Lesson 7: Intelligence

Attention

Click on the logo to Psychology Today magazine for a list of articles related to Intelligence

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Define and understand the nature of test constructs, such as intelligence, personality, and creativity.
  • Link intelligence to the use of cognitive skills and strategies.
  • Explain why intelligence tests predict achievement.

Teaching

How would you measure Intelligence? What is smart?

Consider the most intelligent person you know...why is this person intelligent, or why do they come across as intelligent? Are they good at one particular thing? Are they good at many things? Do they "talk intelligent"? Do they have a lot of "street smarts"? Do they have a lot of degrees?

How we define this well known concept is the topic of much research and debate within Psychology.

What is Normal (The Normal Curve)

Normal is defined in a number of ways:

  • Statistics
    • Anything that is sufficiently rare is considered to be "abnormal"
    • Bill Gates is abnormal in terms of his earning capacity
    • Tiger Woods is abnormal in terms of his golfing ability
    • Normal is something that lays between -2 and +2 "Standard Deviations represented in the image of the Normal Curve below

  • Social Norms
    • Normal is also defined as those behaviors that fit within the expectations of a given society or group
    • Behavior outside of these definitions are deemed abnormal
  • Survival
    • Normal constitutes behaviors that are adaptive and allow the person to live and be happy
    • Abnormal constitute behaviors that are non-adaptive and bring about unwanted pain and discomfort

Intelligence is a great subject to discuss Normal and Abnormal because the terms are easily understood as use them all the time.

  • Definitions of Abnormal Intelligence
    • Retardation---scores lower than a 70 on the IQ scale (notice how that lines up with the -2 Standard Deviation line!)
    • Giftedness---scores higher than a 130 on the IQ scale or has a specific exceptional ability

Intelligence has been defined in many ways...consult your text to learn about the following ways in which Intelligence has been defined:

  • Spearman G
  • IQ and Mental Age
  • Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
    • Componential Intelligence: analytical thinking and abstract reasoning.
    • Experiential Intelligence: insightful and creative thinking.
    • Contextual Intelligence: Street smarts and practical knowledge.

Sternberg on the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence  
Click HERE to view this video on YouTube

  • Gardiner's theory of Multiple Intelligence
    • Linguistic Intelligence: language skills as seen in the poet's facility with words
    • Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: the abstract thinking and problem solving
      shown by mathematicians and scientists and emphasized by Piaget
    • Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence: the "intelligent" movement shown by dancers,
      athletes, and surgeons
    • Spatial Intelligence: most obvious in great artists who can perceive things
      accurately and transform what they see
    • Intrapersonal Intelligence: understanding of one's own feeling and inner life
    • Interpersonal Intelligence: social intelligence, social skill, exceptional sensitivity
      to other people's motivations and moods
    • Musical Intelligence: based on an acute sensitivity to sound patterns

Howard Gardiner on Multiple Intelligence  
Click HERE to view the video on YouTube

Click HERE to take a Multiple Intelligence test based on Gardiner's theory!
(...a special thanks to Daniel Meng for finding this!)

Assessment

Lesson 7 Discussion

For this particular discussion I want you to go online and take an IQ test.

www.iqtest.com
This is a commercial site, so it will ask if you want to purchase a full profile report...you do not have to, it will send your IQ score to you directly in your email and that is all you need to complete this discussion.

From this same site you can visit pages that discuss...
IQ Testing and Standard Deviation
Test Score Comparison Chart
History of Intelligence Testing

Now that you have your IQ score according to this test examine the two major theories of intelligence are those proposed by Gardner and Sternberg above. Discuss how the IQ test is different from the types of Intelligence that are proposed by Gardner and Sternberg. What does this mean in terms of the relationship between the definitions of intelligence and the validity of intelligence tests? Do you think your IQ is an accurate portrayal of your true intelligence, or do you think a test based on Gardner or Sternberg's theory would be better? Why?

Since I would not dare to have you do anything I would not do myself...
Click HERE to see Mark Kavanaugh's report...I paid the $9.95 for the full report to see what it was like and copied it into this document