INTELLIGENCE

INTRODUCTION

1. Intelligence is a key construct employed to know how individuals differ from one
another. It also provides an understanding of how people adapt their behaviour
according to the environment they live in.
2. Oxford dictionary explains intelligence as the power of perceiving, learning,
understanding and knowing.
3. Alfred Binet was one of the first psychologists who worked on intelligence. He
defined intelligence as the ability to judge well, understand well and reason well.
4. Wechelser whose intelligence tests are most widely used, understood intelligence
in terms of functionality. He defined it is as the global and aggregate capacity of
an individual to think rationally, act purposefully and to deal effectively with
their environment.
5. Other psychologists such as Gardener and Sternberg have suggested that an
intelligent individual not only adapts to the environment but also actively
modifies or shapes it.
6. Gardener defined intelligence as “the ability or skill to solve problems or to
create products, that are valued within one or more cultural settings.”
7. And finally, Sternberg defined as “Intelligence comprises the mental abilities
necessary for adaptation to, as well as shaping & selection of any environmental
context.”

Theories of Intelligence

1. Theories can be broadly classified as either representing a psychometric approach

or an information-processing approach.
2. 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.
3. On the other hand, the information-processing approach describes the processes
people use in intellectual reasoning and problem solving.
4. Binet’s theory of intelligence arose from his interest in differentiating more
intelligent from less intelligent individuals.
 He, therefore, conceptualised intelligence as consisting of one similar set of
abilities which can be used for solving any or every problem in an individual’s
environment. His theory of intelligence is called Uni or one factor theory of
intelligence.
5. Charles Spearman proposed a two-factor theory of intelligence employing a
statistical method called factor analysis.
He showed that intelligence consisted of general factor (g factor) and some
specific factors (s factor). The g factor includes mental operations which are
primary and common to all performances. He said that in addition to this factor
that there also many specific abilities. These are contained in what he called the s-
factor.
Ex: excellent singers, architects, scientists and athletes may be high on g factor
but also, they have specific abilities which allow them to excel in their respective
domains.
6. Howard Gardner proposed the theory of multiple intelligences. According to
him, intelligence is not a single entity: rather patterns, if a person exhibits one
type of intelligence, it does not necessarily indicate being high or low on other
types of intelligences. Gardner also put forth that different types of intelligences
interact and work together to find a solution to a problem. Gardner studied
extremely talented persons, who had shown exceptional abilities in their
respective areas, and described eight types skill of understanding intelligence.
These are as follows:
1) Linguistic (skills involved in the production and use of language): it is
the capacity to use language fluently and flexibly to express one’s
thinking and understand others. Poets and writers are articulate, and
thereby strong in this component of intelligence.
2) Logical-Mathematical (skills in scientific thinking and problem
solving) : Persons high on this type of intelligence can think logically and
critically. They engage in abstract reasoning, and can manipulate symbols
to solve mathematical problems. Scientists and Nobel Prize winners are
likely to be strong in this component.
3) Spatial (skills in forming visual images and patterns): It refers to the
abilities involved in forming. using. and transforming mental images. The
person high on this intelligence can easily represent the spatial world in
 the mind. Pilots, sailors, sculptors, painters. architects, interior decorators,
and surgeons are likely to have highly developed spatial intelligence.
4) Musical (sensitivity to musical rhythms and patterns): It is the capacity to
produce, create and manipulate musical patterns. Persons high on this
intelligence are very sensitive to sounds and vibrations. and in creating
new patterns of sounds.
5) Bodily-Kinaesthetic (using whole or portions of the body flexibly and
creatively): This consists of the use of the whole body or portions of it for
display or construction of products and problem solving. Athletes.
dancers. actors. sportspersons. gymnasts, and surgeons are likely to have
such kind of intelligence.
6) Interpersonal (sensitivity to subtle aspects of others' behaviours): This is
the skill of understanding the motives, feelings and behaviours of other
people so as to bond into a comfortable relationship with others.
Psychologists, counsellors. politicians, social workers, and religious
leaders are likely to possess high interpersonal intelligence.
7) Intrapersonal (awareness of one's own feelings, motives, and desires):
This refers to the knowledge of one's internal strengths and limitations
and using that knowledge to effectively relate to others. 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 (sensitivity to the features of the natural world): 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, botanists.

