Psychological Aspects and Measurement of

1. Psychological Aspects and Measurement of John F. Rauthmann Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck, Austria 24.05.2010, Helsinki (Finland)

2. Content [1] What is Systems Intelligence (SI)? SI by Hämäläinen and Saarinen (2004, 2006, 2008) [2] How conceptualize SI psychologically? Proposing a psychological perspective on SI [3] How measure SI psychologically? Proposing a scale to measure Trait-SI [4] What to do with a psychological perspective on SI? Discussion of prospects with a psychological perspective on SI 1

3. What is Systems Intelligence? 2

4. A psychological conceptualization of SI • What is Systems Intelligence psychologically? • Different construct types in personality psychology: • Traits • Motives • Abilities and competencies • Styles • Systems Intelligence can be conceptualized differently within personality psychology. • For now: Ability-SI and Trait-SI 3

5. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Ability-SI: Conceptualizing SI as an intelligence • Four basic questions: • What is “intelligence”? • Which “intelligences” are there? • How can SI be conceptualized as an “intelligence”? • Is SI an “intelligence”? 4

6. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Ability-SI: What is “intelligence”? • Many different definitions of “intelligence” within psychology • No clear consensus on what exactly “intelligence” is • Neisser et al. (1998, p. 77): • Understanding complex ideas • Adapting flexibly to the environment • Learning from experiences • Engaging into various forms of reasoning • Overcoming obstacles by taking thought 5

7. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Ability-SI: Which “intelligences” are there? • Maybe not be just one “intelligence”, but in fact many • No clear consensus on how many “intelligences” there are and which they are • Common intelligences: • Emotional Intelligence • Social Intelligence • Practical Intelligence • Successful Intelligence • Gardner’s multiple intelligences 6

8. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Ability-SI: How can SI be conceptualized as an intelligence? • Different conceptualizations of “intelligence” in psychological literature • No clear consensus on the structure of “intelligence” • Common intelligence models: • Spearman: Two factor theory (g and s) • Thurstone: Primary mental abilities (v, w, n, s, m, p, r/i) • Cattell: Fluid and crystallised intelligence • Guilford: Structure of intellect • Carroll: Three stratum theory 7

9. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Ability-SI: How can SI be conceptualized as an intelligence? • Stratum III (General): • General intelligence factor (g-factor) • Stratum II (Broad): • Fluid intelligence, crystallised intelligence, • general memory and learning, • broad visual perception, broad auditory perception, • broad retrieval ability, broad cognitive speediness and processing speed • Stratum I (Narrow): • 69 narrow abilities, each related to a specific Stratum II domain • Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of cognitive abilities (CHC theory) • Amalgamation of two similar theories about the content and structure of human cognitive abilities • Gf-Gc theory (Cattell, 1941; Horn 1965) + Three Stratum Theory (Carroll, 1993) 8

10. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Ability-SI: How can SI be conceptualized as an intelligence? • Implications of intelligence research for SI: • Distinction between intra- and interpersonal aspects • Different ability domains: cognition, affect/emotion – motivation – regulation, behavior • Distinctions between contents, operations, and outputs • Hierarchical structure of SI (g- and s-factors) with different strata • SI as a multidimensional and multifaceted construct • SI as incorporating different intelligence aspects (e.g., creativity, meta-cognitive components, etc.) 9

11. A psychological conceptualization of SI Ability-SI: How can SI be conceptualized as an intelligence? Stratum I: Global undifferentiated SI-factor g Stratum II: Fluid and crystallised global SI-factors gf gc Stratum III: Specialized SI-abilities s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 s7 s8 10

12. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Ability-SI: Is SI an “intelligence”? • Gardner’s eight criteria for an “intelligence”: 11 8

13. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Trait-SI: Conceptualizing SI as a trait • Four basic questions: • What is a “trait”? • Which debates revolving around traits are there in personality psychology? • How can SI be conceptualized as a “trait”? • How should we measure Trait-SI? 12 4

14. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Trait-SI: What is a “trait”? • Trait: • Enduring, stable, consistent • General description • Mental and/or behavioral characteristics • State: • Unstable, momentary, inconsistent • Personality psychology aims at assessing (measuring) stable traits, not states. 13 4

15. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Trait-SI: Which debates are (were) there in personality psychology? • Four interrelated controversies: • Trait vs. state • Person vs. Situation • Structure vs. Process • Nomothetic vs. Idiographic • Implications: • Different perspectives on the human condition or how we think, feel, and act in situations • “False” dichotomisation of person vs. situation variables (cf. interactional systems) 14 4

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17. A psychological conceptualization of SI • Trait-SI: How can SI be conceptualized as a “trait”? • Different highlighted aspects: • Intertwinement of “person” and “situation” • Emphasis on processes / dynamics and (emergent) structures • Implications: • Focus on person and context variables • Systemic-synergetic perspective on personality and traits • Flexible usage of different paradigms and methodology • Assessment of individual differences in SI 16 4

18. A psychological conceptualization of SI Trait-SI: How measure SI? Different types of types of data: 17 4

19. A psychological measurement of SI • The Trait-SI Scale (TSIS): Item generation Item content and item generation (Hämäläinen & Saarinen, 2004, 2007, 2008): • Perceptional: Perceiving oneself and reciprocal influences in systems • Cognitive and meta-cognitive: Thinking and reflecting within systems • Emotional and motivational: Intuitively guided actions, empathy, motivation to persevere • Behavioural: productive behaviours Response format: 5-point Likert scale (“0 – I totally disagree” to “4 – I totally agree”) Result: 30 items related to Trait-SI aspects (e.g., “I exercise productive ways of influence within my surroundings”, “I perceive myself as part of a whole”) 18 4

20. A psychological measurement of SI The Trait-SI Scale (TSIS): The study 19 4

21. Results I Exploratory factor analysis: Principal components analysis Direct-oblimin rotation (δ = 0) Initial solution: 7 factors (57.03% variance) Horn’s parallel analysis (1965): 4 factors (46.31% variance) Retained factors: Effective systems handling Systemic reflection Holistic systems perspective Systemic flexibility 20 4

22. Results II Construct validity: Bivariate zero-order Pearson correlations 21 4

23. The Trait-SI Scale (TSIS): Interpretation of findings 22 4

24. Future lines of research with a psychological take on SI • What can we do with a psychological perspective on SI? • Suggestions: • Relate the SI approach to the (broad) field of psychology in general and to different psychological sub-disciplines in specific • Study person x situation interactions (cf. situation psychology) • Psychometrics (i.e., reliably and validly assessing SI in individuals, groups, organisations) • Applied contexts (i.e., education, leadership, etc.) 23 4

25. The End THANK YOU! 