The early approach involved three view points with
regard to the meaning of intelligence:
• The capacity to learn.
• The total knowledge a person has acquired
• And, the ability to adapt successfully to new situations and
environment in general.
Thus intelligence is explained in such a manner in which an individual
deals with people, things and ideas. In other words, the degree of
intelligence depends upon the degree of effective integration of one’s
capacities and abilities for dealing successfully with one’s environment.
Intelligence has been deemed for a long time as a descriptive
concept. In the qualitative concept, philosophers described it as a power
of combination, ability to think in abstract terms, power of making good
responses from the view- point of truth, etc. Faculty psychologists
considered it as an aggregation of different faculitiesof mind like
reasoning, observation, imagination, memory, etc.
An individual is said to be intelligent in proportion to his success
in meeting general life situations. In order to understand the full significance of intelligence, we should consider various definitions of
intelligence as given by different psychologists.
• According to Woodworth and Marquis, “Intelligence means
intellect put to use. It is the use of intellectual abilities for handling
a situation or accomplishing any task.”
• According to Alfred Binet, “Intelligence is the ability to judge
well, understand well, and reason well.”
• According to Spearman, “Intelligence is the ability to discriminate
or perceive differences.”
• According to Wechsler, “Intelligence is the aggregate or global
capacity of an individual to act purposefully, to think rationally
and to deal effectively with his environment."
Characteristics/ Nature of intelligence:
Characteristics of intelligence are:
• Intelligence is an innate natural power and not acquired.
• It differs from individual to individual.
• It helps the individual in learning things and making
adjustments.
• It helps man to solve problems of life.
• Heredity exercises a good deal of influence on intelligence.
• Intelligence is not memory. A very intelligent person may have
a dull memory and vice- versa.
• There is no difference in intelligence due to difference in sex.
• Socio-economic and cultural factors as well as racial differences
affect intelligence.
• Intelligence in not the birth right of particular race or group.
Theories of Intelligence:
Psychologists have proposed several theories of intelligence. These
theories can be broadly classified as either representing a
psychometric/ structural approach or as information –processing
approach. The psychometric approach considers intelligence as an
aggregate of abilities. It expresses the individual’s performance in
terms of a single index of cognitive abilities. On the other hand, the
information- processing approach describes the process people use
in intellectual reasoning and problem solving.The major focus of
this approach is on how intelligent person acts, rather than
focusing on structure of intelligence or its underlying dimensions ,
Information - processing approach studying cognitive functions
underlying intelligent behavior. Some representative theories of
these approaches are:
1. Theory of multiple intelligences:
Howard Gardner (1983)
proposed this theory is based on three principles:
a. Intelligence is not a single entity, rather there exists
multiple intelligences, each distinct from others.
b. These intelligences are independent of each other.
c. Different types of intelligences interact. That is,
different intelligences work together to provide a
solution of a problem.
Gardner has so far proposed eight intelligences. However, all the
individuals do not possess them in equal proportion.
The eight
intelligences are as follows:
1. Linguistic intelligence: It is the capacity to use language
fluently and flexibly to express one’s thinking and
understand others. Persons high on this intelligence are
'Word-smart', i.e. they are sensitive to different shades of
word meanings, articulate and create linguistic images in
their mind. Poets and writers are very strong in this
component of intelligence.
2. Logical-mathematical intelligence: This type of intelligence
deals with abstract reasoning and manipulation of symbols
involved in numerical problems. It is exhibited in scientific
work.
3. Spatial intelligence: is used while navigating in space,
forming, transforming and using mental images.Sailors,
engineers, surgeons, painters etc. have highly developed
spatial intelligence.
4. Musical intelligence: It is the capacity to produce, create and
manipulate musical patterns. Persons high on this intelligence
are very sensitive to sounds and vibrations, and creating new
patterns of sounds.
5. Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence:
It requires the skills and
dexterity for fine coordinated motor movements, such as
those required for dancing, surgery, craft making and the
like.
6. Interpersonal intelligence: It requires understanding
motives, feelings and behaviours of other people. Sales
people , Teachers, Clinicians and religious leaders have high
degree of interpersonal intelligence.
7. Intrapersonal intelligence: It is related to understanding
one's self and developing a sense of identity. Persons high on
this ability have finer sensibilities regarding their identity,
human existence and meaning of life. Philosophers and
spiritual leaders present examples of this type of intelligence.