7. Robert Sternberg proposed the triarchic theory of intelligence. Sternberg

views intelligence as "the ability to adapt, to shape and select environment to
accomplish one's goals and those of one's society and culture". According to this
theory, there are three basic types of intelligence: Componential. Experiential.
and Contextual.
8. Componential Intelligence: Componential or analytical intelligence is the
analysis of information to solve problems. Persons high on this ability think
analytically and critically and succeed in schools. This intelligence has three
components. each serving a different function. First is the knowledge acquisition
component, which is responsible for learning and acquisition of the ways of doing
things. The second is the meta or a higher order component, which involves
planning concerning what to do and how to do. The third is the performance
component, which involves actually doing things.
9. Experiential Intelligence: Experiential or creative intelligence is involved in
using past experiences creatively to solve novel problems. It is reflected in
creative performance. Persons high on this aspect integrate different experiences
in an original way to make new discoveries and inventions. They quickly find out
which information is crucial in a given situation.
10. Contextual Intelligence: Contextual or practical intelligence involves the ability
to deal with environmental demands encountered on a daily basis. It may be
called 'street smartness' or 'business sense'. 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.
 Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence represents the information-
processing approach to understand intelligence.
11. Raymond Cattell (1963) used factor analysis technique to show that general
intelligence can be divided into two relatively independent components:
crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence.
 Crystallized intelligence is the type of intelligence which consists of the
knowledge a person has already acquired and the ability to use that
knowledge whenever required. In contrast,
 fluid intelligence is the type of intelligence used when dealing with novel
situations and problems. Fluid abilities are the reasoning and problem-
solving abilities which are measured by tests such as analogies,
classifications, and series completions. Crystallized abilities include
vocabulary, general information, and knowledge about specific fields.
Assessment of intelligence

1. In 1905, Alfred Binet and Simon made the first successful attempt to formally
measure intelligence.
2. Mental age is a measure of person’s intellectual development relative to people
of his/ her age group.
 Ex: A mental age of 8 means that a child’s performance on an intelligence
test equals the average performance level of a group of 8 year olds. Let us
imagine that a child who can answer questions that an 8 year old can
answer. Can we tell how smart he/she is? No, we cannot say about it,
because we have no idea about how old the child is? If he/she is 12 years
old, he/she’s not that smart. If he/she’s 6, then she is regarded as a bright
child.
3. So, in order to estimate a child’s intelligence, we need to have knowledge about
his chronological age (biological age in years) and mental age.
4. The mental age is calculated on the level of individual’s answer to the questions
which are ranked according to the age of an individual. Mental age indicates
nothing about whether the intelligence of the individual is high or low in
comparison to other people of the same age. We also need to consider a person’s
biological age, to find out what a particular mental age means.
Then only, we can relate the mental age to the actual biological age of the
individual. This gives an Intelligent Quotient or IQ.
 5. This concept was devised by William Stern in 1912. Terman, in 1916, used this
concept with revised Binet scale which was later referred as Stanford – Binet
scale. Intelligent quotient (IQ) refers to mental age (MA) divided by
chronological age (CA) and multiplied by 100.
Multiplying by 100 helps to avoid the decimal, as it changes the IQ into a whole
number. A merit of the IQ as used by intelligence tests was that, it helped to
compare the intelligence of individuals with different chronological and mental
age.
 For example, Example 1 let us calculate a 13 year old person’s IQ who
has a mental age of 16. IQ= MA (16)/CA (13) X 100= 123. Now suppose a
16 year old person also has a mental age of 16. So, his IQ will be 100.
 Example 2: IQ= MA (16)/CA (16) X100 = 100. An IQ score of 100 is
regarded as average intelligence, because in this case a person’s mental
age and chronological age is equal (example 2). It is the mathematical
average or mean for IQ scores. IQ scores will be over 100 when mental
age is higher than chronological age (as seen in first example).

Distribution of IQ scores

1. Distribution of IQ scores in the population, The IQ scores are distributed in such a

manner that the majority of individuals’ scores tend to fall in the middle range of the
distribution. Only a few people have either very high or very low IQ scores in the
population.
 The average IQ score in the population is 100. The people with IQ scores in the
range of 90 – 110 have normal intelligence.
 Those individuals having an IQ score above 130 are considered as having
exceptional talents (intellectually gifted);
 whereas IQ below 70 may mean that the person may have mental
retardation/intellectual disability.
2. These two groups (intellectually gifted and intellectually disabled) deviate from the
normal population with respect to their cognitive, emotional and motivational
characteristics.
 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

1. The notion of emotional intelligence broadens the concept of intelligence beyond

the intellectual sphere/domain and considers that intelligence includes emotions.
 For ex: A good and scholastic record is not enough to be successful in life.
You may find many people who are academically talented, but are
unsuccessful in their own life. They experience problems in family, workplace
and interpersonal relationships. What do they lack? Some psychologists
believe that the source of their difficulty may be a lack of emotional
intelligence.
2. This concept was first introduced by Salovey and Mayer who considered
emotional intelligence as "the ability to monitor one's own and other's emotions,
to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one's thinking
and actions".
3. Emotional Quotient (EQ) is used to express emotional Intelligence in the same
way as is used to express intelligence.
4. Emotional intelligence is often described as the capacity to be aware of,
control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal
relationships empathetically. It is generally said to include skills like emotional
awareness, the ability to make productive use of emotions by applying them in
 thinking and problem-solving tasks, and the ability to manage and regulate
emotions. In simpler terms, emotional intelligence refers to the capability of
individuals to recognize their own emotions and those of others, discern
Intelligence and Aptitude 6 9 between different feelings and label them
appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour, and
manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one’s goal(s).

