Intelligence Chapter 8 What Is Intelligence Intelligence is

Intelligence Chapter 8

What Is Intelligence? ® Intelligence is the overall capacity of an individual to act purposefully, think rationally, and deal effectively with the environment

Theories of Intelligence: One Ability or Many ® A key issue is whethere is one intelligence or many

Wechsler’s Theory ® Wechsler argued that intelligence tests involving spatial relations and verbal comprehension reveal little about someone’s overall capacity to deal with the world ® In his view, intelligence is not mathematical functioning or a problem-solving ability, but rather the broad ability to deal with the world

Factor Theories ® Factor theories use factor analysis to explore what makes up intelligence ® Factor analysis is a statistical procedure designed to discover the independent elements (factors) in a set of data ® With regard to intelligence, factor analysis attempts to find clusters of items that measure common abilities

Jensen’s Two-Level Theory Jensen suggests that intelligence consists of associative and cognitive abilities ® Associative abilities enable people to connect stimuli and events ® Cognitive abilities involve reasoning and problem solving ®

Vygotsky’s View ® Vygotsky saw intellectual development as occurring in a social context that includes communication with the self and others

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences ® Gardner proposed that there are multiple types of intelligence and traditional intelligence tests do not measure them ® Gardner defines intelligence as an ability to solve a problem or create a product within a specific cultural setting

Gardner’s Intelligences ® Linguistic ® Logical Mathematical ® Spatial ® Bodily-Kinesthetic ® Naturalist (Relational) ® Interpersonal (Social) ® Intrapersonal (Self/Meta)

Evidence ® Neurological studies of parallel processes ® Development of independent processes ® Talents and deficits

Emotions: A Different Kind of Intelligence? ® Golman claims that one’s emotional life can matter much more than one’s intellectual abilities ® Emotional intelligence includes selfawareness, impulse control, persistence, ability to recognize emotions in others, and social agility