Essay on Intelligence One or Many?

Submitted By JalilaBenlali1
Words: 565
Pages: 3
Open Document
Intelligence one or many?
Intelligence is one of the most controversial issues in the field of psychology; to this day researchers still are unable to find a clear cut definition for intelligence, and still can’t agree on whether intelligence is one thing or many.
There are two opposing theories that try to explain intelligence; the one general intelligence theory, and the multiple intelligences theory. These two schools of thought disagree on the nature of intelligence, supporters of the one general intelligence theory believe that intelligence derives from one thing, and there is only one kind of intelligence, the multiple intelligences theory believers support the idea that there are different types of intelligence.
The one general intelligence theory argues that intelligence is derived from one factor referred to as “g” by psychologist Charles Spearman. Spearman created a test analysis covering several different areas of cognitive ability; he found out that there was a high correlation between these tests, in other words if one individual performed well on one cognitive test, he would perform the same way on another one of cognitive ability. This positive correlation was called the Positive Manifold; it was also called the general intelligence factor referred to as “g”. Spearman added to his theory another important factor, he believed that the performance between individuals on any cognitive task can be attributed to another factor in addition to the g (general intelligence), this factor is the s --the skill unique to that particular task. According to Spearman those who possess more powerful g and s are smarter than others, and are better at processing information. This theory is rejected by many for the simple reason that it spreads the idea that some people are plain smarter than other.
The second theory is the multiple intelligences theory, this theory argues that every individual is smart in a different way, that is to say everyone is smart in a unique way. One of the leading psychologists of this theory is Howard Gardner’s (1983, 1999). Gardner believed that individuals vary in the levels of intelligence at which they excel; he suggested 8 levels of intelligence, they are linguistic,
Show More

Related Documents: Essay on Intelligence One or Many?

Blue Nine's Red Words: A Literary Analysis

correct. No one wants to be incorrect. Everyone wants to be intelligent, and everyone is intelligent, not only in academics, but other areas too. Whether intelligence is from the wisdom of poets, or the personal insight of a middle school student like me, it can be debated and learned many different ways, and told from many different perspectives such as Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Intelligence can be found in unconventional forms like Daniel Tammet's. There is not only one way to…

Words 1098 - Pages 5

Learning: Theory of Multiple Intelligences Essay

areas in which all people have special skills; he calls them the seven intelligences. His research at Harvard University was in response to the work that Alfred Binet had done in France around 1900. Binet's work led to the formation of an intelligence test; we are all familiar with the "intelligence quotient," or "IQ," the way that intelligence is measured on his test. This type of IQ test was used as the basis of another one with which most of us are familiar: the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)…

Words 969 - Pages 4

We Should Take Care Not To Make The Intellect Our God?

course, powerful muscles, but no personality.” On the other hand, many psychologists, including Binet, Gardner, Spearman, Wechsler, and Terman would disagree with this quote since they have all made different impacts on the history of intelligence tests. Although some believe that intelligence cannot be measured, these psychologists would most likely oppose this idea due to the fact that they have all created their own intelligence tests, having different views on the topic. Before psychologists…

Words 1238 - Pages 5

Essay On Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence in modern time Abstract As name implies artificial intelligence is making the machines like human that can think like human and can do the work like human. Now a days’ in every step of our life we are using artificial intelligence like when we use Google and another shopping sites that sites using artificial intelligence understand that what user prefer. In many companies and industries human workers are replacing by the artificial machines that machines can do more work than…

Words 1776 - Pages 8

Essay on Refining Intelligence

Shields 1 Tim Shields Profesor Pecora ENGL.1623 28 Feb. 2014 What's Intelligence? What does it mean to have intelligence or to be intelligent? Most would say that being smart and outdoing everyone that you know is being intelligent or having intelligence but is it? The New Webster Dictionary describes “intelligence” as “1. The power of knowing and understanding; mental capacity. 2., new information, secret information. 3, a staff of persons engaged in obtaining information.” There…

Words 1663 - Pages 7

Howard Gardner's Theory on Multiple Intelligence Essay

THEORY ON MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE Howard Earl Gardner (born July 11, 1943 in Scranton, Pennsylvania) is an American developmental psychologist who is John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences. Multiple intelligences is an idea that simply states that human beings have many different ways to learn and process information, or "intelligences." In response to…

Words 989 - Pages 4

I.Q Paper

Emotional Intelligence vs. I.Q Emotional Intelligence is Important to Managing your own behavior and self control. It is also important into the way you handle yourself in social situations and making very important decisions in your life. Emotional Intelligence explains a fundamental element of your behavior. Emotional intelligence is a skill that can change throughout your life. It is a skill that you can either get better at or never make any progress. In life emotional intelligence and I.Q have…

Words 405 - Pages 2

Crystalized Aging: A Case Study

over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter”. While this adage can have several meanings, one can imagine it deals with the aging mind. Individuals coming upon middle age will be effected by brain changes creating difficulties for their crystalized and fluid intellegences. As one ages, their intelligence morphs and can either increase or decline. On one hand, Feldman (2014) defines crystalized intelligence as “the accumulation of information, skills, and strategies that people have learned through…

Words 565 - Pages 3

English: Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Intelligence Essay

intelligent? Many people consider other’s intelligence by acceptable standards approved by society. People believe that academic success is the only intelligence that determines a person's value in one’s life, yet nobody is the same so how can you determine how much intelligent value someone has. Maybe it’s not how much intelligence a person has it’s maybe a matter of the surroundings of that person and how it affects him/her. I think there's many kinds of intelligence out there not only one kind of intelligence…

Words 1162 - Pages 5

Week 3 paper diversity and cultural factors in the psychology

Intelligence Testing Article Analysis Justin Yates Diversity and Cultural Factors in Psychology May 20, 2014 Quinette Tukes Intelligence Testing Article Analysis There has been many scholarly definitions of what many think intelligence happen to be. Intelligence can simply be defined as the capacity to facilitate reaching goals while having the ability to put to use the knowledge and skills in different settings based on the mental skill set (Gardner & Hatch, 1989). Shiraev & Levy, 2010 suggests…

Words 996 - Pages 4