Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior

A ability This concept denotes competence in an activity (see COMPETENCIES). It is the capacity to act-it is realized talent. Ability is a synonym for mental power, although there are other human abilities beyond the cognitive domain. Ability, a construct inferred from human performance, is a product of inherited genetic predispositions and acquired characteristics. Basic or general abilities are important for performance of a wide range of tasks (see PERFORMANCE, INDIVIDUAL). Historically, intelligence was seen as the basic human ability, and perhaps the most classic controversy in psychology is whether intelligence is a general ability (g) or a collection of specific abilities. Spearman, at the turn of the century, studied the relations between various mental measures and concluded that intelligence (see INTELLIGENCE, TESTING) has one general component and several secondary components. Thorndike and Thurstone argued that there are multiple components of intelligence; the most comprehensive conceptualization of intelligence is Guilfords structure of intellect model, which proposes 120 cognitive abilities.