Investigating Intelligence

by Jovan Byford, Jean McAvoy, Philip Banyard

In everyday language, the word intelligence is commonly used to describe the kind of qualities and abilities we associate with being smart or clever . one of the central assumptions about human intelligence has been that it can be measured. This focus on measurement has shaped much of the way in which intelligence research has developed. In some quarters, intelligence, and particularly the measurement of intelligence, is seen as one of psychology s greatest success stories. Throughout this book we will explore the three main definitions of intelligence, namely the abilities that enable a person to function effectively, the fact that intelligence varies between people and that intelligence is important as it deals with the challenges we face in life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology

129 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Jovan Byford is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the Open University in the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Works fine as an introduction to intelligence, but I found myself getting frustrated with it. It introduces topics and then vaguely covers them, I ended up doing a lot of my own research to help me fully comprehend some of the arguments in the book.
However, as much as I have complaints about the way in which the subject matter was approached it does do one very important thing: it gives you an understanding of the importance of investigation in psychology and shows you some practical ways to implement research methods; why is primarily the purpose of this textbook anyway.

[Caroline Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as part of my psychology degree. Intelligence wasn’t a topic that I found particularly interesting. I found the book biased again intelligence testing - I was expecting more balance from an intro uni text. However the example of intelligence testing did yield insight into how psychology research is a product of its time and that debates are common in this field.

[Tiago F · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very excited about this book, but it was disappointing.

First of all, it was insanely short. It never reached a decent amount of in-depth in pretty much anything. While of course this somewhat unavoidable with a short length, given that it's supposed to be an introduction, it nevertheless made it feel pointless. I felt like I just read a Wikipedia article, although even would likely be less superficial.

Besides its lack of in-depth, its content wasn't that great either. For one, it focused way too much on the history and origins of IQ testing. While that has some interest, it has very little relevance to how they're done today or their validity. It didn't even touch on a lot of evidence supporting and validating IQ, giving the impression it was often biased. For example, it mentioned twin studies, offering some pros and cons of those studies, which were valid. However, it didn't mention some important pros, like the fact that twins get closer and closer apart in IQ as they age. It also didn't explain the statistical methods behind psychometrics, which make it very powerful and back up their validity. Factor analysis, for example, wasn't mentioned once, which is embarrassing for a book on intelligence that focuses so much on IQ. Beyond IQ, it also didn't touch much on the nature of intelligence, which I expected (and think it should to some degree) to be the main theme of the book. It also discussed very little actual scientific evidence about IQ in general.

In addition, I felt it was lacking on the ethics behind the value of intelligence, and also how IQ testing was used for eugenics. While it touched on the problems of IQ testing, it was more from a sociology perspective, and not a historical one. While eugenics was mentioned a couple times, it was never explored.

Overall, it left a lot to be desired. While there were many sections that were very reasonable, some weren't. Given it's a textbook, high standards should apply, and this book didn't meet them.

[Erno Berezvay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to read this book because the subject 'intelligence' came up many times during my readings, but I never had the chance to read a 'whole book' about it.
Unfortunately, the authors were clearly militant about the idea of IQ, while the same standards were lowered at emotional intelligence. The redefinition of IQ as 'distance' was a great line of thought, unfortunately not well elaborated with its mere 2,5 pages volume...There was no proper discussion about the predictive power of IQ in today's labour market, financial 'success', or socio-economic status; in general, if it is not useful why would anyone use it. The objections for IQ tests were vague and simply resolved by renaming to socio-economic predictor in modern societies. The Flynn-effect was omitted, only a short reference from Flynn was cited. The heritability part had no mentioning about the fact the IQ tends to converge to the parents as people get older.

[Alasdair Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introductory book, but with a few niggles around representation of sources, e.g. such and such a study covers all of UK, when in fact it's written for and based on one region only; NB authors: England and UK are not interchangeable terms.

Much was made of the potential pitfalls of IQ testing, which was engaging and interesting, but very little in a similar vein was done for emotional intelligence; of course, this could be due to the relative novelty of EI testing.

Lazy authorship and occasional reliance on weak sources let this book down.

[Liv · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a frustrating read for my course I’ll be honest. Like another review said, it seemed to introduce concepts but then not go into detail? What’s the point of that?
I like the premise of the book, but it could’ve gone into more detail I’ll be honest.
Really to summarise it was like terrible sex - short, disappointing and I wouldn’t put myself through it again unless you paid me.

[Bliss R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this as part of my university module, it's a nice book to start off with and contains information on the history of Intelligence.
Interesting and engaging, it has relevant names of key professionals and gives you background knowledge to provoke thoughts on the relevance of intelligence testing.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my degree

[David Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adaquete introduction to the study of intelligence. However, the authors clearly did not want to entertain the valid evidence underpinning the predictive power of IQ.

[Lozzy Lozbuds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent introduction to intelligence but to me a bit of an odd starter for a psychology course.

[Aurora Lovegood · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a good introduction to the subject but the authors are clearly biased and it’s in general very broad. It was enjoyable studying it.

[Charlie Ronayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reading this book as part of my psychology module for my degree and I have found it helpful and fascinating as it talks about how intelligence is tested and the many forms of intelligence.

[Micha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of an Open University module: DE100 Investigating Psychology 1

[Michelle Lloyd]

A good introductory book that has given me things to further read up on and investigate.

[Lana May · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fascinating and eye opening. What most suspect intelligence to be could not be further from the truth.

[Emma]

Read for uni