These tests are conducted to select those men who are sound both in their bodily and mental faculties. In their service the officers are faced with many complicated Situations .In which only their lives but the lives of numerous soldiers .under their command are under risk. If the officers are wanting in sharp intellect, they cannot withstand heavy odds.
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To Cyril Burt, it is the power of reasoning and adjustment to new situations. Wood wroth opines that intelligence involves doing a miscellaneous lot of things and doing them right. It is purposive, which means the ability consciously to adapt to ends. Binet, a well known psychologist who formulated "patience puzzle" to test the power of adaptability, thinks that intelligence consists of:
- Consciousness of the ends to be attained.
- The trial of possible means to end.
- Auto-criticism of the trials made.
Similarly, another famous psychologist explains intelligence as responsiveness to relationships. It deals with the person's internal relations and the manner in which he is able to adjust himself. It also includes his thinking and his conduct to new requirement.
H.J. Eysenck, in this book "Uses and Abuses of Psychology" very ably discusses the topic of intelligence tests. He points out the fallacy of normal or ordinary thinking when intelligence is taken as the ability to acquire knowledge, or the capacity for abstract thinking, or the equivalent of wisdom, or quickness of thinking, or depth of profundity, or a combination of some of these or something else. Then continuing the discussion of the subject, he discounts the tendencies, of some who thinks that because there is no agreement among the psychologists with regard to a precise definition of the term intelligence, so it cannot be measured. In this connection he rightly maintains that notwithstanding the differences we can use certain standard tests drawn by experts in the field after patient and laborious research and experiments.
Every one of us knows how irritating an unintelligent individual could be. A man who does not follow directions which have been clearly explained to him, who keeps on doing the wrong things in spite of this being told what is wrong in his action, who cannot use his commonsense but needs to be watched and guided all the time, can create chaotic condittions in any organization. Some people are quite capable of doing things properly and well, but will not set their minds to it. There are others, on the other hand, who despite their best efforts, their keenness and plodding, will invariably get things wrong, just because they lack the mental capacity necessary for efficient performance of the job. With the former type of person, the problem would be how to get the person to put in more effort. With the latter type, on the other hand, greater effort in not likely to be of any avail, on account of a basic deficiency in the individual. In fact mental deficiency may range from minor drawbacks in thinking and remembering to the grosser forms of defect which may be a positive handicap in nearly every conceivable type of work. One of the uses of the intelligence tests lies in that they provide a convenient method of telling off the man who is basically deficient from one who may be expected to get on reasonably well in his work.