The concept of intelligence, what is and how has evolved

Today we will address a complicated topic. Complicated in the sense that it is based on a controversial concept:What is intelligence? We investigate it by defining it, providing curious data about its evolution and classifying the different types that are.

Content

• What is intelligence
  • Concept of intelligence
  • Definition of intelligence
• Curious data about intelligence
  • The creation of the WAIS test
  • The effect of age and environment
• Intelligence types
  • 1. Linguistic intelligence
  • 2. Logical-mathematical intelligence
  • 3. Space intelligence
  • 4. Musical intelligence
  • 5. Body-Cinesthetic Intelligence
  • 6. Interpersonal intelligence
  • 7. Intrapersonal intelligence
  • 8. Naturalist intelligence
  • 9. Emotional Intelligence
  • References

What is intelligence

We will start by making an approximation and this will be that:

Intelligence is the ability to understand, assimilate, elaborate information and use it to solve problems and seems to be linked to mental functions such as perception and memory.

Psychologists have been trying to define intelligence for more than a hundred years, And it seems that there are still no two that say the same about this concept.

Concept of intelligence

As we see, the Concept of intelligence It is not yet clear at all.

Anyway, something has been made. It is no longer thought, as previously thought, that men are smarter than women, whites superior to blacks, nor the rich smarter than the poor. We also know that Traditional intelligence test should not be considered infallible And that, in addition, we have several types of intelligence.

Definition of intelligence

The following are the RAE definitions on intelligence:

1. Ability to understand or understand.
2. Ability to solve problems.
3. Knowledge, understanding, act of understanding.
4. Sense in which a proposition, a saying or an expression can be taken.
5. Skill, skill and experience.
6. Secret treatment and correspondence of two or more people or nations with each other.
7. Purely spiritual substance.

For its part, the Definition of intelligence that proposes the Spanish Dictionary of Google provided by Oxford Languages ​​is:

1. Faculty of the mind that allows learning, understanding, reasoning, making decisions and forming a certain idea of ​​reality.
2. Intelligate.

Curious data about intelligence

His study in the nineteenth century was dominated by the craniometry (Frenology), science that aspired to relate the psychological characteristics of people with the different measures of their brain. Among the studies carried out, for example, that the brain of the Germans was larger than that of the French, that the brain of the criminals was greater, etc. This type of results motivated that this branch fell into disuse.

Fortunately, complex measures appear with Alfred Binet in 1905, when the French government asks for the elaboration of a test that could detect those children who could not follow the usual rhythm of the school.

From here the famous Binet-Simon scale, which is a questionnaire composed of different questions related to reasoning and problem solving. From there they also multiplied the tests they provide, not a measure of the subject's global quotient, but of specific skills such as mechanical, bureaucratic, musical or artistic.

The creation of the WAIS test

During World War II, evaluating the skills of the recruits, the psychologist David Wechsler He noted that several subjects repeatedly failed in the tests, even having identical quotients and remarked the importance of other factors that influence intellectual performance such as motivation, educational opportunities, personality and other non -intellective factors; And he pointed out that neither the best tests could evaluate all the intellectual abilities of an individual nor the different types of intelligence, only part.

In 1939 he published the Wechsler-Bellevue. The wais is today The most commonly applied psychological test (Kaplan & Sacuzzo, 2005). The tests are currently updated every ten years to compensate for the Flynn effect. The latest available version of these are the WISC-IV and the WAIS-IV, versions that in some countries are in the process of validation.

Characteristics and long -term memory operation

The effect of age and environment

It is important to mention that In our early years of life intelligent measures can be more universal: The age at which we start talking, to walk, to eat for oneself. But, as we grow, the different environments favor the development of different skills (if I was born in a city the requirements of the environment will not be the same as if I had been born in the field, that is, the skills that develop in my vary according to the environmental and sociocultural context).

Environmental changes They can lead to quotient changes, as indicated by the results of educational programs for mental deficient and for children hosted in hospices.

Some authors have even pointed out the INTELLIGENCE CONCEPTIVY And they have proposed to focus on the study of the specific skills we use to stay in our respective environments. One of them is Howard Gardner.

Intelligence types

According to this theory, the good news is that in reality We have at least eight different intelligences. Quantified by parameters whose compliance gives them such definition. For example: having a location in the brain, having a symbolic or representative system, being observable in special groups of the population such as "prodigies" and "sages" and having its own characteristic evolution.

Most individuals have all types of intelligence. Each developed in a particular level, product of the biological endowment of each one, of its interaction with the environment and of the culture prevailing in its historical moment. We combine and use them in different degrees, personally and uniquely. So cool, right?

