CHAPTER – 5 :

INTELLIGENCE and
PERSONALITY

Syed Tanveer Rahman

Assistant Professor
Dept. of Psychology
University of Dhaka
CONTENTS:
1. Definition of Intelligence
2. Types of Intelligence
3. Practical & Emotional Intelligence
4. Intelligence Tests and IQ Score
5. Definition of Personality
6. Theories of Personality
7. Personality Tests
 INTELLIGENCE
• The capacity to understand the world,
think rationally, and use resources
effectively when faced with challenges.
• In a word, intelligence is the ability to
apply previous knowledge and
experience to solve problems in any new
situation.
 Types of Intelligence
• Early psychologists like Spearman (1927)
assumed that intelligence consisted of a single,
general factor for mental ability, which they
called g or g-factor.
• But more recent intelligence researchers like
Howard Gardner (2000) believes that there are
eight major kinds of intelligence,
corresponding to abilities in different domains.
These are:
• 1. Musical intelligence: skills in tasks involving
music; e.g. music composer Mozart.
 Types of Intelligence
• 2. Bodily kinesthetic intelligence: skills in
using the whole body or various portions of it in
the solution of problems or in the construction
of products or displays; e.g. dancers, gymnasts,
athletes, actors (specially stuntmen) and so on.
• 3. Logical-mathematical intelligence: skills in
problem solving and scientific thinking; e.g.
Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein.
• 4. Linguistic intelligence: skills involved in the
production and use of language; e.g. William
Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot.
 Types of Intelligence
• 5. Spatial intelligence: skills involving spatial
configurations, such as those used by artists,
and architects or civil engineers and planners.
• 6. Interpersonal intelligence: skills in
interacting with others, such as sensitivity to the
moods, temperaments, motivations, and
intentions of others.
• 7. Intrapersonal intelligence: knowledge of
the internal aspects of oneself; access to one’s
own feelings and emotions.
• 8. Naturalistic intelligence: ability to identify
and classify patterns in nature (woods, jungles,
even open space in unknown territory).
 Types of Intelligence
• Intelligence can also be divided into another
two types depending on information
processing approach:
• 1. Fluid intelligence: Intelligence that reflects
information-processing capabilities,
reasoning, and memory.
• 2. Crystallized intelligence: The accumulation
of information, skills, and strategies learned
through experience that can be applied in
problem solving situations.
– Example: Piloting a helicopter requires the use of
both fluid and crystallized intelligence.
 Practical & Emotional Intelligence
• Practical intelligence: Intelligence related to
overall success in living (Sternberg, 2000).
• People who are high in practical intelligence are
able to learn general norms and principles and
apply them appropriately. It is the ability to
employ broad principles in solving everyday
problems.
• Emotional Intelligence: The set of skills that
underlie the accurate assessment, evaluation,
and regulation of emotions (Goleman, 1995).
• Emotional intelligence is the basis of empathy
for others, self-awareness, and social skills. It
provides us with the understanding of what
other people are feeling and experiencing.
 Intelligence Tests & IQ Score
• Intelligence tests: Tests devised to identify a
person’s level of intelligence. Traditionally,
measurement of intelligence is expressed in the form
of IQ scores.
• IQ (=Intelligence Quotient): A score that takes into
account an individual’s mental age (MA) and
chronological age (CA). Where, MA or mental age
is the average age of individuals who achieve a
particular level of performance on a test and CA or
chronological age is the physical or actual age of the
person.
 PERSONALITY
• Psychologists who specialize in personality
seek to understand the characteristic ways in
which people behave. They try to define the
term personality in various ways.
• However, a prominent psychologist Gordon
Allport (1937) summarized more than hundred
definitions of personality to a single exhaustive
definition which is as follows:
• “Personality is the dynamic organization
within the individual of those psychophysical
systems that determine his unique
adjustment to his environment.”
 • Allport’s definition contains important features
of personality such as:
1. “dynamic organization” = personality is
constantly developing and changing, although
at the same time there is an organization or
system that binds together and relates the
various components of personality. That is,
personality changes gradually over life-time, but
should not change over night (rapidly). This
ensures considerable stability and consistency
in individual’s behavior over time and different
situations.
2. “psychophysical systems” = personality is
neither exclusively mental or neural, rather it is
an organization that entails the operation of
both body and mind, inextricably fused into a
personal unity.
3. “determine” = personality is made up of
