Intelligence General mental ability to overcome difficulties in new situations.
Brief explanatory psychological and psychiatric dictionary. Ed. igisheva. 2008 .
Intelligence
(from lat. intellectus - understanding, understanding, comprehension) - a relatively stable structure of the individual's mental abilities. In a number of psychological concepts, I. is identified with a system of mental operations, with a style and strategy for solving problems, with the effectiveness of an individual approach to a situation that requires cognitive activity, with cognitive style and others. In modern Western psychology, the most common is the understanding of I. as a biopsychic adaptation to the actual circumstances of life (V. Stern, J. Piaget, and others). An attempt to study the productive creative components of I. was made by representatives gestalt psychology(M. Wertheimer, W. Köhler), who developed the concept of insight. At the beginning of the twentieth century. French psychologists A. Binet and T. Simon proposed to determine the degree of mental giftedness through special tests (see). Their work laid the foundation for the pragmatist interpretation of I., which has been widely used to date, as the ability to cope with the corresponding tasks, to be effectively included in sociocultural life, and to adapt successfully. At the same time, the idea is put forward of the existence of basic structures of I., regardless of cultural influences. In order to improve the method of diagnosing And. (see), were carried out (usually with the help of factor analysis) various studies of its structure. At the same time, different authors single out a different number of basic “factors of I.”: from 1–2 to 120. Such a fragmentation of I. into many components hinders understanding of its integrity. Domestic psychology proceeds from the principle of the unity of I., its connection with the personality. Much attention is paid to the study of the relationship between practical and theoretical I., their dependence on the emotional and volitional characteristics of the individual. The meaningful definition of the I. itself and the features of the tools for its measurement depend on the nature of the corresponding socially significant activity of the individual's sphere (, production, politics, etc.). In connection with the success of the scientific and technological revolution - the development of cybernetics, information theory, computer technology - the term " artificial I.". AT comparative psychology I. animals are being investigated.
Brief psychological dictionary. - Rostov-on-Don: PHOENIX. L.A. Karpenko, A.V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. 1998 .
Intelligence
This concept is defined quite heterogeneously, but in general terms, it refers to individual characteristics related to the cognitive sphere, primarily to thinking, memory, perception, attention, etc. A certain level of development of the mental activity of the individual is implied, providing the opportunity to acquire more and more new knowledge and to use them effectively in the course of life, - the ability to carry out the process of cognition and to effectively solve problems, in particular - when mastering a new range of life tasks. Intelligence is a relatively stable structure of the mental abilities of an individual. In a number of psychological concepts, it is identified:
1 ) with a system of mental operations;
2 ) with style and problem solving strategy;
3 ) with the effectiveness of an individual approach to a situation that requires cognitive activity;
4 ) with a cognitive style, etc.
There are a number of fundamentally different interpretations of intelligence:
1 ) in the structural-genetic approach of J. Piaget, intellect is interpreted as the highest way of balancing the subject with the environment, characterized by universality;
2 ) in the cognitivist approach, intelligence is considered as a set of cognitive operations;
3 ) with a factor-analytical approach, based on a set of test indicators, stable factors of intelligence are found (C. Spearman, L. Thurstone, X. Eysenck, S. Barth, D. Wexler, F. Vernoy). It is now generally accepted that there is a general intelligence as a universal mental ability, which can be based on the genetically determined property of the nervous system to process information with a certain speed and accuracy (X. Eysenck). In particular, psychogenetic studies have shown that the proportion of genetic factors calculated from the variance of the results of intellectual tests is quite large - this indicator has a value from 0.5 to 0.8. At the same time, verbal intelligence is especially genetically dependent. The main criteria by which the development of the intellect is assessed are the depth, generalization and mobility of knowledge, mastery of the methods of coding, recoding, integration and generalization of sensory experience at the level of representations and concepts. In the structure of the intellect, the importance of speech activity, and especially internal speech, is great. A special role belongs to observation, operations of abstraction, generalization and comparison, which create internal conditions for combining various information about the world of things and phenomena into a single system of views that determine the moral position of the individual, contribute to the formation of his orientation, abilities and character.
