Charles Spearman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Charles Spearman
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| Born |
Charles Edward Spearman
10 September 1863 |
| Died | 17 September 1945 (aged 82) |
| Alma mater | University of Leipzig, Germany |
| Known for | g factor, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, factor analysis |
| Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University College London |
| Doctoral students | C. E. Beeby |
| Other notable students |
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Charles Edward Spearman (born September 10, 1863 – died September 17, 1945) was an English psychologist. He is famous for his important work in statistics and for creating a method called factor analysis. He also developed the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, which helps measure how two things are related.
Spearman also did groundbreaking work on how human intelligence works. He believed that different scores on cognitive tests (like puzzles or memory games) often show a single, general ability. He called this the g factor, which stands for "general intelligence factor."
About Charles Spearman
Charles Spearman had an interesting path to becoming a psychologist. He first joined the army as an engineer in 1883. He served for 15 years, becoming a captain.
In 1897, he left the army to study for a PhD in experimental psychology. At that time, psychology in Britain was often seen as part of philosophy. Spearman chose to study in Leipzig, Germany, under Wilhelm Wundt. Leipzig was known for its "new psychology," which used scientific methods instead of just ideas.
Spearman started his studies in 1897. He had to pause when he was called back to the army during the Second Boer War. He earned his degree in 1906. Before that, in 1904, he had already published his important paper on factor analysis and intelligence.
Spearman later worked at University College London until he retired in 1931. He started as a Reader and led a small psychology lab. He eventually became a Professor of Psychology.
Spearman's Big Ideas
One of Spearman's biggest achievements was discovering the "general factor" in human intelligence. He developed a theory about this "g" factor and studied how it related to different abilities.
He was greatly influenced by Francis Galton, another pioneer in psychology. Galton developed the idea of correlation, which is a key statistical tool Spearman used.
In statistics, Spearman created the rank correlation in 1904. This is a way to measure how two sets of ranked data are related. He also developed the first version of factor analysis. Factor analysis is a statistical method that helps researchers find hidden factors that explain how different things are related.
Even though he was well-known for his statistical work, Spearman saw it as a way to understand the basic rules of psychology. Today, he is equally famous for both his statistical methods and his psychological theories.
Spearman believed his work should be used in psychiatry, which deals with mental health. While his students applied his ideas, factor analysis developed in different ways than he first planned. Still, his contributions to understanding the mind were very important.
Charles Spearman lived his whole life in London. He had three daughters and one son, who sadly passed away in 1941.
Theory of Intelligence: The g Factor
Spearman's main idea was about the g factor. He explained that g is a specific quantity found through statistical calculations. When you take a mental test, your score can be split into two parts:
- One part is always the same across all tests; this is the general factor, or g.
- The other part changes from one test to another; this is the specific factor.
So, g is a score-factor. But this simple meaning allows scientists to study it. They can find out what kinds of mental tasks g is most important for.
For example, g is very important in tasks like reasoning or learning new languages. However, it plays a very small part in tasks like telling different musical tones apart. g tends to be more important when a task involves understanding relationships or applying what you've learned in one situation to another.
Spearman suggested that g acts as if it measures "mind power," similar to how we talk about "horsepower." He also believed that g is something you are born with. He thought that a person cannot be trained to have a higher degree of g, just as they cannot be trained to be taller.
Spearman also talked about "special intelligence" for people who did very well on the same tests. Later, he added the idea of a "group factor" for correlations not explained by g or specific factors.
In 1938, another psychologist named Louis Leon Thurstone disagreed with Spearman. Thurstone believed intelligence had seven main categories: numerical, reasoning, spatial, perceptual, memory, verbal fluency, and verbal comprehension. However, Thurstone eventually agreed with Spearman that there was a general factor behind different abilities.
Later, Raymond Cattell (in 1963) also supported the idea of a general ability. But he pointed out two forms of ability that change differently as people get older: fluid and crystallized intelligence.
As time went on, Spearman increasingly argued that g wasn't just one single ability. He thought it was made of two different abilities that usually worked together:
- Eductive ability: This comes from the Latin word "educere," meaning "to draw out." It refers to the ability to make sense out of confusion or to understand new things.
- Reproductive ability: This refers to the ability to remember and use information that has already been learned.
Spearman believed that understanding these two abilities was key to studying individual differences and how we think.
Even though Spearman said that g came from many different tests and wasn't perfectly measured by any single test, his ideas led to the search for tests of this general ability. Raven's Progressive Matrices is an example of such a test, though its creator, Raven, said it shouldn't be called an "intelligence" test.
Spearman consistently argued that g explained many differences in people's abilities (as measured by tests that "had no place in schools"). He also believed that "Every normal man, woman, and child is... a genius at something... It remains to discover at what..." He felt that finding these areas of genius needed different methods than the tests used at the time.
He thought that the tests from which his g factor emerged "had no place in schools." He felt they distracted teachers, students, parents, and politicians from the real purpose of education. Education, he believed, should be about "drawing out" whatever talents a student might have.
Spearman summarized his views in the Encyclopædia Britannica entry titled "Abilities, general and special." His model was very influential, but it also faced criticism from others, like Godfrey Thomson. The idea of whether g is a single biological mechanism is still an active area of research today.
See also
In Spanish: Charles Spearman para niños
