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Intelligence is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as being the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge. When knowledge is spoken of, it is generally used in terms of education. The extent of education a person has achieved is then what most often determines how much knowledge one has accumulated. Nevertheless, with this definition of intelligence in mind, one might possibly consider the average person to be intelligent. After all, even a person who has never gone to school a day in their life is capable of acquiring knowledge and applying it to some area of their life. Acquiring and applying knowledge could be something as simple as being shown how to mop a floor and then conducting the job using the newly gained know-how.
What one might gather from these different perspectives on intelligence is that any human being has some degree of intellect. A couple of theorists who developed theories based on views such as these were Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg. They each offered compelling theories that originated from the viewpoint that a child’s intelligence can be thought of as a number of specific abilities (Santrock, 2009, pg. 300).
Howard Gardner proposed that there are eight types of intelligence. He suggested that everyone has all of these intelligences to some varying degree. The eight frames of mind that he suggested were: verbal, mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist (Santrock, 2009, pg. 301).
Robert Sternberg developed the triarchic theory of intelligence. This theory states that intelligence comes in three forms: analytical intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence (Santrock, 2009, pg. 300).
To sum up these two theorie...
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...would watch together. The talking animals amused her more than anything. Nevertheless, even though she may not come across as intelligent to most people, I know she is. She can feel when others are hurting or when they are excited. Of course, she may not understand everything to full capacity, but I know she understands much more than people want to give her credit for.
All in all, this sums up my opinion of intelligence. So called “smart people” are not the only ones capable of being placed in the intelligent category. Education means a lot and does even more for people in terms of making them smarter and earning them a way of living, but it is not everything. I believe intelligence goes much deeper.
References
Santrock, J. W. (2009). Life-span Development: Physical and Cognitive Development in Middle and Late Childhood (12th ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill
Traditional theories of intelligence do not account for the ambiguity of classes such as philosophy or for the wide range of interests a child can have. For example, contemporary theories such as Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence and Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences both account for more than the general intelligence accounted for in traditional intelligence theories. According to Robert Sternberg’s Successful (Triarchic) Theory of Intelligence, are Hector’s difficulties in philosophy indicative of future difficulties in the business world? According to Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence, Hector’s difficulty in philosophy will not negatively affect his future. Sternberg would instead focus on elements of successful intelligence like Hector’s involvement and contribution as an individual, as opposed to relying on intelligence measured by tests.
To be intelligent means to be able to apply what we learned in school and use what we learned in our everyday life to achieve a goals that is sit or one that we are accomplishing without knowing. Many people think that a person is intelligent because they went to a university, got a degree, and have a good paying job, so they must be smart and know everything however thats not always true. If we would ask a teacher or professor the chances of them knowing how to fix a car are slim. So why do we think teachers are so intelligent? We think teachers are intelligent because they know everything about their subjects, know how to teach it and know how to apply their knowledge to their everyday lives.
One such theory is that of Sternberg; Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence categorizes intelligence into three different types: analytical, creative, and practical (Santrock, 2017, pg. 292). Another theory about types of intelligence is Gardner's Eight Frames of Mind. Gardner's Eight Frames of Mind consists of eight categories that describe different types of intelligence, these categories include: verbal, mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist (Santrock, 2017, pg. 293). The importance of recognizing that there are different types of intelligence is that it redefines the way one looks at intelligence as a whole. For instance, say a person is not skilled in mathematics and fails majority of their math courses, one may think this person is just not intelligent. However, acknowledging the different types of intelligence would help one to see that while they may not be a person who is skilled in mathematics, they may be incredibly musically skilled or be great with interpersonal
Howard Gardner’s theory contains eight main multiple intelligence. As the years have progressed there have taken one out and is left with the main seven. These seven are: Linguistic, Mathematical, Spatial, bodily, Musical, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. These are found in everyone; however, each person will excel in one or two. Once teachers can determine what intelligence the students will exceed on and teach to their strengths the student will learn much more.
The triarchic theory of intelligence describes that there are three connected components. The internal, external and experiential, also called analytic, creative and practical components (Comer et al., 2013). The successful interaction between these elements is what makes a person intelligent.
One of the most definitive things ever said regarding the nature of intelligence was that intelligence is whatever IQ tests measure. The IQ test has been in use throughout the 20th century and serves as an accepted measure of a person’s intelligence. It is used by institutions such as schools and the army to screen people’s level of intelligence and decisions are made based on that. The IQ test consists of a series of questions regarding certain skills such as vocabulary, mathematics, spatial relations. The scores that a person gets on these tests depend on the amount of questions that a person answers correctly. The actual score that a person gets is dependant on how others in that age group do on those particular questions.