determining tendencies to play an active role
in the individual’s behavior. In fact, a person’s
personality determines how the person talks,
walks, thinks, acts and behaves.
4. “unique” = the organization of various
components of personality is unique for an
individual. That is, one person must vary from
another in respect of personality traits. It is the
personality which makes the individual unique
or different from others even from siblings.
5. “adjustment to environment” = lastly,
personality helps a person to adjust or adapt
to his/her surrounding environment (of course,
in unique way).
 Theories of Personality
• Psychologists try to study personality from
different perspectives or approaches. That is
why, several theories have been proposed for
personality such as:
1. Psychoanalytic theory: It is the Freud’s
theory that emphasizes upon the unconscious
forces and conflicting desires act as
determinants of personality.
2. Trait theory: A model of personality that seeks
to identify the basic traits (enduring
dimensions of personality characteristics
along which people differ) necessary to
describe personality.
 Theories of Personality
3. Social Cognitive theory: The theory that
emphasizes the influence of a person’s
cognitions—thoughts, feelings, expectations,
and values—in determining personality.
4. Biological or evolutionary theory: This model
of personality suggests that important
components of personality are inherited.
5. Humanistic theory: It suggests that people are
basically good and tend to grow to higher levels
of functioning (like Abraham Maslow’s need for
self-actualization).
 Psychoanalytic Theory
• To describe the structure of personality Freud
hypothesized following 3 separate but interacting
components:
1. ID: The raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality,
whose sole purpose is to reduce tension created by
primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and
irrational impulses. The id operates according to the
pleasure principle, in which the goal is the immediate
reduction of tension and the maximization of
satisfaction.
2. Ego: The part of personality that provides a buffer
between the id and the outside world. It operates
according to reality principle, in which instinctual
energy is restrained in order to maintain the safety of
the individual and help integrate the person into society.
It has to negotiate between id and superego.
3. Superego: According to Freud, it is the final personality
structure to develop; superego represents society’s
standard of right and wrong as handed down by a
person’s parents, teachers, and other important figures.
It operates according to morality principle.
 Trait Theory
• Traits are enduring dimensions of personality
characteristics along which people differ.
• Personality psychologist Gordon Allport (1961, 1966)
suggested that there are 3 basic categories of traits:
1. Cardinal Trait: A cardinal trait is a single
characteristic that directs most of a person’s activities.
Example: a totally selfless woman might direct all her
energy toward humanitarian activities.
2. Central Traits: Most people, however, do not develop
a single, comprehensive cardinal trait; instead they
may possess a handful of central traits that make up
the core of personality, such as honesty and
sociability. Most people may have 5 to 10 central
traits.
3. Secondary traits: These are characteristics that
affect an individual’s behavior in fewer situations and
are less influential than cardinal or central traits.
Example: a reluctance to eat meat or a love for
modern art would be considered as secondary traits.
 Trait Theory
• Another trait theorist Hans • The most influential trait
Eysenck (1975, 1994) theory today contends tha
used factor analysis to 5 broad trait
identify patterns of traits factors—called the “Big
and found 3 major Five”—lie at the core of
dimensions: personality. The 5 factors
1. Extraversion: related to are:
the degree of sociability; 1. Openness to experience,
2. Neuroticism: this 2. Conscientiousness,
dimension of personality 3. Extraversion,
trait encompasses 4. Agreeableness, and
emotional stability; 5. Neuroticism (emotional
3. Psychoticism: it refers to stability)
the degree to which reality More and more people day
is distorted. by day think that the “Big
The above 3 dimensions can Five” represent the best
predict personality. description of personality.
 Personality Tests
• Psychologists have following tools to measure
an individual’s personality:
1. Self-report measures: A method of gathering
data about people by asking them questions
about a sample of their behavior.
✔ Example: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory-2(MMPI-2), The Big Five Inventory etc.
2. Projective test: A personality test in which a
person is shown an ambiguous stimulus (e.g.
picture, incomplete sentence or story) and
asked to describe it or tell a story about it.
✔ Example: Rorschach Inkblot Test, Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT) etc.
3. Behavioral assessment: Direct measures of
an individual’s behavior used to describe traits