We all plan and hope for a successful
future. Most of us think that getting there requires time, effort,
responsibility, and intelligence. But, have we ever stopped ourselves and
thought, “what is intelligence?” Is intelligence really the kid in class that
gets straight As or is it something else? Does achievement have anything to do
with intelligence? Is there a specific factor that determines if someone is
intelligent or not? All these questions have circled around the minds of
experts in the past century but even today there is no real concrete and
specific definition of intelligence because of all the different theories and
opinions.
There are many theories to what
influences intelligence and what intelligence is made up of. Many psychologists
agree that there is more than one type of intelligence. Psychologist Charles
Spearman labeled two types of intelligence, g for general intelligence and s
for specific intelligence. This is known as the two factor theory. Other
psychologists like Howard Gardner suggests that there are multiple
intelligences. These are a list of talents or abilities which are referred as
intelligences because they are very different from each other. Gardner proposes
that each intelligence is independent from the other unlike other psychologists
who believed that the combination of certain abilities is what made up
intelligence. Gardner’s theory is called the theory of multiple intelligences.
(The multiple intelligences)
Everyone wishes to know just how
intelligent we are. Over the years intelligence measuring tests have been
developed. One of them is the outdated Stanford-Binet Scale in which
explored different age levels. It was expected that intelligence increased with
age and that older children would have to answer questions of higher
difficulty. Another intelligence test that is still used this day is the
Welchsler Scales and it differs greatly from the Stanford-Binet Scale. It measures
both verbal and nonverbal abilities and its scores are not based on age.
In my opinion everyone is intelligent in
one way or another. There are multiple intelligences and everyone’s talents or
abilities fit into at least one category. People don’t have to be geniuses to
be intelligent. To me intelligence
cannot be measured completely, the most accurate tests are the ones who measure
which type of intelligence we have.
There have been debates whether nature
or nurture influence intelligence. To me they are both dependent on each other.
It has been shown that direct family members have similar IQs but also that
adopted children have similar IQs from their adoptive parents. In my opinion,
if an “intelligent” gene is passed down to a child but the child grows up in an
environment where it cannot learn then that gene won’t work. If a child doesn’t
have an “intelligent” gene but grows up in a healthy environment where it can
learn, then the child will still be “intelligent”.
We all see intelligence as a virtue. But have
we ever stopped and thought what intelligence really is? Is the scientist more
intelligent than the artist? The answer is that probably both of them are more
intelligent than the other. They are more intelligent than the other in certain
areas. Intelligence doesn’t really have a concrete definition and maybe knowing
all the answers is not really intelligence.
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