The definition of intelligence becomes even more complicated when one considers the work of Howard Gardner. Gardner claims that intelligence can not be defined with one definition because intelligence is not one thing. Gardner purports that there are eight different categories of intelligence: musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. He is currently considering adding a ninth category of intelligence: existential (Carvin).
Intelligence by definition is “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills” (Oxford Dictionary, 2014). However, many psychologists argue that there is no standard definition of ‘intelligence’, and there have been many different theories over time as psychologists try to find better ways to define this concept (Boundless 2013). While some believe in a single, general intelligence, others believe that intelligence involves multiple abilities and skills. Another largely debated concept is whether intelligence is genetically determined and fixed, or whether is it open to change, through learning and environmental influence. This is commonly known as the nature vs. nurture debate.
In this paper, I will give a brief overview of Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI). I will also discuss the merits and critiques of the theory in the field of cognitive development. I will also discuss the applicability of Gardner’s theory to my personal development. The final section will cover the application of the theory in a counselling framework. This will be supported by discussing theoretical orientations that would best adopt application of Gardner’s theory.
Sternberg’s theory defines intelligence as mental activity directed towards purposive adaption to, selection and shaping of, real-world environments relevant to one’s life (Santrock, 2013). According to Sternberg intelligence is more than just a single, general ability, he proposed successful intelligence consist of three factors. The three factors include analytical intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence (Santrock, 2014).
It is often difficult to remember that intelligence is purely a social construct, and as such is limited to operational definitions. Binet & Simon (1905, as cited in Mackintosh) defined it purely in terms of mental ability: "the ability to judge well, to comprehend well, to reason well." Wechsler (1944, as cited in Mackintosh) added behavioral factors: "the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment." Sternberg (1985) synthesizes the previous definitions, defining intelligence as "the mental capacity of emitting contextually appropriate behavior at those regions in the experiential continuum that involve response to novelty or automatization of information processing as a function of metacomponents, performance components, and knowledge acquisition components." Gardner (1993) took the definition to a societal level, as "the ability or skill to solve problems or to fashion products which...
In 1983, Howard Gardner a Harvard professor proposed the theory that individual can have multiple ways of learning and processing information. The multiple intelligences consist of 9 different ways and these include: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, existential, musical, naturalistic, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Every individual has a different amount of each intelligence but each intelligence is at a varying level. With the help of a multiple intelligences assessment, I found that my top three multiple intelligences are Intrapersonal, logical, and interpersonal. Within his research Gardner says that “Intrapersonal intelligence refers to people’s ability to recognize and assess those same characteristics
The Oxford Dictionary defines intelligence as “the ability acquire and apply knowledge and skills.” Many people are born naturally intelligent, able to grasp and understand concepts easily, with little work. In children, it is easy to separate those born with higher intellectual ability from the rest, because they easily excel in learning. This skill is often lost by those born with it, and through a great deal of work others attain it. In order for an individual to have true intelligence into her adult years, she must foster what gifts she is given, and strive to better her self academically. Even as early as elementary school, many who are born with natural talent begin to fall behind intellectually. These students are often not
Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard, introduced his theory of multiple intelligences in 1983. Multiple intelligence’s is a theory about the brain that says human beings are born with single intelligence that cannot be changed, and is measurable by a psychologist. Gardner believes that there are eight different intelligences in humans. The eight are verbal linguistic, visual spatial, bodily kinesthetic, mathematical logic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist. Understanding these intelligence’s will help us to design our classroom and curriculum in a way that will appeal to all of our students. We might also be able to curve discipline problems by reaching a student in a different way. One that will make more sense to them and more enjoyable. We can include all of the intelligences in lessons to accommodate all of the students’ different learning styles at once. By reaching each students intelligence we can assume that a student will perform better which, could mean students retaining more important information. A students learning style can also help lead them into a more appropriate career direction. As a teacher you can also learn your own personal learning style or intelligence to help improve the way you learn and teach.
Intelligence can be defined in many different ways. This concept has been the focus of numerous studies and investigations by psychologists and other scientific experts. Intelligence can be the mental ability to reason, plan ahead, understand a wide range of complex issues and learn from past experiences (Gottfredson, 1997). Intelligence is the “resultant of the process of acquiring, storing in memory, retrieving, combining, comparing, and using in new contexts information and conceptual skills” (Humphreys, 1979)