ABSTRACT

In the years since the publication of the Primary Mental Abilities monograph (Thurstone, 1938) psychometrists and factor analysts have tended to lose sight of the general factor in intelligence. This has been more true of research workers in the United States than in the United Kingdom, where Burt (1941) and Vernon (1950) retained the construct of general intelligence while accepting group factors as well. In contrast to this disregard or even disrepute of the construct among research persons working in the domain of human abilities, the dominant point of view among clinical psychologists (Wechsler, 1971) has been quite different. Clinicians have retained the use of intelligence tests for the very good reason that an IQ or its deviation equivalent constitutes an important piece of information about a child or adult. It is more important than the variation in the profile of scores on a battery of primary ability tests.