Theories of Intelligence Paper
Controversy, controversy, and more controversy; and, here again, we have varied opinions as to how intelligence is defined. Psychologists continue to debate as to what exactly constitutes or defines intelligence. Whether it is an aptitude, or a range of aptitudes or a single general intelligence derived from a mental ability or physical ability continues to be the argument.
According to David Myers (2014) “Intelligence experts agree: Intelligence is a concept and not a “thing” (p. 368). Some researchers believe intelligence is measured by a battery of tests but later understanding that intelligence is not a quality that can be measured and consistently have the same meaning universally. Culture plays an important
…show more content…
371). Sternberg’s triage theory proposed three areas which are Analytical Intelligence, Creative Intelligence, and Practical Intelligence.
When a comparison is made between Gardener and Sternberg’s theories, there is one conclusive theory that is agreed upon and that is “There is more to creativity than intelligence test scores … intelligence is more than just verbal and mathematical skills. Other abilities are equally important to our human adaptability” (Myers, 2014, p. 372).
Sternberg’s theory reduces the eight distinct areas in Gardener’s theory to “three facets which can be reliably measured” (Myers, 2014, p. 372). Although Sternberg and Gardener’s theories had some commonalities, they did differ on specific points. Steinberg’s focus was on specific areas of intelligence associated with academic principles. His concern was to help people develop these areas of intelligence so they would excel in any area of their choosing. The key to Sternberg’s belief is the elements of studying and practicing. He believed that a person’s social background plays an important role along with their mental capacity and, therefore, includes in his theory what he calls “Practical
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. Sternberg theorized that a person’s true worth of intelligence was measured based on his information-processing skills such as his metacomponents, performance components, and knowledge-acquisition components; his overall life experience and ability to handle and solve problems; and his context, or ability to adapt to his
General intelligence tends to relate to various degrees with each other (Cohen 2012). An example of this is that if an individual is good in math, they may also be good in spelling. In this weeks reading we reviewed several different models of measurement of intelligence. In regard to these theories and general intelligence (g), the theories are various but have commonality and overlap. The Spearman's two-factor theory is if a test has high correlation with other test than the measurement of g is highly saturated (Cohen, 2012). The greater the importance of g on a test, the better the test is believed to predict intelligence
A Harvard graduate, Howard Gardner is a Psychologist who came up with the multiple intelligence. Regarding arts and education, Gardner recounted the curious dearth of literature that obtained at the time
Intelligence tests have been developed by scientists as a tool to categorize army recruits or analyze school children. But still discussing what intelligence is, academics have a difficult time defining what intelligence tests should measure. According to the American researcher Thorndike, intelligence is only that what intelligence tests claim it is (Comer, Gould, & Furnham, 2013). Thus, depending on what is being researched in the test and depending on the scientist’s definition of intelligence the meaning of the word intelligence may vary a lot. This essay will discuss what intelligence is in order to be able to understand the intelligence theories and aims of intelligence tests.
Many psychology theories have been developed in order to determine how to measure intelligence. Volume 63 of the Annual Review of Psychology details a few studies citing popular theories from the 1970s to 2000 (Deary, 2012), including the measurement of, “sensory discrimination and reaction time,” (Deary, 2012). After 2000, however, “interest has focused, in the broadly psychometric-experimental levels, on processing speed and working memory as potential explanatory variables for intelligence,” (Deary, 2012). In measuring intelligence, scientists are focu...
Human intelligence is an eel-like subject: slippery, difficult to grasp, and almost impossible to get straight [3]. Many scientist and psychologist have made numerous attempts to come up with an explanation for the development of human intelligence. For many years, there has been much controversy over what intelligence is and whether it is hereditary or nurtured by the environment. Webster's dictionary defines intelligence as "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge; which includes a sensing an environment and reaching conclusions about the state of that environment [7]. In this paper I am going to examine the factors, which make up ones intelligence. I will be investigating whether or not intelligence is fostered by genetic heritance or nurtured by ones environment.
Most researchers believe that we are born with a certain intelligence or potential intelligence. They also believe that the intelligence we are born with is difficult to change. Psychologists use short-answer tests to assess one’s intelligence (Gardner papers). It was believed that intelligence was a single inherited thing. Human beings start out initially as a blank slate and could be trained to learn anything, provided that it was presented in an appropriate way (Multiple Intelligences and Education). Currently an “increasing number of researchers believe the opposite. Gardner defined intelligence as: “the ability to create an effective product or offer a service that is valued in culture; a set ...
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.
Gardner believes that all people excel in at least one category of intelligence. However, he cautions teachers using the multiple intelligence approach in the classroom: “Do not label kids as ‘spatial, but not linguistic’ or, for that...
On the ‘nature’ side of the debate is the psychometric approach, considered to be the most dominant in the study of intelligence, which “inspired the most research and attracted the most attention” (Neisser et al. 1996, p. 77). It argues that there is one general (‘g’) factor which accounts for intelligence. In the 1880s, Francis Galton conducted many tests (measuring reaction times to cognitive tasks), (Boundless 2013), in order to scientifically measure intelligence. These tests were linked to the eugenic breeding programme, which aimed to eliminate biologically inferior people from society. Galton believed that as intelligence was inherited, social class or position were significant indicators of intelligence. If an individual was of high social standing, they would be more intelligent than those of a lower position. However he failed to show any consistency across the tests for this hypothesis, weakening his theory that social class correlated with intelligence. Nevertheless, his creation of the intelligence test led many to continue to develop...
Gardner’s theory of MI offers an alternative view of intelligence which has measured intelligence based on the results that would predict success in the current educational system. Furham (2009) sums up Gardner’s definition as “the ability to solve problems or to create products that are valued within one or more cultural settings”. This definition suggests that human intelligence is comprised of more than the predictable success in a western school system. Gardner argues that traditional definitions of intelligence and intelligence testing are too narrow and marginalize people who do not fit traditional education system that focuses on visual–spatial, verbal–linguistic, and logical–mathematical intelligences. He supports this with unique cases of idiots savant, who are people with low IQs but excel in skills in areas not measured through tradition IQ tests (Arnett, 2013). MI theory proposes that individual’s intelligence can be differentiated on eight different modalities:
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...
Interpersonal intelligences are nearly the complete opposite because it is said that “Interpersonal intelligences reflects an ability to recognize and understand other people’s moods, desires, motivations, and intentions” (www.edutopia.org). The third intelligence that I correspond with is logical-mathematical intelligence and Gardner says that “Logical-mathematical intelligences describes the ability to develop equations and proofs, make calculations, and solve abstract problems” (www.edutopia.org). My self-reflection will use the multiple intelligences paradigm to analyze my strengths and weaknesses within my top multiple intelligences which are intrapersonal, interpersonal, and logical-mathematical. I will also examine what careers are congruent with my top multiple intelligences.
When a person utters the word “intelligence,” people tend to think of a genius like Albert Einstein developing some obscure equation that the great majority of the population will never understand. The problem with the definition of intelligence is that people relate intelligence to words like “genius” which require intelligence but do not have the same definition as intelligence. Often, people try to use related words to define intelligence, but these words are unable to define intelligence since many are only different levels of intelligence. While many definitions try to encompass the meaning of intelligence and various definitions describe a small part of intelligence, no definition completely explains intelligence, because intelligence is a concept that is understood only after realizing that intelligence is based on three basic concepts: logic, growth, and emotion. Although many people believe that humans are the only creatures capable of intelligence, other animals exhibit intelligence and are capable of further demonstrate the complex concept of intelligence.