First, compose a short story that shows your main character behaving in ways that illustrates either a general theory (Spearman) or a multiple theory (Thurstone, Gardener, Sternberg) of intelligence. Explain exactly how it is your story demonstrates one conceptualization of intelligence over the other (either as a general mental ability that supports many more specific mental abilities or as multiple dissociable mental abilities). What you want to ask yourself is: what critical observation about my character’s behavior would strongly suggest one conceptualization of intelligence is correct and the other is not? Second, clearly differentiate between the concepts of reliability and validity and illustrate each within the domain of intelligence testing in two ways: 1) by creating a hypothetical scenario (a short story you make up showing the reliability and validity of intelligence testing), and 2) by describing empirical work (studies from my lecture notes or the textbook showing the reliability and validity of intelligence testing).
Third, reflecting on the activities we engaged in during lecture, discuss how culture constructs intelligence and the associated difficulties in creating a culture-free intelligence test. Be sure to address the following in your discussion: 1) differences in the meaning of intelligence across cultures, 2) the inextricable association between content (what we learn) and process (how we learn), and 3) how sociocultural contingencies (i.e., what’s important or not important to a group of people) shape mental abilities. Please be sure to illustrate each of these points with relevant empirical work (See studies posted in Supplementary Lecture Notes).
Try to answer each question in a page (if you go over a little, that’s fine). Otherwise, make sure your paper is typed, double-spaced, with 12-point font.