Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

40 Chapter 2
The Concept of Intelligence
The classic example of a conceptual variable is intelligence. Intelligence is
anything we say it is. There is no way to tell whether it is: (1) the ability to
think in abstractions and to generalize from cases; (2) the ability to remember
long strings of unconnected facts; or (3) the ability to recite all of Shakespeare
from memory. In the last analysis, the value of the concept of intelligence is
that it allows us to predict, with varying success, things like job success,
grade-point average, likelihood of having healthy children, and likelihood of
being arrested for a felony.
The key to understanding the last statement is the phrase ‘‘with varying success.’’
It is by now well known that measures of intelligence are culture
bound; the standard U.S. intelligence tests are biased in favor of Whites and
against African Americans because of differences in access to education and
differences in life experiences. Further afield, intelligence tests that are
designed for Americans may not have any meaning at all to people in radically
different cultures.
There is a famous, perhaps apocryphal, story about some American
researchers who were determined to develop a culture-free intelligence test
based on manipulating and matching shapes and colors. With an interpreter
along for guidance, they administered the test to a group of Bushmen in the
Kalahari Desert of South Africa. The first Bushman they tested listened
politely to the instructions about matching the colors and shapes and then
excused himself.
He returned in a few minutes with half a dozen others, and they began an
animated discussion about the test. The researchers asked the interpreter to
explain that each man had to take the test himself. The Bushmen responded
by saying how silly that was; they solve problems together, and they would
solve this one, too. So, although the content of the test might have been culture
free, the testing procedure itself was not.
This critique of intelligence testing in no way lessens the importance or
usefulness of the concept of intelligence. The concept is useful, in certain contexts,
because its measurement allows us to predict other things we want to
know. And it is to actual measurement that we now turn.
Operational Definitions
Conceptual definitions are limited because, while they point us toward measurement,
they don’t really give us any recipe for measurement. Without measurement,
we cannot make useful comparisons. We cannot tell whether Spaniards
are more flamboyant than the British, or whether Catholicism is more