PSYCHOLOGY

Part 1 and Part 2

Intelligence (Part 1)

Introduction

Intelligence is one's ability to cope with the ever changing environment around us and make decisions in accordance with experience and what the individual has learned prior to making an attempt to solve the conflict at hand. Intelligence is also considered to describe one's ability to adapt to new situations.

Discussion

It is quite hard to assess the intelligence of an individual. The primary reason behind the inability to judge is that the word can be taken to mean so many varying things. One might consider intelligence to mean how well the individual does in school; another might consider intelligence to mean how well the individual adapts to situations so on and so forth. A worthy method of describing an individual's intelligence is through is through the method described by Charles Spearmen, with respect to the factor analysis approach. Howard Gardner, supports the concept that intelligence can take many forms, so that so if a part of the brain is diminished and the individual is left incapable of accomplishing a specific task, this does not mean that the individual has lost all intelligence.

In comparison to Gardner's eight types of intelligence, Sternberg suggest three; analytical, creative and practical. Methods of assessing intelligence vary, such that observed in testing mechanisms formed by Binet, Terman and Wechsler. However, most intelligence assessing techniques utilize the measuring of standardization, reliability and validity. With that being said, scholars have agreed that genetics plays a part in sculpting one's intelligence but is not the sole reason behind why one child is excellent at school and another is fairly weak despite being siblings. However, it has been observed that the environment in which the child is brought up has a great effect on how the child progresses in life. Similarly, the school environment also plays a large role in developing a child's intelligence levels.

It has also been observed that intelligence score vary based on race. White individuals have been seen to score higher in academic testing as compared to African Americans. This can link be link to the genes among varying races but this is nothing more than one of a few factors. Differences also exist amongst genders. It has been seen that females are generally better at spelling and have better oratory skills as compared to men. Men are better at mathematical problem solving but suffer at computations, where women take the lead. Women have also been known to be better at utilizing their five senses, at locating objects and are better in tune with their emotions.

Conclusion

Measuring intelligence is no easy task and therefore, it is quite hard to distinguish individuals based on academic testing. Had there been words that differentiate academic intelligence from other forms, arts and oratory skills for example, judging intelligence would have been much simpler. Furthermore, differences in race, upbringing and environment also make testing rather biased towards academia and thus are in adequate means of determining whether or not an individual is ...