INTELLIGENCE

WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?

◼ The capacity to understand the world, think rationally, and use resources
effectively when faced with challenges.
◼ Early psychologists interested in intelligence assumed that there was a
single, general factor for mental ability, which they called g, or the
g-factor.
◼ This general intelligence factor was thought to underlie performance in
every aspect of intelligence, and it was the g-factor that was presumably
being measured on tests of intelligence
 WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?

◼ More recent theories explain intelligence in a different light. Rather than

viewing intelligence as a unitary entity.
◼ Some psychologists consider it to be a multidimensional concept that
includes different types of intelligence
 FLUID AND CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE
◼ There are two different kinds of intelligence: fluid intelligence and
crystallized intelligence.
◼ Fluid intelligence reflects information-processing capabilities, reasoning, and
memory.
◼ Fluid intelligence encompasses the ability to reason abstractly.
◼ If we were asked to solve an analogy, group a series of letters according to some
criterion, or remember a set of numbers we would be using fluid intelligence.
◼ We use fluid intelligence when we’re trying to rapidly solve a puzzle.
 FLUID AND CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE
◼ In contrast, crystallized intelligence is the accumulation of information, skills, and
strategies that people have learned through experience & that they can apply in
problem-solving situations.
◼ It reflects our ability to call up information from long-term memory.
◼ We would be likely to rely on crystallized intelligence, if we were asked to participate
in a (discussion about the solution to the causes of poverty) a task that allows us to
draw on our own past experiences and knowledge of the world.
 GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

◼ Gardner argues that we have a minimum eight different forms of

intelligence, each relatively independent of the others:
◼ Musical, bodily kinesthetic, logical, mathematical, linguistic, spatial,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.
◼ In Gardner’s view, each of the multiple intelligences is linked to an independent
system in the brain.
 PRACTICAL AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
◼ Practical intelligence is intelligence related to overall success in living.
◼ Sternberg argues that career success requires a very different type of intelligence
from that required for academic success.
◼ Whereas academic success is based on knowledge of a specific information base obtained
from reading and listening, practical intelligence is learned mainly through observation of
others’ behavior.
◼ People who are high in practical intelligence are able to learn general norms and principles
and apply them appropriately.
◼ practical intelligence tests, measure the ability to employ broad principles in solving
everyday problems
 PRACTICAL AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
◼ Some psychologists broaden the concept of intelligence even further beyond the
intellectual realm to include emotions.
◼ Emotional intelligence is the set of skills that underlie the accurate assessment,
evaluation, expression, and regulation of emotions.
◼ Emotional intelligence is the basis of empathy for others, self-awareness, and social skills. It
encompasses the ability to get along well with others.
◼ EI provides an understanding of what other people are feeling and experiencing, which permits us to
respond appropriately to others’ needs.
◼ These abilities may help explain why people with only modest scores on traditional intelligence tests
can be quite successful: the basis of their success may be a high emotional intelligence, which allows
them to respond appropriately and quickly to others’ feelings.
 ASSESSING INTELLIGENCE
◼ Psychologists who study intelligence have focused much of their attention on the development of intelligence tests
and have relied on such tests to quantify a person’s level of intelligence.
◼ Intelligence tests Tests devised to quantify a person’s level of intelligence.

◼ The first real intelligence tests were developed by the French psychologist Alfred Binet (1857–1911).

◼ Binet devised the first formal intelligence test, which was designed to identify the “dullest” students in the Paris
school system in order to provide them with remedial aid.
◼ On the basis of the Binet test, children were assigned a score relating to their mental age.

◼ Assigning a mental age to students provided an indication of their general level of

performance.
◼ Intelligence quotient, (IQ) = MA= Mental age, CA= chronological age
◼
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY: TAKING THE MEASURE OF
TESTS
◼ psychological tests have reliability—that they measure consistently what they are
trying to measure.
◼ We need to be sure that each time we administer the test, a test-taker will achieve the
same results—assuming that nothing about the person has changed relevant to what is
being measured.
◼ A test has validity when it actually measures what it is supposed to measure.
◼ A test is reliable is no guarantee that it is also valid.
 MENTAL RETARDATION
(INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES)
◼ Mental retardation ( or intellectual disability) is a disability characterized by
significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in conceptual, social, and
practical adaptive skills.
◼ Occurs in 1%–3% of the population.
◼ Most people with mental retardation have relatively minor deficits and are classified
as having mild retardation. These individuals, who have IQ scores ranging from 55 to
69.
◼ Although their development is typically slower than that of their peers, they can
function quite independently by adulthood and are able to hold jobs and have families
of their own
◼ With greater degrees of intellectual deficit—moderate retardation (IQs of 40 to 54),
severe retardation (IQs of 25 to 39), and profound retardation (IQs below 25).
◼ For people with moderate retardation, deficits are obvious early, with language and
motor skills lagging behind those of peers. Although
these individuals can hold simple jobs, they need to have a moderate degree of
supervision throughout their lives.
◼ Individuals with severe and profound mental retardation are generally unable to
function independently and typically require care for their entire lives (Garwick,
2007).
◼ The most common preventable cause of retardation is fetal alcohol syndrome,
produced by a mother’s use of alcohol while pregnant. Increasing evidence shows that
even small amounts of alcohol intake can produce intellectual deficits.
◼ Down syndrome results when a person is born with 47 chromosomes instead of the
usual 46. In most cases, there is an extra copy of the 21st chromosome, which leads to
problems in how the brain and body develop.
◼ Birth complications, such as a temporary lack of oxygen, may also cause retardation.
In some cases, mental retardation occurs after birth following a head injury, a stroke,
or infections such as meningitis
◼ the majority of cases of mental retardation are classified as familial
retardation, in which no apparent biological defect exists but there is a history of
retardation in the family.
◼ Whether the family background of retardation is caused by
environmental factors, such as extreme continuous poverty leading to malnutrition, or
by some underlying genetic factor is usually impossible to determine.
 THE INTELLECTUALLY GIFTED
◼ About 2%–4% of the population, the intellectually gifted have IQ scores greater than 130.

◼ Although the stereotype associated with the gifted suggests that they are awkward, shy social misfits who are
unable to get along well with peers, most research indicates that just the opposite is true.
◼ The intellectually gifted are most often outgoing, well-adjusted, healthy, popular people who are able to do
most things better than the average person can.
◼ Researchers have acknowledged that without some form of special attention, the gifted become bored and
frustrated with the pace of their schooling and may never reach their potential.
◼ Consequently, programs for the gifted are designed to provide enrichment that allows participants’ talents to
flourish.