In Western psychology, the understanding of intelligence as a biopsychic adaptation to the current circumstances of life is especially widespread. An attempt to study the productive creative components of the intellect was made by representatives of Gestalt psychology, who developed the concept of insight. At the beginning of the XX century. French psychologists A. Binet and T. Simon proposed to determine the degree of mental giftedness through special intelligence tests; this was the beginning of the pragmatist interpretation of intelligence, which is still widespread today, as the ability to cope with the corresponding tasks, to be effectively included in sociocultural life, and to adapt successfully. This puts forward the idea of the existence of basic structures of intelligence, independent of cultural influences. In order to improve the methodology for diagnosing intelligence, various studies of its structure were carried out (usually with the help of factorial analysis). At the same time, different authors single out a different number of basic "intelligence factors" from one or two to 120. Such a fragmentation of intelligence into many components prevents understanding its integrity. Domestic psychology proceeds from the principle of the unity of the intellect, its connection with the personality. Much attention is paid to the study of the relationship between practical and theoretical intelligence, their dependence on the emotional and volitional characteristics of the individual. The inconsistency of statements about the innate conditionality of differences in the level of intellectual development among representatives of various nations and social groups was shown. At the same time, the dependence of the abilities of an intellectual person on the socio-economic conditions of life is recognized. The meaningful definition of intelligence itself and the features of the tools for measuring it depend on the nature of the corresponding socially significant activity of the individual's sphere (production, politics, etc.). In connection with the success of the scientific and technological revolution, the term artificial intelligence has become widespread.
Dictionary of practical psychologist. - M.: AST, Harvest. S. Yu. Golovin. 1998 .
Intelligence Etymology.
Comes from lat. intellectus - mind.
Category.The ability to learn and effectively solve problems, in particular when mastering a new range of life tasks.
Research.There are a number of fundamentally different interpretations of intelligence.
In the structural-genetic approach of J. Piaget, intellect is interpreted as the highest way of balancing the subject with the environment, characterized by universality. In the cognitivist approach, intelligence is viewed as a set of cognitive operations. In the factor-analytical approach, based on a set of test indicators, stable factors are found (C. Spearman, L. Thurstone, H. Eysenck, S. Barth, D. Wexler, F. Vernon). Eysenck believed that there is a general intelligence as a universal ability, which may be based on the genetically determined property of an unequal system to process information with a certain speed and accuracy. Psychogenetic studies have shown that the proportion of genetic factors calculated from the variance of the results of intellectual tests is quite large, this indicator ranges from 0.5 to 0.8. At the same time, verbal intelligence turns out to be the most genetically dependent.
Psychological Dictionary. THEM. Kondakov. 2000 .
INTELLIGENCE
(English) intelligence; from lat. intellectus- understanding, knowledge) - 1) general to the knowledge and solution of problems, which determines the success of any activities and underlying other ability; 2) the system of all cognitive (cognitive) abilities of an individual: Feel,perception,memory, ,thinking,imagination; 3) the ability to solve problems without trial and error "in the mind" (see. ). The concept of I. as a general mental ability is used as a generalization of behavioral characteristics associated with successful adaptation to new life challenges.
R. Sternberg singled out 3 forms of intellectual behavior: 1) verbal I. (vocabulary, erudition, ability to understand what is read); 2) the ability to solve problems; 3) practical I. (the ability to achieve goals, etc.). In the beginning. 20th century I. was considered as the level of mental development achieved by a certain age, which manifests itself in the formation of cognitive functions, as well as in the degree of assimilation of mental skills and knowledge. Currently accepted in testology dispositional interpretation of I. as a mental property (): predisposition to act rationally in a new situation. There is also an operational interpretation of I., which goes back to BUT.Binet: I. is "what the tests measure."
I. is studied in various psychological disciplines: for example, in general, developmental, engineering and differential psychology, pathopsychology and neuropsychology, in psychogenetics, etc. There are several theoretical approaches to the study of I. and its development. Structural genetic approach based on ideas AND.Piaget, who considered I. as the highest universal way of balancing the subject with the environment. Piaget singled out 4 types of forms of interaction between the subject and the environment: 1) lower-type forms formed by instinct and directly arising from the anatomical and physiological structure of the body; 2) integral forms formed skill and perception; 3) holistic irreversible forms of operating, formed by figurative (intuitive) pre-operational thinking; 4) mobile, reversible forms capable of being grouped into various complex complexes formed by "operational" I. Cognitivist approach based on the understanding of I. as a cognitive structure, the specificity of which is determined by the experience of the individual. Proponents of this direction analyze the main components of the implementation of traditional tests to reveal the role of these components in the determination of test results.
