From: A. Alexander Beaujean (abeaujean@ureach.com)
Date: Wed Aug 20 2003 - 23:24:19 EDT
---- On Thu, 21 Aug 2003, Iain Strachan
(iain.strachan.asa@ntlworld.com) wrote:
> But then there is the downside to genius. Geniuses are freaks
of nature;
While there is a correlation between genius and certain
personality characteristics, geniuses are by no means all
"freaks of nature." Many (if not most) go on to lead
extroidanary lives. For more detail, see:
H. J. Eysenck's "Genius : The Natural History of Creativity"
Lubinski, D., Webb, R. M., Morelock, M. J., & Benbow, C. P.
(2001). Top 1 in 10,000: A 10-year follow-up of the profoundly
gifted. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 718-729
> It seems to me that maybe most
> humans are capable of the most tremendous feats of creativity
and processing
> in their brains, but that this ability is firmly suppressed in
most of us,
> who remain "sane". The ability to do phenomenal things is
often associated
> with instability, and leads to problems.
While the human brain is a phenominally complex and intricate
organ and carries out a tremendous about activity, your view
that most human are capable of tremendous feats is not really
true, or true if qualified by the fact that these "feats" are
heavily moderated by one's innate cognitive ability. For good
overviews on impact of cognitive ability on life outcomes, I
suggest:
A. R. Jensen's "the g Factor"
Gottfredson, L. S. (2003). g, jobs, and life. In H. Nyborg
(Ed.), The scientific study of general intelligence: Tribute to
Arthur R. Jensen. New York: Pergamon.
GORDON, R. A. (1997) Everyday Life as an Intelligence Test:
Effects of Intelligence and Intelligence Context. INTELLIGENCE
24 203-320.
> So how is it that the brain is massively over-specified for
what it is
> normally called upon to do? Is there an evolutionary
explanation for this?
> Genius, of itself, would appear to confer disadvantage to the
individual,
> leading to instability, and frequently suicide (for example
the comedian
> Tony Hancock).
Genius is most certainly NOT a disadvantage. While other factors
can lead to instability in this population, having abnormally
high cognitive ability (there is more to genius that just a
"high IQ", but it is a minimum threshold), in and of itself, is
an great advantage, especially in the technological society we
now live.
For a view of genius from an evolutionary perspective, see Dean
Simonton's work:
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/Simonton/homepage.html
> Or, alternatively, it is often said that creative gifts are
what God has
> given you.
It appears the combination of factors that are required to
"produce a genius" are highly heritable, which is unsurprising
because many/most major psychological characteristics have a
high heritability (assuming a population that is normally
distributed). I see this as having a Divine imprint on it, but
others disagree.
Alex
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
A. Alexander Beaujean
University of Missouri-Columbia
http://www.missouri.edu/~aab2b3
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