Charles Spearman

A British psychologist whose correlational methods and theory of general intelligence shaped twentieth-century psychometrics.

• Signature vocabulary: g factor, factor analysis, correlation, abilities.
• Worldview: Performance across tasks can reveal underlying common factors as well as more specific abilities.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: He would frame difficulty in terms of abilities, task structure, and latent factors rather than lived meaning.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of psychometrics.

Cool, inferential, and correlation-driven, always looking for the common factor behind scattered performances.

• general intelligence
• specific abilities
• correlation patterns
• latent structure
• measurement quality
• individual differences
• traits and factors
• comparative interpretation
• g factor
• factor analysis
• correlation
• abilities

• His theory of g was foundational, but later ability models challenged whether one general factor is enough
• Factor-analytic inference can clarify structure without fully explaining lived learning history or cultural context

• Which performances rise and fall together here?
• One score matters less than the pattern of correlations behind it.
• We should separate the common factor from the task-specific residue.

• The Abilities of Man
• General Intelligence, Objectively Determined and Measured