The most widespread factor-analytical approach, whose founder is English. psychologist Charles Spearman (1863-1945). He put forward the concept "general factor", g, considering I. as a general "mental energy", the level of which determines the success of any tests. This factor has the greatest influence when performing tests for the search for abstract relationships, and the least when performing sensory tests. C. Spearman also identified "group" factors of I. (mechanical, linguistic, mathematical), as well as "special" factors that determine the success of individual tests. Later L. Thurstone developed multifactorial model I., according to which there are 7 relatively independent primary intellectual abilities. However, studies by G. Eysenck and others have shown that there are close links between them, and when processing the data obtained by Thurstone himself, a common factor stands out.
Also gained fame hierarchical models S. Bart, D. Wexler and F. Vernon, in which intellectual factors are arranged in a hierarchy according to levels of generalization. Among the most common is also the concept of Amer. psychologist R. Cattell about 2 types of I. (corresponding to 2 factors he singled out): "fluid"(fluid) and "crystallized"(crystallized). This concept occupies, as it were, an intermediate position between views on I. as a single general ability and ideas about it as a set of mental abilities. According to Cattell, "fluid" I. appears in tasks, the solution of which requires adaptation to new situations; it depends on the factor heredity; “crystallized” I. appears in solving problems that clearly require an appeal to past experience ( knowledge,skills,skills), largely borrowed from the cultural environment. In addition to 2 general factors, Cattell also identified partial factors associated with the activity of individual analyzers (in particular, the visualization factor), as well as operation factors that correspond in content to Spearman's special factors. I.'s researches at advanced age confirm Cattell's model: with age (after 40-50 years) indicators of "fluid" I. decrease, and indicators of "crystallized" remain in norm almost unchanged.
No less popular is the Amer. psychologist J. Gilford, who singled out 3 “dimensions of I.”: mental operations; features of the material used in the tests; the resulting intellectual product. The combination of these elements ("the cube" of Guilford) gives 120-150 intellectual "factors", some of which have been identified in empirical studies. The merit of Guilford is the allocation of "social I." as a set of intellectual abilities that determine the success of interpersonal assessment, prediction and understanding of people's behavior. In addition, he highlighted the ability to divergent thinking(the ability to generate many original and non-standard solutions) as the basis creativity; this ability is opposed to the ability to convergent thinking, which is revealed in tasks that require a unique solution, found with the help of learned algorithms.
Today, despite attempts to identify all the new "elementary intellectual abilities", most researchers agree that the general I. exists as a universal mental ability. According to Eysenck, it is based on a genetically determined property of n. s., which determines the speed and accuracy information processing. In connection with the successes in the development of cybernetics, systems theory, information theory, artificial and. et al., there has been a tendency to understand I. as the cognitive activity of any complex systems capable of learning, purposeful processing of information, and self-regulation (see. ). The results of psychogenetic studies indicate that the proportion of genetically determined variance in the results of performing intellectual tests usually ranges from 0.5 to 0.8. The greatest genetic conditioning was found in verbal I., somewhat less in non-verbal. Non-verbal I. (“I. actions”) are more trainable. The individual level of development of I. is also determined by a number of environmental influences: the "intellectual age and climate" of the family, the profession of parents, the breadth of social contacts in early childhood, etc.
In ros. psychology of the 20th century. research I. developed in several directions: the study of psychophysiological makings general mental abilities(B.M.Teplov,AT.D.Nebylitsyn, E. A. Golubeva, V. M. Rusalov), emotional and motivational regulation of intellectual activity ( O. To.Tikhomirov), cognitive styles (M.A. Kholodnaya), “the ability to act in the mind” ( .BUT.Ponomarev). In recent years, new areas of research have been developed, such as "implicit"(or ordinary) theories of I. (R. Sternberg), regulatory structures (A. Pages), I. and creativity (E. Torrens), etc. (V. N. Druzhinin)
Big psychological dictionary. - M.: Prime-EVROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 .