Defined what is intelligence and clarified that there are several types, we will investigate a little more in each of them.

1. Linguistic intelligence

It is the ability to use words effectively, orally or written. It includes the ability to use syntax, phonetics, semantics and pragmatic uses of language (rhetoric, mnemonic, explanation and metalanguage). It is one of the most common types of intelligence in writers, poets, journalists and speakers, among others.

2. Logical-mathematical intelligence

The definition of logical-mathematical intelligence is: the ability to use numbers effectively and to reason properly. Includes sensitivity to logical schemes and relationships, statements and propositions, functions and other related abstractions. A high level of this type is seen in scientists, mathematicians, counters, engineers and systems analysts, among others.

3. Space intelligence

It is the ability to think about three dimensions. It allows perceiving external and internal images, recreating, transforming or modifying them, traveling the space or making objects travel and produce or decode graphic information. It is one of the types of intelligence present in pilots, sailors, sculptors, painters and architects, among others.

4. Musical intelligence

It is the ability to perceive, discriminate, transform and express musical forms. Includes sensitivity to rhythm, tone and timbre. It is present in Composers, Orchestra Directors, Musical critics, musicians and sensitive listeners, among others.

5. Body-Cinesthetic Intelligence

The definition of body-cinesthetic intelligence is: the ability to use the entire body in the expression of ideas and feelings. As well as the ease of use of hands to transform elements. Includes coordination, skill, balance, flexibility, strength and speed skills, as well as the kinesthetic capacity and the perception of measures and volumes. It manifests in Athletes, dancers, surgeons and artisans, among others.

6. Interpersonal intelligence

The definition of interpersonal intelligence is: ability to understand others and interact effectively with them. Includes sensitivity to facial expressions, voice, gestures and postures and the ability to respond. It is present in actors, politicians, good sellers and successful teachers, among others.

7. Intrapersonal intelligence

It is the ability to build a precise perception of yourself and organize and direct your own life. Includes self -discipline, self -understanding and self -esteem. It is one of the types of intelligence that is highly developed in Theologians, philosophers and psychologists, among others.

8. Naturalist intelligence

The definition of naturalistic intelligence is: ability to distinguish, classify and use elements of the environment, objects, animals or plants, both from the urban and suburban or rural environment. Includes observation, experimentation, reflection and questioning skills of our environment. The Campo people, botanists, hunters, environmentalists and landscapes, among others.

9. Emotional Intelligence

The 9th of the types of intelligence and the most recently discovered. The publication Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (1995) means an unprecedented diffusion of a concept that until then had gone unnoticed. This book becomes a best seller in many languages.

Multiple Intelligences Test

From the mid -1990s, emotional intelligence is a issue of general interest by society, in such a way that articles begin to appear (first in dissemination magazines and then in the scientists) and books on the subject.

For Goleman (1995: 43-44) the concept of emotional intelligence consists of:

1. Know your own emotions. The principle of Socrates "know yourself" refers to this key piece of emotional intelligence: be aware of themselves emotions; recognize a feeling at the time it happens. An inability in this regard leaves us at the mercy of uncontrolled emotions.
2. Handle emotions. The ability to handle their own feelings in order to express themselves appropriately. The ability to soften expressions of anger, fury or irritability is fundamental in interpersonal relationships.
3. Motivate yourself. An emotion tends to drive towards an action. Therefore, emotion and motivation are intimately interrelated. To direct emotions, and consequent motivation, towards the achievement of objectives is essential to pay attention, automotivate, manage and carry out creative activities. Emotional self -control leads to delay gratifications and dominate impulsivity. People who possess these skills tend to be more productive and effective in the activities they undertake.
4. Recognize the emotions of others. A fundamental gift of people is empathy, which is based on the knowledge of their own emotions. Empathy is the basis of altruism. Empathic people tune in better with subtle signals that indicate what others need or want. This makes them appropriate for the professions of help and services in a broad sense.
5. Establish relations. The art of establishing good relationships with others is, to a large extent, the ability to manage the emotions of others. The social competence and the skills that it entails, are the basis of leadership, popularity and interpersonal efficiency. People who dominate these social skills are able to interact gently and effectively with others.

References

• Bisguerra, R (2014). Goleman's model. Emotional Intelligence. Rafael Bisguerra. Available here.
• Gardner, h. (nineteen ninety five). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. Barcelona: Paidós.
• Horacio, f. (2002). What is that we call intelligence? The theory of multiple intelligences and education. Psychopediahoy, 4 (3). Available here.
• Intelligence and tests to measure it (2007). In Encyclopedia of Psychology (Vol. 3, 91-128 pp). Spain: Ocean.