DEVELOPMENT, VALIDATION AND STANDARDIZATION OF A GROUP VERBAL INTELLIGENCE TEST IN URDU FOR ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Intelligence is not only a topic of immense importance that is becoming central to psychology as a discipline; it is also one of the extensively explored areas in the realm of psychometrics. The primary scientific basis for asserting that general intelligence exists and that individual differences in intelligence have some impact on behavior is the observation that there is a positive correlation between every reliable measure of mental ability. Intelligence is a construct conceptualized differently by various psychologists. Boring (1923) defined intelligence as what the intelligence tests measure. Sternberg (1986) carried this viewpoint and operationally defined intelligence in terms of the way it is measured. Operational definition of intelligence has two shortcomings (Sternberg, 1986). First, it is circular i. e, intelligence tests are devised to measure intelligence, not to define it. Second, operational definition blocks further progress in understanding the nature of intelligence. In contrast, a real definition is one that seeks to tell the true nature of the concept being defined (Sternberg, 1986). Most of the definitions of intelligence appeared in an early symposium, Intelligence and its measurement (Thorndike, 1921).