Evaluate the ways in which intelligence can be measured.

Intelligence has always been a major and controversial issue for psychologists. Intelligence has three major areas of debate: its definition, its measurement, and its heritability (Source: Weinberg, 1989). The title of this essay asks specifically about measurement of intelligence, but this thereby requires an investigation into the definition of intelligence used, because of its massive influence on its potential measurement. It also raises the question of whether intelligence can be measured at all.

A common criticism of I.Q. tests is that they only show how good you are at I.Q. tests and do not reflect true intelligence. The solution therefore to understand intelligence better before we try to measure it, although this is by no means an easy task. Cicero was the first to use the term intelligentia in an attempt to provide a Latin equivalent for a Greek philosophical term …(short extract)