Genius: An
Overview
by William E. Benet, Ph.D.,
Psy.D.
January, 2005
Genius is one of the oldest and yet one of the
most elusive concepts in the history of
psychology, and also one of the most
fascinating. Originally, in Graeco-Roman
antiquity, genius referred to a quality that
everyone possessed, an animating spirit that
represented one's character and interests as
much as one's ability. Over time, however,
it became increasingly associated with one's
natural ability or talent, and eventually with
the special ability of a few. Nineteenth
century British psychologist
Francis Galton, citing British author and
lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson as a paragon
example, described genius as "a man
endowed with superior faculties." And
then, in the early part of the 20th
century, as interest in psychometric methods of
assessment grew, genius became associated with a
quantitative concept known as the Intelligence
Quotient or IQ, which further adulterated its
original meaning. Expressed as a ratio
score, IQ was was the ratio of an
individual's estimated mental age
and chronological age multiplied by 100.
In 1916, Stanford University psychologist
Lewis M. Terman, Ph.D., classified an IQ
score of 140 or higher as "genius or near
genius", a classification that is no longer
used. Ironically, one of the first
practical applications of IQ tests was to
identify children who were mentally handicapped,
not gifted. Alfred
Binet, the French psychologist who developed
The Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale in 1905,
which Terman would later revise and use to
identify gifted children, was dismayed by this
subsequent application of his test. Today, not
only have high IQ scores become used to identify
children for gifted programs, but in popular
parlance have become equated with genius. This
is very unfortunate since, as we shall see, the
relationship between high IQ scores and genius
is not always apparent. In fact, history is full
of geniuses who more than likely had ordinary
IQs.
In 1926, Stanford
University psychologist Catharine Morris Cox,
Ph.D., published a pioneering study, The
Early Mental Traits of 300 Geniuses,
which fueled popular interest in the association
between genius and IQ. In her study, 301 eminent
persons (not 300 as suggested by the title) born
between 1450 and 1850 were assigned estimated IQ
scores based on ratings of individual case
histories of their behavior and performance in
childhood and young adulthood, prepared from
1,500 biographical sources. Their IQ scores were
reported as ratio quotients using The
Stanford Revision and Extension of the
Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale as a
reference point. Today, Stanford-Binet IQ scores
are expressed as deviation quotients based on a
normally distributed population with a mean of
100 and a standard deviation of 16. For a
normally distributed (bell-shaped) population, a
mean of 100 is the point at which a score is
equal to or greater than the scores of 50
percent of the population. An average score is
generally considered to be any score that falls
within one standard deviation above or below the
mean (100 +/- 16 or 84-116 on the Stanford-Binet
scale and 85-115 on the Wechsler intelligence
scales, which have a standard deviation of 15,
and are the most commonly used IQ tests today).
The study
reported estimates for both age groups and
estimates that were corrected for regression to
the mean. Cox observed that the more reliable
the case history data (for which reliability
grades were assigned and coefficients computed),
the higher the estimated IQ, and concluded that
the lowest IQs may have been spuriously
underestimated. To correct for this regression
to the mean, she used a a statistical method
that adds to the obtained score an increment
which it would have received had the estimate
been made using the mean of the averages
of the obtained IQ estimates of both childhood
and young adulthood case history ratings.
Cox believed that
even her corrected scores were too low, but in
comparison to the highest scores that today's
standard IQ tests are able to measure, they seem
spuriously inflated. Not surprisingly, it is
these extremely high scores in Cox's study that
seem to most fascinate the public, such as the
17 "Great Minds" from Cox's study highlighted in
Time's Life Science Library edition, The Mind
(1964), lead by Goethe with an IQ of 210.
The highest score
that can be obtained on the Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children-III, which
is the preeminent test of intelligence used in
the United States today for identifying gifted
children, is 160. For the
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III,
the ceiling is slightly lower: 155. There are
other tests, such as the Stanford-Binet that can
yield higher scores, but to what end? Cox wrote
that her scores were never intended to be exact
measures, but were more useful as indicators for
comparing the relative eminence of her 301
geniuses. Yet, even this is questionable. The
word "genius"
is derived from the Latin verb
"gignere", which means to beget or produce.
Historically, genius referred to one's ability
to accomplish or create something, something
that performance on an IQ test does not measure.
Consider Einstein, for example: as a child, he
was delayed in speech and was a poor student who
dropped out of school at one point and failed to
pass the entrance examination for admission to
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in
Zurich. He was eventually admitted after
retaking the examination two years latter, and
graduated, but was unable to obtain a university
teaching position, and went to work instead as
an assistant technical clerk in the patent
office in Bern, Germany. Einstein was well
on his way to what appeared to be an entirely
uneventful and undistinguished career.
