Ability (psychology)

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Abilities ( English ability, aptitude, capability ) are "the totality of the personal conditions required to perform a certain service". According to Winfried Hacker, they are "complex properties that have arisen in life history and which, as solidified systems of generalized psychological processes, control the execution of activities".

The ability is thus an inner disposition that can give rise to psychological activity . Some other terms such as endowment , talent, and ability are used with similar , indistinguishable meanings. The older, seldom used term “property” has been preserved in technical terminology under the historical term “ property psychology”.

Conceptual differentiation

Depending on the area, a distinction is made between cognitive skills and social skills . The sensorimotor functions , from the viewpoint of coordination skills are considered.

There is a connection to intelligence and its measurement, in that cognitive performance and its different characteristics are also discussed there.

Skills often mentioned in this context (“skills and abilities”) are seen as performance in a specific task that develops through practice on the background of cross-task, person-specific skills.

Psychological diagnostics

In psychological diagnostics , the recording of skills is a central subject, because different levels of future success (training, occupation) can be predicted. They correspond to the personality traits as long-lasting, time-stable dispositions of the performance area and can be assessed in terms of quality (target achievement).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut O. Häcker: Ability . In: Dorsch - Lexicon of Psychology . Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Karl Arnold et al. (Ed.): Lexicon of Psychology . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-508-8 ; Col. 48 f. on lemma "activity" and Sp. 556 on lemma "ability".
  3. ↑ Herbert Heuer: Skill . In: Dorsch - Lexicon of Psychology . Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  4. ^ Heinz Walter Krohne, Michael Hock: Psychological diagnostics. Basics and fields of application . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-17-025257-8 , chap. 2.2 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).