g: Highly General and Highly Practical
Abstract
The general mental ability factor, g, is real. Its existence is no longer a serious question among experts on intelligence (Carroll, 1993). Whatever its underlying nature, psychometric g is a reliably measured, replicable phenomenon across all age, race, gender, and cultural groups studied so far (Jensen, 1998). Consequently, among intelligence researchers, it has become the most common working definition of “intelligence.” A more important question today is: How generally useful are higher levels of g outside the realm of paper-and-pencil tests and tasks? The term intelligence connotes a very general and broadly useful capacity. Is that the label warranted for g? Even if it is, might not the label be warranted for other abilities too, leaving g as only one among various intelligences?
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g is widely interpreted as general mental ability.
“g is widely interpreted as general mental ability.107”
From Personality Psychology and Economics (2011) · cites this paper as Gottfredson [2002]
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Kane, M. J., Brown, L. H., McVay, J. C., Silvia, P. J., Myin-Germeys, I., & Kwapil, T. R. (2007) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01948.x · Cited by 979 · see citing works
Universal intelligence: a definition of machine intelligence
Legg, S., & Hutter, M. (2007) · Minds and Machines · doi:10.1007/s11023-007-9079-x · Cited by 803 · see citing works
Gottfredson, L. S. (2004) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.174 · Cited by 580 · see citing works
Self-citationPersonality Psychology and Economics
Almlund, M., Duckworth, A. L., Heckman, J., & Kautz, T. (2011) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w16822 · Cited by 540 · see citing works
Duckworth, A. L., Quinn, P. D., & Tsukayama, E. (2012) · Journal of Educational Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0026280 · Cited by 416 · see citing works
Score gains on g-loaded tests: No g
te Nijenhuis, J., van Vianen, A. E. M., & van der Flier, H. (2007) · Intelligence · doi:10.1016/j.intell.2006.07.006 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
What if the hereditarian hypothesis is true?
Gottfredson, L. S. (2005) · Psychology, Public Policy, and Law · doi:10.1037/1076-8971.11.2.311 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Gottfredson, L. S.
- Corresponding author
- Linda S. Gottfredson
- ORCID
- Linda S. Gottfredson
- Venue
- The General Factor of Intelligence
- Publisher
- Psychology Press
- Published
- 2002-05-01
- Pages
- 343-392
- OpenAlex
- W2996369178
- Cited by
- 157
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2024: 6 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 20.50
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychology Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- general intelligence factor, generalizability theory, intelligence, practical intelligence, multiple intelligences
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