Intelligence
INTELLIGENCE (With. 269)
The scientific development of the problem of intelligence has a very short history and a long prehistory. Why is one person smart, and the other (no matter how sad it is to admit the supporters of universal equality) - alas, stupid? Is the mind a natural gift or the fruit of education? What is true wisdom and how does it manifest itself? From time immemorial, thinkers of all times and peoples have been looking for answers to these questions. However, in their research, they relied mainly on their own everyday observations, speculative reasoning, and generalizations of everyday experience. For millennia, the task of a detailed scientific study of such subtle matter as the human mind was practically not even posed as in principle unsolvable. It is only in this century that psychologists have dared to approach it. And, it must be admitted, they have succeeded a lot in experimental and theoretical developments, in the production of hypotheses, models and definitions. Which, however, allowed them to get very close to the vague philosophical maxims of the past and rooted worldly ideas. Today there is no unified scientific theory of intelligence, but there is a kind of fan of contradictory tendencies, from which the most desperate eclecticists find it difficult to draw a vector. To this day, all attempts to enrich the theory come down to expanding the fan, leaving the practicing psychologist with a difficult choice: which of the tendencies to prefer in the absence of a unified theoretical platform.
The first real step from reasoning about the nature of the mind to its practical study was the creation in 1905 by A. Binet and T. Simon of a set of test tasks to assess the level of mental development. In 1916 L. Termen modified the Binet-Simon test, using the concept of the IQ - IQ, introduced three years earlier by V. Stern. Having not yet come to a consensus on what intelligence is, psychologists from different countries began to design their own tools for its quantitative measurement.
But very soon it became obvious that the use of seemingly similar, but somewhat dissimilar tools gives different results. This stimulated a lively (though somewhat belated) discussion about the very subject of measurement. In 1921, the American Journal of Educational Psychology published the most complete collection of definitions put forward by the participants of the correspondence symposium "Intelligence and Its Measurement" by that time. A cursory glance at the various proposed definitions was enough to understand that theorists approached their subject precisely from the positions of measurement, that is, not so much as psychologists, but as testologists. At the same time, voluntarily or unwittingly, an important fact was overlooked. The intelligence test is a diagnostic, not an exploratory technique; it is not aimed at revealing the nature of intelligence, but at a quantitative measurement of the degree of its severity. The basis for compiling the test is the idea of its author about the nature of intelligence. And the results of using the test are designed to substantiate the theoretical concept. Thus, a vicious circle of interdependencies arises, completely determined by an arbitrarily formulated subjective idea. It turned out that the technique, originally created to solve specific narrowly practical problems (and, by the way, preserved to this day in almost its original form), outgrew the boundaries of its powers and began to serve as a source of theoretical constructions in the field of the psychology of intelligence. This gave rise to E. Boring with frank sarcasm to derive his tautological definition: "Intelligence is what intelligence tests measure."
Of course, it would be an exaggeration to deny the psychology of intelligence any theoretical basis whatsoever. For example, E. Thorndike, in a frankly behavioristic manner, reduced intelligence to the ability to operate with life experience, that is, an acquired set of stimulus-reactive connections. However, this idea was supported by few. In contrast to his other, later idea of the combination of verbal, communicative (social) and mechanical abilities in the intellect, which many followers find confirmation.
Until a certain time, the majority of testological research to some extent gravitated towards the theory proposed back in 1904 by C. Spearman. Spearman believed that any mental action, from boiling an egg to memorizing Latin declensions, requires the activation of some general ability. If a person is smart, then he is smart in every way. Therefore, it is not even very important with the help of which tasks this general ability, or G-factor, is revealed. This concept has been established for many years. For decades, psychologists have referred to intelligence, or mental ability, as Spearman's G-factor, which is essentially an amalgam of logical and verbal abilities as measured by IQ tests.
Until recently, this idea remained dominant, despite individual, often very impressive, attempts to decompose the intellect into the so-called basic factors. The most famous such attempts were made by JGilford and L. Thurstone, although their work does not exhaust the opposition to the G-factor. With the help of factor analysis in the structure of intelligence, different authors identified a different number of basic factors - from 2 to 120. It is easy to guess that this approach made practical diagnostics very difficult, making it too cumbersome.