5. Characteristics of Emotionally Intelligent Persons :

Perceive and be sensitive to your feelings and emotions.
Perceive and be sensitive to various types of emotions in others by noting their
body language, voice and tone, and facial expressions.
Relate your emotions to your thoughts so that you take them into account while
solving problems and taking decisions.
Understand the powerful influence of the nature and intensity of your emotions.
Control and regulate your emotions and their expressions while dealing with self
and others to achieve harmony and peace.

6. Importance of Emotional Intelligence

1. Emotional intelligence is as powerful and at times more powerful than
I.Q. while IQ. contributes only about 20% to success in life, the other
forces contribute the rest. We can infer that emotional intelligence, luck
and social class are among those other factors.
2. In working situation also, emotional intelligence helps more than one's
intellectual potential in terms of one's I.Q. or even professional skills and
competencies. A professionally competent person having poor emotional
intelligence may suffer on account of his inability to deal with his self or
in getting along properly with others.
3. One's emotional intelligence helps him much in all the spheres of life
through its various constituents or components namely knowledge of one's
emotions (self awareness), managing the emotions, motivating oneself,
recognizing emotions in other (empathy) and handling relationships. The
achievement of the end results in terms of better handing of mutual
relationships is quite essential and significant in one's life. It can only be
 possible through one's potential of emotional intelligence and its
development.

7. Models of Emotional Intelligence

There are different scientific approaches to emotional intelligence. They can be

characterized as the ability model, trait model and mixed models.

 The ability model views emotional intelligence as a standard intelligence.

They argue that the construct of emotional intelligence meets the
traditional criteria for intelligence. People using this model measure
emotional intelligence as a mental ability with performance assessments
that have a criterion of correctness (i.e., there are better and worse
answers, which are determined using complex scoring algorithms).
 The trait model encompasses behavioural dispositions and self-perceived
abilities and is measured through self-report questionnaire.
 Mixed models are so called because they mix the ability conception with
personality traits and competencies such as optimism, self-esteem, and
emotional self-efficacy. Researchers using this mixed approach use self-
report instruments as opposed to performance assessments to measure
emotional intelligence. For example, instead of asking people to
demonstrate how they perceive an emotional expression accurately, self-
report measures ask people to judge and report how good they are at
perceiving others’ emotions accurately

8. Goleman’s Theory of Emotional Intelligence / Improvement in Emotional

Intelligence

Goleman broadened Mayer’s and Salovey’s model to incorporate five essential

components of emotional intelligence:

i) Self-Awareness: It refers to the ability to recognize and understand one’s

moods, emotions, and drives, as well as their effect on other people.
People with emotional self-awareness understand their own strengths and
weaknesses, as well as how their actions affect others.
 ii) Self-Regulation: It involves controlling or redirecting one’s disruptive
impulses and emotions. It also includes the skill to think before acting. A
person with selfregulation has the ability to exercise control when
expressing their emotions.
iii) Motivation: It drives the individual to achieve things. It gives a passion
to achieve goals with energy and persistence. People with high emotional
intelligence are self-motivated and internally driven rather than being
influenced by outside forces, such as money or status.
iv) Empathy: It is the ability to understand the emotions of other people as
well as to feel what others are feeling. We need to treat other people
according to their emotional reactions. A person with empathetic
understanding has the ability to connect with people and genuinely
respond to their concerns.
v) Social skills: It helps in managing relationships and building social
networks. It is the ability to inspire others and induce desired responses
from them in a given situation. It helps the person to build rapport and
trust with others.

9. How to develop

Whether we may admit/not, emotions affect us & hence it behooves us to understand

them in order to avoid being ruled by them. Identifying & managing them well is what is
known as EI. Luckily, it is not a fixed commodity & can be learnt! According to
psychologist Marc Brackett, these 5 skills will help us become more emotionally
intelligent RULER

1. Recognize: First step is to identify or recognize emotions using the ‘mood

meter’, which is asking two questions; How much energy does this emotion
have? How pleasant is this emotion?
2. Understand: Understanding the emotion, gives cues in help addressing
them. Done by asking, “why am I feeling this way?’
3. Label : It helps to find the correct word to describe the emotions we feel. As
they say, ‘what you can name, you can tame’
4. Express: while R, U & L are about what emotion you are experiencing, the
E & R are about what to do with them. Emotions can be managed by
expressing them. However, it is important to know how it should be done.
Which brings us to the most important part - regulate
5. Regulate: accepting & managing them wisely.