8. Naturalistic intelligence: This involves complete awareness
of our relationship with the natural world. It is useful in
recognising the beauty of different species of flora and fauna
and making subtle discriminations in the natural world.
Hunters, farmers, tourists, bird watchers, zoologists possess
more of naturalistic intelligence.
Stenberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence:
Another important modern theory of intelligence is one proposed by Robert
Sternberg (1985). According to this theory known as the triarchic theory of
intelligence, there are actually three basic types of human intelligence, the first is
called
1. Componential or analytic Intelligence: involves the abilities to think
critically and analytically. Persons high on this dimension usually excel on
standard tests of academic potential and make excellent students. This
intelligence has three components, each serving a different function.
a. The knowledge acquisition component: This is responsible for
learning and acquisition of the ways of doing things.
b. Meta or higher order component: which involves planning
concerning what to do and how to do.
c. Performance component: This involves actually doing things.
2. Experiential or creative Intelligence: emphasizes insight and the ability to
formulate new ideas. Persons who rate high on this dimension excel at
zeroing in on what information is crucial in a given situation, and at
combining seemingly unrelated facts. It is reflected in creative performance.
This is the kind of intelligence shown by many scientific geniuses and
inventors, such as Einstein, Newton.
3. Contextual or practical intelligence: It is the most interesting of all. It involves
the ability to deal with environmental demands encountered on a daily basis.
Persons high on this aspect easily adapt to their present environment or select a
more favourable environment than the existing one, or modify the environment to
fit their needs. Therefore, they turn out to be successful in life.
According to Sternberg, solving practical problems requires a kind of
different intelligence from that required for success in school or other intellectual
pursuits. And, as this example suggests, practical intelligence can be valuable in
many contexts.
Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence represents the information
processing approach to understand intelligence.
PASS Model/THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE:
Arguments against a general factor of intelligence arise from logical
considerations and from clinical observations. Clinically, in case of brain damage,
specific cognitive functions are often spared while others remain impaired. In
addition, individuals who have significantly damaged frontal lobe functions may
have normal IQ’s. Similarly, some dyslexic children have high IQ’s despite their
significant difficulties in reading. These examples challenge the usefulness of a
one-dimensional notion of general intelligence.
A general ability view leads to different questions and measures of ability
than a view that intelligence is made up of multiple and independent cognitive
processes.
Addressing these concerns, Das, Naglieri, and Kirby (1994) proposed the
planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive (PASS) theory which refers to
four kinds of competence.
1. Planning: Planning processes are required when an individual makes
decisions about how to solve a problem, carry out an activity, or compose a
narrative. This component involves goal setting, as well as anticipating and
monitoring feedback. It allows us to think of possible courses of action,
implement them to reach a target and evaluate their effectiveness. If a plan
doesn’t work, it is modified to suit the requirements of the task or situation.
2. Attention or arousal: is the process that allows a person to selectively
attend to some stimuli while ignoring others, resist distractions, and maintain
vigilance. Arousal and attention enable a person to process information. An
optimal level of arousal focuses our attention to the relevant aspects of a
problem. Too much or too little arousal would interfere with attention.
3. Simultaneous processing: one can integrate the information into her/his
knowledge system either simultaneously or successively. Simultaneous
processing integrates stimuli into groups. As a result, stimuli are seen as
whole, each piece being related to others.
4. Successive processing: includes integrating stimuli in a specific serial order,
so that the recall of one leads to the recall of another. For example, to
understand English syntax an individual has to process words to determine
their grammatical function. Learning of digits, alphabets, multiplication
tables etc. are example of successive processing.
Culture and intelligence: A major characteristic of intelligence is that it helps
individual to adapt to their environment. The cultural environment provides a
context for intelligence to develop. A person’s intelligence is likely to be tuned
by different cultural parameters such as customs, beliefs, attitudes and
achievements in art and literature.
Sternberg’s notion of contextual or practical intelligence implies that
intelligence is a product of culture. Vygotsky has argued that culture provides a
social context in which people live, grow and understand the world around
them. For e.g. In less technologically developed societies, social and emotional
skills in relating to people are valued, while in technologically advanced
societies, personal achievement founded on abilities of reasoning and judgment
is considered to represent intelligence.
