SOSC 1960

Intelligence
Lay people’s conceptions of intelligence (Sternberg, 1981)
Lay people’s conceptions of intelligence (Sternberg, 1981)
Lay people’s conceptions of intelligence (Sternberg, 1981)
What is intelligence?

 The capacity to understand the world,

think rationally, and use resources
effectively when faced with challenges

 Is intelligence a unitary attribute, or are

there different kinds of intelligence?
What is intelligence?
 The g-factor
 Fluid vs. crystallized intelligence
 Theory of multiple intelligences
 Practical intelligence
 Mindset – talent vs. effort
 Emotional intelligence
What is intelligence?
 How many intelligences do we have?
 1: the g-factor
 2: fluid and crystallized intelligences
 8 (or more): multiple intelligences

 What kinds of intelligences are

important (other than above)?
 “Traditional,” academic intelligence
 Practical intelligence
 Emotional intelligence
 Mindset – talent vs. effort 7
What is intelligence?
 Early psychologists were interested in
discovering g, or the g factor: The single,
general factor for mental ability assumed
to underlie intelligence

 More recently, psychologists have

emphasized the multiple dimensions of
intelligence
What is intelligence?
 Fluid intelligence
 Intelligence that reflects information-
processing capabilities, abstract reasoning, and
the ability to think logically

 Crystallized intelligence
 The accumulation of information, skills, and
strategies that are learned through experience
and can be applied in problem-solving
situations
 Reflects our ability to draw information from
long-term memory
What is intelligence?

 Theory of multiple intelligences

 Gardner’s intelligence theory that proposes
that there are eight distinct spheres of
intelligence
What is intelligence?
 Theory of multiple intelligences
 We should ask “How are you smart?”
(rather than “How smart are you?”)
 Each person has the same kinds of
intelligence, but in different degrees
(Gardner, 2000)
 The eight spheres of intelligence: musical,
bodily kinesthetic, logical-mathematical,
linguistic, spatial, interpersonal,
intrapersonal, naturalist
Theory of multiple intelligences
 Savants: Mentally deficient individuals
who have a highly developed talent in a
single area

 Kim Peek: In psychological testing, Kim Peek

has scored well below average on general IQ
tests. But he showed superb memory
performance. He reads a book in about an
hour and remembers approximately 98.7% of
everything he has read. He can recall the
content of some 12,000 books from memory.
What is intelligence?
 Practical intelligence
 Intelligence related to overall success in living
 Most traditional intelligence tests were designed
to relate to academic success, but they do not
relate well to non-academic, career, and personal
success
(Sternberg, 2000)
 Learned mainly through observation of others’
behavior

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Practical intelligence
 Practical intelligence concerns practical,
daily life problems such as dealing with a
landlord who would not make repairs,
getting a friend to visit one more often,
deciding what to do when one has been
passed over for promotion, or dealing with
unethical behavior in your company

 What is considered practical intelligence

may vary across cultures
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Practical intelligence
 Do not typically correlate with measures
of academic intelligence

 Predict job performance significantly, even

when variables including our intelligence
quotient (IQ), personality, and styles of
thinking are considered
(Sternberg et al., 2000)

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Mindset
 Do you have a fixed mindset, or a growth
mindset?

 Fixed mindset: Believing that your basic qualities,

like your intelligence, are fixed traits; and that
success is caused by talent alone

 Growth mindset: Believing that your basic abilities

can be developed through dedication and hard work;
talent is just the starting point
Review
 Chapter 9, Module 26

 Next time:
 Defining intelligence further
 Emotional intelligence
 How do we measure intelligence?