Thurstone's Multiple Factor Theory (P.M.A.) Explained

Research Method: Spearman's Theory of Intelligence vs Thurstone's Theory of Intelligence HomePsychologyThurstone’sMultipleFactorTheory(P.M.A.)Explained PrevArticle NextArticle LouisLeonThurstoneproposedhismultiple-factortheoryofintelligencein1938.Beforethistheorywasintroduced,thenotionoftheg-factor,i.e.,generalintelligence,whichhadbeenproposedbyaBritishPsychologist,CharlesSpearman,wasmoreprevalent.Thurstonebringstheconceptofmultiplefactorsassociatedwithhumanintelligenceinsteadofasinglefactor,i.e.,generalintelligence.Hestatedthateveryindividualpossessesdifferentlevelsofsevenprimarymentalabilities,i.e.,wordfluency,verbalfactor,numericalfactor,inductivereasoning,memory,spatialvisualization,andperceptualspeed.We’lldiscussThurstone’stheoryandthesevenprimarymentalabilitiesinthisarticle. IndexofArticle(ClicktoJump) BackgroundandHistoryThurstone’sTheoryofIntelligencei.TheNumericalFactorii.TheVerbalFactoriii.TheSpaceFactoriv.Memoryv.TheVerbalFluency/WordFluencyFactorvi.TheInductiveReasoningFactorvii.PerceptualSpeedFactorviii.TheDeductiveReasoningFactorix.Problem-SolvingAbilityFactorResearchMethod:Spearman’sTheoryofIntelligencevsThurstone’sTheoryofIntelligenceSignificanceandEducationalImplicationsofThurstone’sTheory BackgroundandHistory LouisLeonThurstone LouisLeonThurstonewasanAmericanPsychologist,whowasbornon29May1887inChicago,USA.Initially,hewasinterestedinengineeringandmathematicsthatinspiredhimtodoanelectricalengineeringdegreefromCornellUniversity,NewYork.HeworkedforThomasEdisonasanassistantforashortperiod,andin1912,hestartedteachingattheUniversityofMinnesota,Minneapolis.Duringhisteachingperiod,hedevelopedhisinterestinthepsychologyoflearning.Aftercompletinghisdoctorateinpsychologyin1917,hestartedworkingasthechairmanofthepsychologydepartmentattheCarnegieInstituteofTechnology.Later,hebecameaprofessorattheUniversityofChicago.Thurstonehadakeeninterestinunderstandingandexplainingthevariouspsychologicalphenomenoninascientificmannerthatledhimandhisfollowerstoestablishthe‘ThePsychometricSociety’(psychologicalmeasurementlab)inChicagoin1935;thissocietypromotedtheideaof‘PsychologyasaQuantitativeRationalScience.’Heisfamousforhiscontributiontothefactoranalysistechniqueanddevelopmentofpsychometrics.Psychometricsinvolvesthescientificmeasurementofvariousmentalprocesses,andfactoranalysisisastatisticalmethodusedtofindthecorrelationamongthedifferentvariables.ThefactoranalysismethodwasoriginallyusedbyCharlesEdwardSpearman;Thurstonedidfurtheradvancementsinthismethod,whichhelpedhimestablishvariouspsychometricmethodsanddevelophismulti-factortheoryofintelligence.Hedevelopedthe‘PrimaryMentalAbilityTest’(1938)thatmeasuresthevariousfactorsrelatedtohumanintelligence.Hepublishedvarietiesofbooksandmonographs,andsomeofthemare‘TheNatureofIntelligence,’‘TheMeasurementofAttitude,’‘ThevectorofMind,’‘PrimaryMentalAbilities,’and‘Multiple-factorAnalysis.’In1952,ThurstonshiftedhisPsychometricslabofChicagototheUniversityofNorthCarolina,andheworkedasaprofessorthereuntilhisdeathon29September1955. Thurstone’sTheoryofIntelligence Thurstone’smulti-factortheoryofintelligenceisbasedonthegeneralizedconcepts,formulas,andmethodsusedbySpearmaninhisTwo-factorTheoryofintelligence.ThurstoneusedthenewadvancedtechniqueoffactoranalysestoSpearman’sfactoranalysistechniquetounderstandthevariousfactorsrelatedtohumanintelligence.Inhisresearch,heconducted57psychologicalmentalabilitiestestsonthegroupofsubjectsandexaminedthetestsscoresofthesesubjectsthroughtheinter-correlationtechniqueandmatrixalgebra.TheconclusionderivedbyThurstoneaboutthenatureofintellectualabilitieswasdifferentfromthatofSpearman’sconclusion.Basedonthegathereddata,Thurstonestatedthatthereexistsevendifferentmentalabilitiesfactors,andhecalledthemtheprimarymentalabilities(P.M.A.).Herejectedtoacceptthegeneralintelligenceorg-factorofSpearman’stheorybecauseThurstone’ssevenmentalabilitiesfittedbetterpertheobtaineddataascomparedtoSpearman’sgeneralintelligence(g-factor).AccordingtoSpearman,thereexistsageneralfactorcalledtheg-factorthatiscommontoalltheintellectualabilitiesoftheperson.However,Thurstonestatedthathumanintellectualabilitiesarediverse,andheestablishedhismulti-factortheoryofintelligence(1935)thatfocusesonthesevendifferentprimarymentalabilities.Hestatedthateveryindividualpossessesdifferentlevelsofthesesevenfactors,andtheselevelsdonotdependoneachother,andeachoftheseabilitiescanbeevaluatedseparately.Hesuggestedfocusingontheindividual’sscoresinvariousmentalabilitiesinsteadoffocusingonlyontheintelligencequotientoftheperson.Letusdiscussthesesevenprimarymentalabilityfactors. SevenPrimaryMentalAbilitiesofThurstone’sIntelligenceTheory i.TheNumericalFactor Itinvolvestheabilityofanindividualtodoquickandaccuratenumericalcomputations.Itcanbemeasuredbycheckingtheaccuracyandspeedofthepersoninsolvingvariousarithmeticproblems. ii.TheVerbalFactor Itreferstotheabilityofthepersontounderstandandusevariouswords,sentences,language,orotherverbalcontentpieces.Thisabilitycanbeassessedthroughvocabularytests,jumblewordtests,andverbalorreadingcomprehensiontests. iii.TheSpaceFactor Itreferstothespatialvisualizationoftheperson.Thisabilitycomesintoplaywhenthepersontriestounderstandthemanipulationofvariousreal/imaginaryobjectsinspace.Thetestthatmeasuresthisabilityinvolvessolvingvariouskindsofpuzzles,understandingvariousgeometricfigures,andidentifyingthecorrectmirrorimageoftheobject,orchoosingthecorrectimageoftheobjectwhenitisrotatedbydifferentangles. SpatialVisualizationAbilityTest iv.Memory Itreferstotheabilityofthepersontoquicklymemorizethevariousconceptsorphenomenaandretainingthemforalongerperiodoftime.Variousmemorytestslikeaskingtheparticipantstolearnnonsensesyllables,andtheirabilitytorememberthemcouldbeameasureoftheirmemoryfactor.Theabilitytorecallthelearnedconceptsbythestudentsduringtheexamsislargelydependentonthisprimarymentalabilityfactor. v.TheVerbalFluency/WordFluencyFactor Whenapersonisaskedtorapidlyspeakseveralisolatedwordsorsentences,thenverbalfluencycomesintoplay;apersonwithhighverbalfluencymayexcelinthistask,whilethepersonwithlowverbalfluencymayhavedifficultyinthistask.Thisfactorisresponsibleforthecommunicationskillsoftheperson.Theteststomeasurethisfactormayinvolveaskingparticipantstorapidlythinkofwordsthatbeginorendwithaspecificletter. vi.TheInductiveReasoningFactor Thisreasoninginvolvestheabilitytodeduceageneralprinciplefromaspecificconcept.Thisabilityismeasuredthroughvarioustestslikenumberseries,wordseries,andclassificationofwordsornumbers.Theinductivereasoningtestsmayinvolveselectinganappropriatenumberorimageaccordingtothesequentialorderofthegivennumbersorimagesseries. InductiveReasoningTest vii.PerceptualSpeedFactor Itinvolvestheabilityofapersontorapidlyrecognizeandcomparethespecificimages,numbers,orletters,andtoaccuratelyproofreadvarioustypesofcontent.Testslikepicturerecognition,rapidlycrossingspecificlettersfromtheseriesofnumbers,andfindingparticularwordsintheparagraphsareusedtomeasuretheperceptualspeedfactoroftheperson. Onfurtherresearchofhismulti-factortheoryofintelligence,Thurstoneaddedtwomorefactorsinhissevenprimarymentalabilities,andthesearegivenbelow. viii.TheDeductiveReasoningFactor Itinvolvestheabilitytoaccuratelyunderstandaspecificphenomenonorconceptfromthegeneralizedprinciple.Variousaptitudetestsareavailabletotestthedeductivereasoningofthepersonthatincludesthevarioussetofstatements,andthepersonhastochoosethebestpossiblelogicalsolutionaccordingtothegivenstatements. DeductiveReasoningTest ix.Problem-SolvingAbilityFactor Itreferstotheabilityofapersontosolvevariousgeneraloraptitudeproblems.Thisfactorcanbeassessedbyanalyzingtheindividual’sresponsestovarioushypotheticalproblems,andtheirabilitytoreachtheconclusion. ResearchMethod:Spearman’sTheoryofIntelligencevsThurstone’sTheoryofIntelligence