One of the innovative approaches was the study of the so-called creativity, or creative abilities. A number of experiments have found that the ability to solve non-standard, creative problems correlates weakly with intelligence, as measured by IQ tests. On this basis, it has been suggested that general intelligence (G-factor) and creativity are relatively independent psychological phenomena. To "measure" creativity, a number of original tests were developed, consisting of tasks that required unexpected solutions. However, supporters of the traditional approach continued to insist, and quite reasonably (certain correlations were nevertheless identified), that creativity is nothing more than one of the characteristics of the good old G-factor. To date, it has been reliably established that creativity does not manifest itself with low IQ, however, high IQ does not serve as an unambiguous correlate of creative abilities. That is, a certain interdependence exists, but it is very difficult. Research in this direction is ongoing.
In a special direction, studies of the correlation of IQ and personal qualities stood out. It was found that when interpreting test scores, personality and intelligence cannot be separated. An individual's performance on IQ tests, as well as his study, work or other type of activity, is affected by his desire for achievement, perseverance, value system, ability to free himself from emotional difficulties and other characteristics traditionally associated with the concept of "personality". But not only personality traits affect intellectual development, but the intellectual level also affects personality development. Preliminary data confirming this relationship were obtained by V. Plant and E. Minium. Using data from 5 longitudinal studies of young college graduates, the authors selected in each sample of intelligence test scores 25% of students who performed best on tests and 25% who performed worst on tests. The obtained contrast groups were then compared according to the results of personality tests presented to one or more samples and including the measurement of attitudes, values, motivation, and other non-cognitive qualities. An analysis of these data showed that more "capable" groups, compared with less "capable" groups, are much more susceptible to "psychologically positive" personality changes.
The development of an individual and the use of his abilities depends on the characteristics of emotional regulation, the nature of interpersonal relationships and the formed idea of himself. In the ideas of the individual about himself, the mutual influence of abilities and personal qualities is especially clearly manifested. The success of the child in school, play and in other situations helps him to create an idea of himself, and his idea of himself at this stage affects his subsequent performance of activities, etc. in a spiral. In this sense, the self-image is a kind of individually self-fulfilling prediction.
K. Hayes's hypothesis about the correlation of motives and intelligence can be attributed to more theoretical ones. Defining intelligence as a set of learning abilities, K. Hayes argues that the nature of motivation affects the type and amount of perceived knowledge. In particular, the intellectual development is affected by the strength of "motives developed in the process of life." Examples of such motives include exploration, manipulative activity, curiosity, play, baby babbling, and other intrinsically motivated behaviors. Referring primarily to research on animal behavior, Hayes argues that "lifetime motives" are genetically determined and are the only heritable basis for individual differences in intelligence.
One way or another, the concept of general intellectuality remained the standard of culture and education until the appearance at the turn of the 70-80s. a new generation of theorists who have attempted to dismember the G-factor or even completely abandon this concept. R. Sternberg from Yale University developed an original three-component theory of intelligence, which claims to radically revise traditional views. G. Gardner from Harvard University and D. Feldman from Tufts University went even further in this respect.
Although Sternberg believes that IQ tests are "a relatively acceptable way to measure knowledge and analytical and critical thinking ability", he argues that such tests are still "too narrow". “There are a lot of people with high IQs who make a lot of mistakes in real life,” says Sternberg. "Other people who don't do as well on the test do well in life." According to Sternberg, these tests do not touch on a number of important areas, such as the ability to determine the essence of the problem, the ability to navigate in a new situation, to solve old problems in a new way. Moreover, in his opinion, most IQ tests focus on what a person already knows, and not on how capable he is of learning something new. Sternberg believes that immersion in a completely different culture would be a good benchmark for measuring intelligence, because this experience would reveal both the practical side of intelligence and its ability to perceive new things.
Although Sternberg essentially takes the traditional view of general mental development, he introduces changes to this concept that include some often neglected aspects of mental abilities. He develops the "theory of three principles", which according to; posits the existence of three components of intelligence. The first covers the purely internal mechanisms of mental activity, in particular the ability of a person to plan and evaluate the situation in order to solve problems. The second component includes the functioning of a person in the environment, i.e. his capacity for what most people would call just common sense. The third component concerns the relationship of intelligence with life experience, especially in the case of a person's reaction to the new.
