriented Curriculum of a General Education School” and published in 1995. After that, it was published twice and received the most favorable assessment both from the academic community and from practical educators.
This book contains unique material on the characteristics of the main approaches to the study of general intellectual abilities with a deep author's interpretation and assessment. The author considers theoretical and experimental diagnostic approaches to understanding the essence and structure of the intellect, creativity and its diagnostics, and the development of creative abilities.
The book is also distinguished by the fact that it is written in a clear and scientific language, describes modern tools for diagnosing intelligence and creativity and will be useful for anyone interested in psychology.
Doctor of Psychology, Professor,
Academician of the Russian Academy of Education V. D. Shadrikov
April, 2006
Moscow
This book is based on a course of lectures that I read at the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University. Lomonosov and the Faculty of Primary School of Moscow School of Management.
However, I tried not to engage in popularization, explaining the “basics”, etc. This book is part of an ongoing dialogue between members of the professional community. Basically, it is written for psychologists and for students of 4-5 courses. I have tried to state the facts, resorting to theoretical interpretations only as necessary. Whether this measure has been observed is for the reader to judge.
We owe the existence and development of the psychology of abilities as a scientific direction of Russian psychology in the Soviet period primarily to B. M. Teplov and his school. It is impossible not to pay tribute to the conscientiousness of the researchers, the wealth of actual results and methodological findings.
The second name is the name of K. K. Platonov, whose book “Problems of Ability” has long been the main guide for teachers and practicing psychologists. Although K. K. Platonov was more of a popularizer than a theorist, and more of a practitioner than an experimenter and methodologist (which affected the content of his monograph), the role of his work in reviving and maintaining the interest of psychologists in the psychological and applied problems of abilities is very great.
In the 60-70s, research work in the field of the psychology of abilities was divided into a number of particular areas: the study of mathematical, mental, literary and other abilities. In this regard, mention should be made of V. D. Shadrikov. Domestic psychology owes him the development and implementation of a number of research programs in the field of professional and general abilities, and most importantly, the resumption of work on understanding the theoretical foundations of the psychology of general abilities.
One could name more than a dozen Russian researchers who contributed to the development of the problems of psychology and psychodiagnostics of abilities. Some of this is done in the book. The authors whose work I, by chance or ignorance, have not mentioned, I hope will forgive me.
The book is devoted, as the title implies, to the problems of psychology and psychodiagnostics of general abilities, therefore, it does not contain a presentation of research and development in the field of psychology of special abilities, psychology of professional abilities, etc. Less attention than we would like is paid to general problems of psychodiagnostics. Practically failed to highlight the problem of learning. The author is not an expert in this field, but the works of domestic and foreign educational psychologists contain enough relevant information.
The author would like to thank post-graduate students and staff members of the laboratory of psychology of abilities of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, whose research provided material for the book: E. G. Alieva, A. N. Voronina, T. V. Galkina, N. M. Gnatko, E. Yu. Samsonova, N. V. Khazratov, L. G. Khusnutdinov, A. E. Chernina, F. M. Yusupova.
I would especially like to thank A. B. Barsukova and E. V. Tolokonnikova for their help in preparing the manuscript for publication.
In addition to the commercial motivation that is now natural for a Russian scientist, the following considerations prompted me to prepare the second edition. Firstly, some of the material inevitably becomes outdated and needs to be supplemented, reinterpreted, etc. Over the past 5-6 years, psychologists (both in our country and abroad) have obtained new results in the field of the psychology of abilities, creativity, intelligence . The Laboratory for the Psychology of Abilities of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, headed by the author of this book, also actively worked in this direction. In addition, fundamental monographs by V. D. Shadrikov, V. S. Yurkevich, E. A. Golubeva, M. A. Kholodnaya and other authors, as well as collective works edited by N. A. Leites, D. B. Bogoyavlenskaya, which complement and indirectly argue with the content of the book brought to your attention.
Secondly, I took into account the critical remarks made by my colleagues and made corrections to the text, and a number of chapters were completely rewritten and supplemented with new material. I also excluded a number of unjustifiably categorical assessments and conclusions that were present in the text of the first edition: tolerance, unfortunately, comes only with age.
In 1996, the publishing house "Academy" published the book "Psychodiagnostics of General Abilities", which is an abbreviated (by about one third) version of the first edition of "Psychology of General Abilities". Her text contains the same shortcomings, which I already wrote about above.