Vygotsky also believed that cultures, like individuals, have a life of their
own; they grow and change and in the process specify what will be the end
product of successful intellectual development. According to him, while
elementary mental functions (e.g. Crying, attending to mothers voice, walking,
running,etc) are universal, the manner in which higher mental functions such as
problem solving and thinking operate are largely culture-produced.
Technologically advanced societies adopt child rearing practices that foster
skills of generalisation and abstraction, speed, minimal moves, and abstraction,
speed, minimal moves, and mental manipulation among children. These
societies promote a type of behavior, which can be called technological
intelligence. In these societies, persons are well-versed in skills of attention,
observation, analysis, performance, speed and achievement orientation. Intelligence tests developed in western cultures look precisely for these skills in
an individual.
Technological intelligence is not so valued in many Asian and African
societies. In addition to cognitive competence that is very specific to the
individual, the non-western cultures look for skills to relate to others in the
society. Some non-western societies value self-reflection and collectivistic
orientation as opposed to personal achievement and individualistic orientation.
Contrary to technological intelligence, intelligence in the Indian tradition
can be termed as integral intelligence, which gives emphasis on connectivity
with the social and world environment. Indian thinkers view intelligence from a
holistic perspective where equal attention is paid to cognitive and non-cognitive
processes as well as their integration.
Intelligence in the Indian thought system is treated as a state, a process, and
an entity, the realization of which depends upon one’s own effort, persistence,
and motivation.
MEANING OF APTITUDE:
An aptitude is a combination of characteristics that indicates an individual’s capacity to acquire
some specific knowledge or skill after training. It simply states that you need to possess various qualities
in different proportions to learn or become something, such as to acquire ability to speak a language or
to become a musician and so on.
These qualities can be harnessed by appropriate training e.g., If a person does not have special
abilities required to become a musician, such as discrimination between pitch, tone, rhythm and aspects
of musical sensitivity, he/she would not be a musician, even after a sufficient training.
Aptitude refers to the potential ability of the individual to perform a task, which generally
consists of a combination of abilities.
Definitions:
According to Bingham, “Aptitude is a measure of the probability of success of an individual with
training, in certain type of situation”.
According to Hahn and Mclean, “It is hidden potential which can be trained”.
TYPES OF APTITUDE:
1. Mechanical Aptitude: means the manipulation of objects to achieve desired practical
results. It also involves the manipulation of symbols representing the objects, their
relationships in time and space as engineering or piloting.
2. Clerical aptitude: Super says, “In routine clerical work one would expect speed and accuracy
in checking numerical and verbal symbols to be characteristic of the successful worker.
There is some justification for referring to this ability as clerical aptitude”.
Clerical duties include gathering, classification and presentation of data of all sorts and
analysis and use of these data in planning, executing and determining the results of
experiment.
3. Literacy aptitude: it is a recently recognized aptitude. It represents a number of skills like
information and literary events, literary composition and appreciation etc.
GIFTEDNESS MEANING:
The term ‘gifted’ is an adjective, which refers to a person endowed with one gift or many gifts,
exceptionally talented or intelligent. The study of such gifted persons began with the work of Lewis
Terman in 1925, who developed intelligence tests for screening populations to identify individuals of
superior cognitive ability. Thus, giftedness was defined as light general intelligence as measured by high
score on test of intelligence. In recent years, however, giftedness is defined as a superior ability in any
worthwhile line in human endeavor including moral, physical, emotional, social, intellectual or aesthetic
life of the humanity.
• Gifted individuals exhibit high level of performance in comparison to their peers living in the
same social-cultural background.
• Giftedness is not restricted to performance, on a test of intelligence. Rather, it is combination of
general ability, special talents, self-concept and motivation that predisposes the gifted person to
learn, to achieve and strive for excellence.
• It is not just limited to school related activities but it is the nature and organization of abilities
that constitute giftedness.
Characteristics of Gifted Children:
A few characteristics of gifted children are as:
• A higher order in thinking process, problem solving and decision making.
• High incidence of social and emotional problems.
• Transferring skills to new problems and solving problems insightfully.
• Preference for being solitary and is introverted.
• Independent thinking and non-conformism.
• High on self-efficacy and internal locus of control.
• Intrinsically motivated to achieve mastery, derive pleasure from work and having a high selfesteem about their intellectual capacities.