Using the same method that Cox did to rate
geniuses based on their behavior and performance
either in childhood or young adulthood up to the
age of 26, Einstein would have received one of
the lowest IQ scores on her list of geniuses.
Einstein's IQ is
unknown. It has never been tested, but there is
no question that he was one of the greatest
geniuses of the 20th century. There have been
other geniuses who, if they had been tested,
may not have obtained very high scores, or even
above average scores, on an IQ test, especially
in the arts and literature. It is interesting
but idle to speculate how, say, Picasso or
Hemingway or any number of artists or writers
might have scored. And then there are geniuses
in other fields of endeavor, such as sports and
entertainment, for whom a discussion of IQ seems
completely irrelevant.
Harvard
University psychologist
Howard Gardner, Ph.D., has identified ten
different types of Intelligence. Only two or
three types (logical-mathematical, linguistic
and spatial intelligence) are commonly
represented in contemporary IQ tests. The other
seven (musical, bodily-kinesthetic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist,
spiritual and existential intelligence ) are
generally excluded. Yet, individuals who are
gifted in these other areas can have an impact
on society that inspires, uplifts, transforms,
or simply entertains, which is no less important
than the highest achievements in the areas of
ability that are measured by most IQ tests.
Think of how many people of both high and low
intellectual ability have found inspiration or
refuge, as well as simple enjoyment, in the
music of, say, Ray Charles or Hank Williams, who
have had an impact on generations of listeners
that is no less profound than the composers of
other genres. Genius, as Gardner suggests, can
manifest itself in other ways besides a high IQ
score. And a high IQ score is by no means
a guarantor of success and accomplishment in
life. Consider William James Sidis, who
reportedly had the highest IQ in history.
The story of
Sidis, whose IQ was estimated to be over 250,
was, by every account, phenomenally gifted.
Grady M. Towers, in an article in Gift of
Fire (the journal of the Prometheus
Society), wrote that at eighteen months Sidis
could read The New York Times, at two he
taught himself Latin, and at three he learned
Greek. By the time he was an adult, he could
speak more than forty languages and dialects. He
graduated from Harvard cum laude at
sixteen, and became the youngest professor in
history at Rice University. Towers wrote,
"Of all the prodigies for which there are
records, his was probably the most powerful
intellect of all. And yet it all came to
nothing. He soon gave up his position as a
professor, and for the rest of his life wandered
from one menial job to another."
In a longitudinal
study of 250,000 gifted California children
beginning in the 1920's, Terman (under
whom Cox studied) found that in 1940 when
the group was around 29 years of age, for those
who had IQ scores of approximately 140 or
higher, there was a moderate inverse
relationship between performance on the
Concept Mastery Test, Form A, a test of
verbal intelligence, and personal adjustment.
In another study by Columbia Teacher's College
psychologist
Leta S. Hollingworth, Ph.D.,
Children
Above 180 IQ (1942),
she concluded that there was an IQ range of
optimum productivity and personal adjustment
between 125 and 155. Scores in this range
are typical of the scores obtained by U.S.
school children who are referred by their
teachers for gifted education programs. The
cutoff for eligibility in some states is an IQ
score that is among the top two percent of the
population, which is a score of 130 on the
Wechsler scales (or 132 on the Stanford-Binet
scale). But it is not always the sole
criterion. Just as importantly, superior
academic achievement and interests that foster
achievement are often considered in making a
final determination for gifted program
placement. While this process is commendable for
recognizing that IQ is only one facet of
giftedness, it is not without controversy for
failing to recognize the many gifted, ambitious,
and motivated children scoring below the cutoff
who would also benefit from an enriched
curriculum and the emotional trauma for those
children who are not accepted.
I am often asked
by children, whom I evaluate for gifted
programs, and their parents, what is a "genius
IQ score?" And I tell them, quite matter of
factly, there is none. Genius is what one
accomplishes in life, not the score one makes on
a test of mental ability. As a practical
guideline, I advise parents, who are typically
more concerned than their children about what
their scores mean, that any child that scores
around 115 (or higher than two thirds of their
peers) has the general intellectual ability to
succeed in virtually any endeavor that is
accompanied by interest and application.
University of California at Berkley educational
psychologist
Arthur Jensen, Ph.D., wrote that beyond one
standard deviation above the mean (an IQ score
of around 115), "the IQ level becomes relatively
unimportant in terms of ordinary occupational
aspirations and criteria of success."
