ABSTRACT

IN the last chapter we discussed the measurement of intelli­ gence without raising the question of different kinds of ability. But we would like to know whether ability is generalized or specialized, and whether the intelligence tests give an adequate measure of a person’s all-round intellectual ability. When a person is described as a Very able individual’, or another as having ‘little ability’, there is an underlying assumption that individuals differ in their general all-round ability. Quite a different assumption is implied when a politician is said to possess great oratorical ability, but little ability in administration, or when an athlete is said to have greater ability in running than in pole-vaulting, or when a young woman is said to have a gift for salesmanship or for millinery. With all these special abilities, the question is whether there is any such thing as general ability. This is one of the questions to be investigated in a scientific study of individual differences. It is part of the broader question how different abilities are related to each other and to success in different lines of activity.