INTELLIGENCE

NATURE,THEORIES AND
ASSESSMENT
 WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE?

Getting good grades, being successful in life, practical knowledge to deal with situations,
financial and social success- do these involve intelligence?
 Intelligence is defined as the ability to judge well, understand well and reason well (Binet)

 Intelligence is the global and aggregate capacity of an individual to think rationally, act
purposefully and deal effectively with an environment(Wechsler)

 Intelligence is the ability to learn from one’s experiences, acquire knowledge and use
resources effectively in adapting to new situations or solving problems (Sternberg &
Kauffman,1998; Wechsler, 1975)


Is intelligence a single
characteristic or does it involve
several different components?

Are there various facets of

intelligence?
THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE
PSYCHOMETRIC THEORIES OF
INTELLIGENCE
 Psychometrics – statistical study of psychological tests
 Measures abilities that underlie individual difference in
performance.
 Factor Analysis-technique used to detect a smaller number of
clusters or factors ,with each cluster containing variables that
correlate highly with one another but less highly with variables
in other clusters.
SPEARMAN’S G FACTOR THEORY
 Using Factor Analysis , found that performance of an individual on variety
of intelligence tests is highly correlated.
 E.g. performance of maths and English correlated positively but not
perfectly.
 Thus, two abilities different but reflect a more basic or general mental
ability  g factor (factor of general mental intelligence)-the ability to
reason and solve problems
 However, a person’s ability to excel in certain areas
like music ,art ,business was labelled as S factor
(specific intelligence)
Performance in Maths would depend on general intelligence but also on
specific ability to learn maths.

Criticisms:
 Oversimplified the concept of intelligence
THURSTONE’S THEORY: PRIMARY MENTAL
ABILITY- a composite of 7 distinct primary mental
abilities
 Space
 Verbal comprehension
 Word fluency
 Number facility
 Perceptual speed
 Rote memory
 Reasoning
CRYSTALLIZED AND FLUID
INTELLIGENCE
 Raymond Catell (1971) & John Horn(1985)
 Broke general intelligence into two subtypes:
 Crystallized intelligence- ability to apply previously acquired
knowledge to current problems  vocabulary & information
tests--- representing aquired knowledge and skills
 Fluid intelligence- ability to deal with novel problems block
designing & spatial visualization-adaptability in unfamiliar
situations
 Creative problem solving
 In life we move from using fluid to crystallized.
COGNITIVE APPROACH
 Explore the specific information –processing and
 cognitive processes underlying intellectual ability.
 Explain why people differ?
COGNITIVE THEORIES

ROBERT STERNBERG: Triarchic Theory

 Importance of cognitive factors in intelligence
 Three types of intelligences -
 a) Analytical intelligence
 b) Creative intelligence
 c) Practical intelligence
 Analytical intelligence refers to breaking down the problem into
component parts, for solving it.
 Sternberg identifies three types of components:
 i) Knowledge –acquisition components: allow us to learn from our
experiences, store information in memory and combine new
insights with existing knowledge.
 ii) Performance components: actual mental processes to perform
the task.
 iii) Metacomponents - Higher order processes used to plan &
regulate the task.
 Creative intelligence is ability to deal with new and different
concepts & come up with new ways of solving problems.
 Practical intelligence is skill to deal with everyday demand to
manage onesels & others effectively.
 Broader Conceptions of Intelligence
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE THEORY
 Howard Gardner(1983,1996) expanded the definition of intelligence beyond
skills covered on IQ test.
 Eight types of intelligence:
 Linguistic
 Logical-mathematical
 Visuo-spatial
 Musical
 Bodily-kinesthetic
 Interpersonal
 Intrapersonal
 Naturalistic
 * added the 9th type –Existential – sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep
questions about human existence, meaning of life etc.
 Culture and intelligence
 Cross-cultural studies have pointed out cultural differences in the way
intellectual abilities are reflected.
 The western culture views intelligence more in terms of abstraction and
generalization; whereas the non-western cultures relate intelligence more
to the social context (e.g. Srivastava, 2013).
 Srivastava and Misra (1996) have pointed out, intelligence in the Indian
context, is viewed in terms of relations or sensitivity to the context rather
than the context-free western notion of intelligence.
 They reported that Indian notion of intelligence is multifaceted which
includes not only the cognitive competence, but also the emotional, social
and entrepreneurial competence (Srivastava & Misra, 2007).
 Cognitive competence includes aspects such as planning, decision-making,
sensitivity to context, reflection and communication.
 Emotional competence includes features such as control of emotions,
expressing kindness, patience, adjustment, empathy, and honesty.
 Social competence involves attributes like obedience, helping the needy,
adherence to norms, respecting parents and elders etc.
 Finally, intellectual behaviour reflects entrepreneurial competence such as
 Broader conceptions
Emotional Intelligence
 Salovey & Mayer (1990); Goleman(1995)
 E.I involves the ability to read others emotions accurately, to respond
to them appropriately, to motivate oneself, to be aware of one’s own
emotions and to regulate and control one’s emotional response.

 4 Components in E.I
 Perceiving emotions
 Using emotion to facilitate thought
 Understanding emotions
 Managing emotions
 Perception of emotion- being able to identify emotions in the facial
and postural expressions of others. It reflects non-verbal perception
and emotional expression to communicate via the face and voice
(Mayer et al., 2004).

 Using emotion to facilitate thought--The ability to use emotions in

order to aid thinking.

 Understanding emotions--The capacity to understand emotion,

including being able to analyze emotions and awareness of the likely
trends in emotion over time, as well as an appreciation of the
outcomes from emotions. It also includes the capacity to label and
discriminate between feelings.

 Managing emotions--Emotional self-management, includes an

individual’s personality with goals, self-knowledge and social
awareness shaping the way in which emotions are managed (Mayer et
al., 2004).