Identification of Gifted:
The tests of intelligence and achievement have been most frequently employed for the
identification of the gifted children. Many special programmes for gifted children have rather used to
cut off points such as IQ’s of 130, 135,150 or 160 or achievement at about 95th percentile.
However attention is given to the following types of data as an indicator of giftedness:
Performance on group intelligence test.
Teacher judgment.
School record, including achievement test scores and teacher grades.
Performance on individual intelligence test.
Appraisal of social and emotional maturity and adjustment.
Parent interviews.
Pupil ambition and drive.
Tests of Intelligence:
We are only familiar with that intelligence of an individual which is manifested by him on an
intelligence test or tests. Psychologists have devised so many such tests for the measurement of
intelligence.
Classification of Intelligence Tests:
As far as the administrative point of view is concerned the intelligence tests can be classified
into two broad categories namely:
1) Individual tests: In which only one individual is tested at a time.
2) Group test: In which a group of individuals is tested at a time.
Another way of classifying the intelligence tests is based on the form of the test. Accordingly
there are two types of tests. a) Verbal tests or Language tests.
b) Non-verbal tests or non-language tests.
a) Verbal or Language tests: - These tests make use of language. Here the instructions are
required in words (either in written or oral form or both). Individuals are required to use
language as well as paper and pencil for giving the responses. The test content is loaded with
verbal material.
b) Non-Verbal and Non-Language tests: - These tests involve such activities in which use of
language is not necessary. The use of language is eliminated from test content and response
except in giving directions.
The typical examples of such non-verbal tests are performance tests.
Performance Tests:
A performance test is an assessment that requires an examinee to actually perform
a test or activity, rather simply answering questions referring to specific parts. The purpose is to ensure
greater fidelity to what is being tested.
The main characteristics of these tests are given below:-
What an individual has to do is indicated by the tester either through oral instructions
or by pantomime or signs.
Test contents of these tests are in the form of material objects.
Individual responses depend upon what he does or performs rather than by anything
he says or writes.
Generally these tests are individual tests. As Dr. Pillaj observes, “These cannot be used
as group tests, chiefly because it is necessary to supervise the individual testee at work
and give him/her necessary directions.
Individual difference in Intelligence (the Role of Heredity
and the Role of environment):
Human intelligence is clearly the result of the complex
interplay between genetic factors and a wide range of
environmental conditions.
Several lines of research offer support for the view that
heredity plays an important role in human intelligence. If
intelligence is indeed determined by heredity, we would expect
that the more closely two persons are related, the more similar their IQs will be. This prediction has generally been confirmed.
For example,. The IQs of identical twins raised together
correlate +.90, those of brothers and sisters about +.50, and
those of cousins about +.15.
If intelligence is strongly affected by genetic factors, the IQs of
adopted children should resemble those of their biological
parents more closely than those of their genes than to the
persons who raised them.
In this investigation, the researchers studied 245 children who
were placed for adoption by their mothers shortly after birth
until they were teenagers. In addition, measures were obtained
of their biological mothers ‘intelligence and of their adoptive
parents’ intelligence. A comparison group of children who
were living with their biological parents was tested in the same
manner. The result showed a clear pattern: The correlation
between the adopted children’s intelligence and that of their
biological parents increased over time, as did the correlation
between the intelligence of the control group and that of their
parents.In contrast, the correlation between the intelligence of
the adopted children and that of their adoptive parents
decreased over time. These findings suggest that genetic factors
play an important role in intelligence.
Genetic factors are not only the entire picture where
intelligence is concerned, environmental factors/ variables are
also important. Changes in environmental factors like better
nutrition, increased urbanization, the advent of T.V, and better
education, more cognitively demanding jobs, and even
exposure to computer games also play a role in intelligence.
Additional support for the role of environmental factors in
intelligence is provided by the findings that many biological
factors that children encounter while growing up can affect
their intelligence. Prolonged malnutrition can adversely affect
IQ. Exposure to such factors as alcohol and drugs, indicate that
these factors can also adversely affect intelligence.
In sum, therefore, many forms of evidence support the view
that intelligence is determined, at least in part, by
environmental factors. Especially when these are extreme, they
may slow- or accelerate- children’s intellectual growth; and this
effect, in turn, can have important implications for the societies
in which those children will become adults.