Professor of the University of Pennsylvania J. Baron considers the disadvantage of existing IQ tests that they do not assess rational thinking. Rational thinking, i.e. deep and critical inquiry into problems, as well as self-assessment, are a key component of what Baron calls "a new theory about the components of intelligence." He argues that such thinking can easily be assessed using an individual test: “You give the student a problem and ask him to think aloud. Is he capable of alternatives, of new ideas? How does he respond to your advice?
Sternberg disagrees: "Insight is an integral part of my theory of intelligence, but I don't think insight is a rational process."
Baron, on the contrary, believes that thinking almost always goes through the same stages: articulating possibilities, evaluating data, and setting goals. The difference is only in what is given more importance, for example, in the artistic field, the definition of goals rather than the evaluation of data prevails.
Although Sternberg and Baron attempt to dissect intelligence into its component parts, the traditional notion of general intelligence is implicitly present in the concept of each of them.
Gardner and Feldman take a different direction. Both are leaders of the Spectrum Project, a collaborative effort to develop new ways of assessing intelligence. They argue that a person has not one intellectuality, but several. In other words, they are not looking for "something", but "plurality". In Forms of the Intellect, Gardner put forward the idea that there are seven aspects of intelligence inherent in man. Among them there is linguistic intelligence and logical-mathematical, assessed by the IQ test. He then lists abilities that traditional scholars would never consider intellectual in the full sense of the word - musical ability, spatial vision ability, and kinesthetic ability.
To the even greater indignation of supporters of traditional tests, Gardner adds "intrapersonal" and "interpersonal" forms of intelligence: the first approximately corresponds to self-awareness, and the second - sociability, the ability to communicate with others. One of Gardner's main points is that you can be "smart" in one area and "stupid" in another.
Gardner's ideas developed in the course of his research on both individuals suffering from impaired brain activity and child prodigies. The former, he found, were capable of certain mental functions and incapable of others; the second showed brilliant abilities in a certain area and only mediocre in other areas. Feldman also came up with his ideas about multiple intelligences in connection with the study of child prodigies. He puts forward the main criterion: the ability to be studied must correspond to a certain role, profession or purpose of a person in the world of adults. He says that “this limitation allows us not to increase the number of forms of intelligence to a thousand, ten thousand, or a million. One can imagine hundreds of forms of intelligence, but when you're dealing with human activities, it doesn't seem like an exaggeration."
These are just some of the many different approaches that today make up the motley mosaic called "theories of intelligence." Today we have to recognize that intelligence is more of an abstract concept that combines many factors, rather than a specific given that can be measured. In this respect, the concept of "intelligence" is somewhat akin to the concept of "weather". People have been talking about good and bad weather since time immemorial. Not so long ago, they learned how to measure air temperature and humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, magnetic background... But they never learned how to measure the weather! It has remained in our perception of good or bad. Just like intelligence and stupidity.
Such reflections are suggested by acquaintance with one of the recent issues of the American popular science magazine Scientific American, which is entirely devoted to the problem of intelligence. Particular attention is drawn to several policy articles written by leading American experts on this problem. R. Sternberg's article is called "How intelligent are intelligence tests?" G. Gardner's article titled "The Varieties of Intellect" has a lot in common with it. Strikingly dissonant is an article by a less eminent specialist, Linda Gottfredson (University of Delaware), in which the author defends traditional testing and, in particular, the much-criticized G-factor (the article is called “General Intelligence Factor”). staff writer Scientific American Tim Beardsley reviews the sensational book "The Bell Curve" by R. Hernstein and C. Murray - a somewhat belated review (the book was published in 1994, and one of the authors, R. Hernstein, has already left this world), but invariably relevant in view of acute relevance of the topic itself. The journalistic pathos of the review is reflected in its title - "For Whom Does the Bell Curve Toll?".
