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.