For those who
score higher than this, the only limitations are
drive and desire plus the ability to initiate
and carry out tasks or simply the ability to get
things done. Drive and desire cannot be
overstressed. There are many stories of geniuses
with extremely high IQs who also had a burning
desire to achieve. American chess genius and
former world champion, Bobby Fischer, "lived and
breathed chess." No one worked harder at
mastering the game than Fischer, even though his
reported IQ of 187, was among the highest in
history; but, unfortunately, like Sidis, Fischer
represented one of the sadder chapters in the
annals of American geniuses. Plagued by inner
demons, Fischer completely withdrew from
competition after winning the world championship
in 1972 at the age of 28 and has accomplished
nothing significant since then. On the
other end of the IQ spectrum was one of
America's greatest inventive geniuses: Thomas
Alva Edison. Like Einstein, he was not a very
good student, and quite likely would not have
scored very high on an IQ test in childhood. But
Edison, like all geniuses of great
accomplishment, had boundless drive, and
understood perfectly the essence of genius when
he wrote, "Genius is one percent inspiration and
98 percent perspiration."
What then are
some of the more meaningful uses IQ scores? IQ
testing is one of the most precise psychometric
methods used by psychologists for assessing
individual differences in general intellectual
ability and is extremely useful for assessing
academic aptitude. In clinical settings,
cognitive testing is indispensable in assessing
a wide range of neuropsychological deficits
resulting from such disorders as stroke,
Alzheimer's disease, and closed head trauma.
These deficits may be sudden or gradual and
progressive, and cannot be as precisely measured
by other means, such as CT or MRI scans or lab
tests as well as psychometric means. IQ
testing is extremely useful in accurately
assessing and identifying children who are
mentally handicapped as well as gifted. They are
also useful in occupational screening and have
been used by the U.S. Armed Forces since WWI for
screening and classifying recruits for job
assignments. See
http://www.assessmentpsychology.com/tests.htm.
Where IQ tests
are less useful is in making meaningful
distinctions between different IQ levels at the
extremes of ability, both above and below the
mean, but especially the former. This is due in
part to the decreasing discrimination between
subtest scale scores at the extremes of
performance. For example, on the Vocabulary
subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale
for Children-III, (this subtest correlates
more strongly with overall intellectual ability
than the other 12 subtests), the raw score
difference between a scale score of 10 and 13,
which represents a one standard deviation
difference, is 7-10 points for a 16-year old;
while the difference between a scale score of 16
and 19, which is also a one standard deviation
difference,
but two to three standard deviations
above the mean, is only three points.
Correct responses on the Vocabulary subtest are
scored as either one or two points, depending on
the quality of the response. Using Wechsler's
system of classification, the difference between
Average and High Average intelligence
on this subtest may reflect a difference of as
much as 5-10 correct responses; while the
difference between Superior and Very
Superior
intelligence may reflect a difference of only
two correct responses. The latter is hardly a
substantial difference, and at the higher levels
of IQ, not a particularly meaningful one.
We can conclude,
by once again quoting Jensen, who wrote, "That
is not to say that there are not real
differences between the intellectual
capabilities represented by IQs of 115 and 150
or even between IQs of 150 and 180. But IQ
differences in this upper part of the scale have
far less personal implications than the
thresholds just described and are generally of
lesser importance for success in the popular
sense than are certain traits of personality
and character." (italics added--WEB).
William E. Benet, Ph.D., Psy.D.
Selected References
-
Cox, C. M. (1926) The early mental
traits of three hundred geniuses. In
Terman, L. M. (Ed.). Genetic Studies of
Genius
(Vol. II). Stanford University Press.
-
Galton, F. (1869). Hereditary Genius: An
Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences.
London: Macmillan/Fontana.
-
Gardner, H. (1998). Are there additional
intelligences? The case for naturalist,
spiritual, and existential intelligences. In
J. Kane (Ed.), Education, Information,
and Transformation (pp. 111-131). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Merrill-Prentice Hall.
-
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The
Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New
York: Basic Books.
-
Hollingworth, L. S. (1942).
Children Above 180 IQ: Stanford-Binet Origin
and Development.
Yonkers, NY: World Book.
-
Jensen, A.
(1980).
Bias in
Mental Testing.
New York: Free Press.
-
Terman, L. M. (1916). The Measurement of
Intelligence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
-
Terman, L. M. & Oden, M. H. (1947). The
gifted child grows up: twenty-five years'
follow-up of a superior group. In Terman, L.
M. (Ed.).
Genetic Studies of Genius (Vol. IV).
Stanford University Press.
-
Towers, G. M. (1987). The outsiders. Gift
of Fire (Journal of the Prometheus
Society), Issue No. 22.
-
Wechsler, D. (1997). Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale-Third Edition. San
Antonio: The Psychological Corporation.
-
Wechsler, D. (1991). Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children-Third
Edition. San Antonio: The
Psychological Corporation.
-
Wilson, J. (1964). The Mind. New
York: Time.
Copyright © 2005 W. E. Benet, Ph.D., Psy.D. All
Rights Reserved.