In Hernstein and Murray's book, The Bell Curve, we are talking about a curve of normal statistical distribution of IQ measured in a fairly large group of people. In a random sample from the entire population (for example, the US population), the average value (, or the top of the bell) is taken as one hundred, and the extreme five percent on both sides account for the lower IQ values - 50-75 (mentally retarded) and the upper ones - 120-150 (highly gifted). If the sample is specially selected, for example, it is made up of students from a prestigious university or the homeless, then the entire bell shifts to the right or left. For example, for those who, for one reason or another, could not finish school, the average IQ is not 100, but 85, and for theoretical physicists, the top of the curve falls at 130.
Journalists usually start criticizing a book with doubts that the IQ value really characterizes intelligence, since this concept itself is not strictly defined. The authors understand this well and use a narrower but more precise concept - cognitive abilities. (cognitivability), which they estimate by IQ.
Hundreds of works are devoted to what is actually measured in this case, in which, in particular, a high correlation between the IQ of schoolchildren and their academic performance and, most importantly, their further successes, was unambiguously revealed. Children with IQs above 100 not only perform better on average, but they are more likely to continue their studies in colleges, get into more prestigious universities and successfully graduate from them. If they then go into science, they get higher degrees, in the military they reach higher ranks, in business they become managers or owners of larger and more successful companies, and have a higher income. On the contrary, children who had an IQ below the average were more likely to drop out of school later, a greater percentage of them divorced, had illegitimate children, became unemployed, lived on welfare.
Whether one likes it or not, it should be recognized that IQ testing is a method that allows you to evaluate mental or cognitive abilities, that is, the ability to learn and mental work, as well as achieving success in the lifestyle and according to the criteria that are accepted in developed democracies - such as modern America. Of course, survival in the Australian desert or the Guinean jungle requires a different kind of ability and is evaluated by different criteria, but we and our kind live, thank God, not in the desert and jungle, hundreds of generations of our ancestors took care to provide us with something more complicated than rock scribbles and stone chop.
It is important to remember that the correlations between IQ and social success or failure are statistical, that is, they do not apply to individuals, but to groups of individuals. A particular boy with an IQ of 90 may study better and achieve more in life than another boy with an IQ of 110, but it is certain that a group with an average IQ of 90 will perform worse on average than a group with an average IQ of 110.
The question of whether the abilities measured by IQ tests are inherited has been hotly debated for several decades. Now the discussion has somewhat subsided due to the presence of reliably established patterns confirming the fact of inheritance, as well as due to the obvious unsubstantiated arguments of the opposite side. Hundreds of serious works have been devoted to the transmission of IQ by inheritance, the results of which sometimes differ significantly from each other. Therefore, it is now customary to rely not on any one, maybe very thorough work, but to use the results of each study only as a point on the graph. The dependence of the similarity of IQ in two people on the degree of relationship between them, that is, on the number of common genes, is expressed by correlation and heritability coefficients (they are not the same thing), which can vary from 0 in the absence of any dependence to 1.0 with absolute dependence. This correlation is quite significant (0.4-0.5) in parents and children or siblings. But in monozygotic twins (MZ), in which all genes are identical, the correlation is especially high - up to 0.8.
However, with a strict approach, this still does not allow us to assert that IQ is entirely determined by genes. After all, usually siblings live together, that is, under the same conditions, which can affect their IQ, bringing their values closer. Observations on separated twins, that is, those rare cases when twins were brought up in different conditions from childhood (and not just apart, since conditions in families of relatives may vary slightly), are decisive. Such cases are carefully collected and studied. In most scientific studies devoted to them, the correlation coefficient turned out to be 0.8. However, Hernstein and Murray, out of caution, write that IQ depends on genes by 60-80 percent, and the remaining 20-40 percent from external conditions. Thus, the cognitive abilities of a person are mainly, although not exclusively, determined by his heredity. They also depend on the surrounding conditions, on upbringing and training, but to a much lesser extent.
There are two fundamental questions that I would like to discuss in more detail. One is about ethnic differences in IQ, which caused the most buzz. The second question is about the isolation in American society of two extreme groups with high and low IQ. For some reason, this question - important and new - is hardly mentioned in the reviews, although the book itself is devoted to it.
