Physique and Intellect
REVIEWS
- Author:
Donald G. Paterson. New York: The
Century Co. (Century Psychology Series). 1930.
There have been during the past few decades many investigations directed primarily toward the determination of the relation between those two factors which the author of this book generalizes under the names physique and intellect. The theoretical and practical importance of the results of these investigations for the entire field of psychology is evident. The published results of such studies, however, have been widely scattered and not always available to the student. Thus in the first place Professor Paterson has done ?in extremely useful service in bringing together the gist of all this material in the present admirable form. This, however, is only the minor part of his service; the material here treated required not only a systematic presentation, but likewise the eminent critical judgment which Professor Paterson is qualified to give it. The first general impression of the book is to make one wonder whether there have ever been so many commonly held notions?and, to the theoretically minded, apparently reasonable notions?exploded in so brief a space. Many of the investigations discussed here were conducted before the more refined methods of statistical analysis were widely employed, and on what seem now to be very inadequate grounds investigators hastened to conclusions and generalizations, a tendency which is not impeded by the fact that the conclusion is just what one Avould expect to find. This book reveals very strikingly how what at first sight seem reliable conclusions disappear when exposed to the light of exacting quantitative analysis.
The general term intellect is used by the author to apply to what in one chapter he calls intelligence, in another mental age. The most commonly employed indices of this factor are age-grade location in school and standard tests among which the Stanford Eevision of the Binet-Simon occupies the most prominent position although other tests of the verbal type may be substituted for it. The author wisely does not waste his time in a critical analysis of what these tests test; his task is to determine whether there is any correlation between what they test and the various physical factors here considered. The most important of these physical factors are: height, weight, cranial measurements, anatomical age, physiological development, morphological indices. The author’s conclusions may be summarized briefly. The correlation of height and weight with intellect is apparently positive but very slight, certainly not a significant correlation. Even head size and shape, where a correlation would bo more likely to be expccted, show the same result with no significant relations to mental development except in pathological cases. Physiological changes like dentition and pubescence are only slightly, if at all, related to intellect, as are also morphological indices of body build. Likewise physical defects and even harmful physical conditions like malnutrition, diseased tonsils, adenoids, defective teeth, even hookworm, show no deleterious influence upon mental growth. In fact unless disease or injury affects the central nervous system directly it lias no significant relation to intellectual development. Obviously of course, as the author points out, these findings will not diminish our efforts toward the prevention and cure of every type of physical defect where possible; we wTill merely know not to expect great changes to result in the field of mental growth. This review merely summarizes the results generally negative or only very slightly positive which are found when an attempt is made to find a correlation between physique and intellect. Numerous tables which give the original data of the various investigations and which substantiate every point made are included in the book and add greatly to its value.
The chapter on “Physique and Temperament” is concerned with the relation between physique and certain non-intellectual aspects of personality which the author subsumes generally under ‘temperament.’ We find in this field a great variety of attempts which the author considers critically. Among the physical factors considered are physiognomy, endocrinological factors, types of body structure. These range all the way from pseudo-science to the work of those who are making a serious attempt to develop a science of characterology, among whom Kretschmer is perhaps the best known. Relations between physical factors and temperament, in the author’s opinion, may and probably do exist, but many of the notions put forth should be looked upon merely as hypotheses. There is also great danger that data based on the observation of abnormal subjects will be applied in the normal group. That the study of such factors as endocrine secretion is of great importance to any science of human behavior will not be doubted but one can not refrain from quoting the author’s apt statement in this connection, “What we need is less endocrinological speculation in psychology and more psychological experimentation in the field of endocrinology.” In conclusion stress must be laid upon the extreme value of this book to the clinical psychologist. It is inevitable that in dealing with individual cases one becomes impressed with relationships which may occur in one case and then looks for such relationships in other cases. There is also a great danger that a mere chance relationship will seem to be a causal one. This book will teach us to be more cautious in sucli situations. On the other hand, we must not lose sight of the fact that in clinical psychology we are dealing with individual cases, often exceptional cases, and the fact that certain relationships disappear in the statistical treatment of group results, while it throws valuable light on the probability of the relationship, does not entirely preclude it in individual clinical analysis.
Miles Murphy
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