J. P. Guilford facts for kids

Joy Paul Guilford (born March 7, 1897 – died November 26, 1987) was an American psychologist. He is famous for his studies on human intelligence. He looked at how people think in different ways, especially convergent (finding one answer) and divergent (finding many answers) thinking.

Guilford believed that intelligence was not just one single thing. Instead, he thought it had many different parts. He suggested that we need to look at three main areas to understand intelligence: operations (how we think), content (what we think about), and products (the results of our thinking). In 2002, a survey ranked Guilford as one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century.

Guilford's Career

Guilford went to the University of Nebraska and later studied at Cornell University. He became a respected psychologist and was even the president of the Psychometric Society in 1938. This group studies how to measure mental abilities.

In 1941, during World War II, Guilford joined the U.S. Army. He worked as a Lieutenant Colonel, helping the Army Air Force. His job was to figure out why many aircrew trainees were not finishing their training. He helped choose and rank the best people for flying planes.

The Stanine Project

Guilford led a big project called the Stanine (Standard Nine) Project in 1943. This project identified nine important mental abilities needed to fly a plane. The word Stanine is now a common term in educational psychology. Guilford's work helped create a two-day test. This test greatly improved how many aircrew trainees successfully graduated during the war.

After the war, Guilford became a full colonel. He then joined the University of Southern California. He kept studying intelligence and developed his famous "Structure of Intellect" theory. His research found many different mental abilities.

Structure of Intellect Theory

Guilford's Structure of Intellect (SI) theory, developed in 1955, explains that our performance on intelligence tests comes from different mental abilities. The SI theory suggests there are up to 180 different intellectual abilities. These abilities are organized into three main groups: operations, content, and products.

Mary N. Meeker later used Guilford's SI theory to help with education.

Operations: How We Think

The SI theory includes six types of mental operations, or ways we process information:

• Cognition: This is the ability to understand, discover, and become aware of information.
• Memory recording: This is the ability to store new information in our minds.
• Memory retention: This is the ability to remember and recall information we've stored.
• Divergent production: This is the ability to come up with many different solutions to a problem. It's linked to creativity.
• Convergent production: This is the ability to find the single best solution to a problem. It's about following rules or solving puzzles.
• Evaluation: This is the ability to decide if information is correct, consistent, or useful.

Content: What We Think About

The SI theory also looks at four types of information that our minds work with:

• Figural: This is information from the real world, like objects we see, sounds we hear, or things we feel through movement.
• Symbolic: This is information that uses symbols or signs, like numbers, letters, or musical notes.
• Semantic: This is information related to words, meanings, and ideas. It's often abstract.
• Behavioral: This is information about how people act. Guilford studied this less, so it's not always included in his main model.

Products: The Results of Our Thinking

This part of the SI theory describes the different ways our thoughts can be organized or expressed. There are six types of products, from simple to complex:

• Units: These are single pieces of knowledge.
• Classes: These are groups of units that share common features.
• Relations: These are connections between units, like opposites or sequences.
• Systems: These are multiple relations linked together to form bigger structures or networks.
• Transformations: These are changes, new perspectives, or conversions of knowledge.
• Implications: These are predictions, guesses, or consequences based on what we know.

Guilford's full model suggests there are 5 x 5 x 6 = 150 different intellectual abilities. Each ability combines one operation, one content type, and one product. For example, "Comprehension of Figural Units" or "Evaluation of Semantic Implications."

Criticisms of the Theory

Over time, some researchers have questioned Guilford's ideas. They found that the statistical methods he used had some issues. Other studies showed that the different parts of intelligence he identified were actually more connected than he thought.

Today, Guilford's Structure of Intellect model is not widely supported by most researchers. Many psychologists believe that intelligence is organized differently. One researcher, Carroll (1993), said that Guilford's model was "somewhat eccentric" and not widely accepted, even though many textbooks mentioned it.

See also

In Spanish: Joy Paul Guilford para niños