HansEysenck,aBritishpsychologistknownforhisworkinthepsychologyofintellectualdevelopmentandpersonality,explainedthevariationsintheconclusionderivedfromThurstoneandSpearman.Hesaidthattheconflictbetweenthetwofindingsisbecauseofthedifferencesintheresearchtechniqueofboththeories.Firstly,itmaybebecauseofvariationinthesamplepopulationofboththeories.Spearmanconductedhisresearchonrandompeoplethatusuallyconsistedofchildren,whileThurston’sresearchsampleonlyconsistedofstudents.Thesecondreasonmaybebecauseofthedifferentchoicesofvariousmentaltestsusedintheirresearch.TheteststhatSpearmanusedinhisstudywerequitedifferentfromeachotherbecauseifthetestswereidenticaltoeachother,the“s”factor(specificability)mayhaveoverlapped,whichwouldhaveresultedinadditionalcorrelationsamongthedifferentvariables,whiletheteststhatThurstoneusedinhisresearchwerealmostidenticalwitheachother.AccordingtoThurstone’stheoryofintelligence,thesevenprimarymentalabilitiesareindependentofeachother,butwhenThurstoneconductedhisprimarymentalabilitiestestsonthegroupofchildrenwithheterogeneousintellectualabilities,hefailedtoprovethatthesevenprimarymentalabilitieswereseparatefromeachother,instead,hediscoveredthepresenceofthegfactor.Hefurtherdidthestatisticalanalysisandmanagedtoexplainthiscontradiction.Heproposedthatthereexistboththegeneralfactorandsevenprimaryspecificmentalabilities.Thisfinalinterpretationofhistheoryhelpedtheotherpsychologistsdevelopvarioushierarchicalandmultipleintelligencetheories.Hence,wecannotsaythatThurstone’stheoryfullychallengesthe‘generalintelligence’conceptofSpearman’stwo-factortheoryofintelligence. SignificanceandEducationalImplicationsofThurstone’sTheory Thurstone’stheoryexplainsthatpeoplepossessdifferenttypesofmentalabilities.Thishelpstheteachersunderstandtheintelligencelevelsofthestudentsbyanalyzingtheirdifferentprimarymentalabilitiesthroughvariousmentalabilitytests. AsstatedbyThurstone,eachprimarymentalabilityisindependentoftheother,andpeoplehavedifferentdegreesoftheseabilitiesinthem.Theteachercantrytoimprovethedifferentprimarymentalabilitiesofthestudentsbyinvolvingtheminvariousintellectualactivities. Whenastudentisdoinganyspecifictasks,singleormultipleabilitiesoutoftheprimarymentalabilitiesstatedbyThurstonareinvolved.Onementalabilitycouldplayamoreimportantroleinaparticulartaskthantheother.SchoolsorteacherscanusetheprimarymentalabilitytestconstructedbyThurstonetoselectthestudentsindifferenttasksorvocationsaccordingtothesupremementalabilitypresentinthestudent. Thistheoryhelpsinunderstandingtheintellectualdifferencesamongstudents.Itiscommonlyobservedthatsomestudentsaregoodatcalculatingnumericalproblems,whileothersperformwellinresearch-basedsubjects.Itisbecausetheyhaveahigherfactorofonementalabilitythantheother. Asdifferentstudentshavedifferentlevelsofprimarymentalabilities,thereshouldbeadiversifiedcurriculumintheeducationalsystemthathelpsthemsharpentheirprimarymentalabilities,andschoolsshouldgivethemthefreedomtochooseanysubjectsaspertheirstrengthinanyparticularprimarymentalability. In1928,Thurstonedevelopedaformaltechniquetomeasuretheattitude(emotions)ofthepeople;itiscalledthe‘Thurstonescale.’Thisscalehasgreatlycontributedtopsychology.Itincludesvarioussetsofstatementshavingagree-disagreeresponses,theattitudeofthepersoncanbeanalyzedbycalculatingthetotalnumberofstatementsagreedbytheperson. Theoriginalmulti-factortheoryofintelligenceproposedbyThurstoneisnotwidelyusednowadays,butithasasignificantcontributiontothevariousmodernmultipleintelligencetheoriesofrenownedpsychologistslikeHowardGardners,J.PGuilford,andRobertSternberg. Facebook PrevArticle NextArticle RelatedPosts AddCommentCancelReply Δ RecentPosts 8EgoisticAltruismExamples 11PureAltruismExamples 15ActsofAltruismExamples WhoOwnsIndiGoAirlines? 7ReciprocalAltruismExamples RelatedPosts 11PureAltruismExamples 6RealLifeExamplesOfGameTheory 8GameTheoryExamplesinRealLife 8EverydayLifeExamplesOfPriming 17MonopolyExamplesinRealLife