The fact that people belonging to different races and nations differ in appearance, frequency of blood types, national character, etc., is well known and does not cause objections. Usually they compare the criteria for the normal distribution of quantitative traits that overlap each other in different peoples, but may differ in the average value, that is, the top of the "bell". Average cognitive abilities measured by IQ, being, as it has been convincingly shown, predominantly hereditary, can serve as a characteristic of race or nation, such as skin color, nose shape or eye shape. Numerous measurements of IQ in different ethnic groups, mainly in the United States, have shown that the largest and most significant differences are found between black and white Americans. Representatives of the yellow race, who assimilated in America from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, have a significant, albeit slight, advantage over whites. Among the whites, Ashkenazi Jews stand out somewhat, who, unlike the Palestinian Sephardim, lived for two millennia in dispersion among the European peoples.
If the entire population of America has an average IQ of 100, then it is 85 for African Americans and 105 for whites. nor for accusing psychologists of tendentiousness.
Racism, that is, the assertion that one race is superior to another and therefore they should have different rights, has nothing to do with the scientific discussion about IQ. The higher average IQ of the Japanese does not give them an advantage in rights, just as these rights do not decrease due to their smaller height on average.
Not too serious are the objections of biased critics who say that the lower IQ of blacks is due to the "white mentality" of the test compilers. This is easily refuted by the fact that, given the same IQ, blacks and whites are the same in terms of the criteria by which we generally judge what is measured by intelligence tests. The group of African Americans with an average IQ of 110 (their proportion among blacks is noticeably smaller than among whites) does not differ from the group of whites with the same IQ either in school and university success or in other manifestations of cognitive abilities.
Belonging to a group with a lower average IQ should not make the individual feel doomed. Firstly, his own IQ may turn out to be higher than the average for his group, and secondly, his personal fate may develop more successfully, since the correlation between IQ and social success is not absolute. And finally, thirdly, his own efforts, expressed in obtaining a better education, play, although not decisive, but quite a definite role.
However, being in a group with a lower average IQ poses serious problems that are hard to ignore. The share of the unemployed, low-paid, poorly educated and living on state benefits, as well as drug addicts and criminals, is significantly higher among the black population of America. In no small measure this is determined by the vicious circle of social conditions, but cannot but depend on their lower IQ. To break this vicious circle, as well as compensate for natural “injustices,” the US authorities have introduced an “affirmative action” program that provides a number of benefits to blacks, some Hispanics, people with disabilities, and some other minorities who might otherwise be discriminated against. Hernstein and Murray discuss this difficult situation, often perceived as racism in reverse, that is, discrimination against whites based on skin color (as well as on gender, health status, non-membership of sexual minorities). There is a bitter joke among Americans: “Who has the best chance of being hired right now? One-legged black lesbian!” The authors of the book believe that the artificial attraction of individuals with insufficiently high IQ to activities that require high intelligence does not so much solve as creates problems.
As for the second question, it seems to be even more essential. Around the beginning of the 60s. in the United States, the stratification of society began, the separation of two little mixing groups from it - with high and low IQ. According to cognitive ability (IQ), Hernstein and Murray divide modern American society into five classes: I - very high (IQ = 125-150, there are 5% of them, that is, 12.5 million); II - high (110-125, 20% of them, or 50 million); III - normal (90-110, 50% of them, 125 million); IV - low (75-90.20%, 50 million) and V - very low (50-75.5%, 12.5 million). According to the authors, in recent decades, a separate intellectual elite has formed from members of the first class, which increasingly occupies the most prestigious and highly paid positions in government, business, science, medicine, and jurisprudence. In this group, the average IQ is increasing, and it is increasingly fenced off from the rest of society. A genetic role in this isolation is played by the preference shown by carriers of high IQs to each other when entering into marriages. With a high heritability of intelligence, this creates a kind of self-reproducing caste of people belonging to the first class.
A distorted mirror image of the privileged group in the USA looks like the group of "poor", consisting of persons with low cognitive ability (V and partly IV classes with IQ = 50-80). They differ from the middle classes, not to mention the upper classes, in a number of respects. First of all, they are poor (of course, by American standards). To a large extent, their poverty is determined by their social background: the children of poor parents, growing up, are poor 8 times more often than the children of the rich. However, the role of IQ is more significant: in parents with low IQ (grade V), children become poor 15 times (!) More often than in parents with high IQ (grade I). Children with low IQs are significantly more likely to drop out of school without finishing. Among people with low IQ, there are significantly more of those who cannot and those who do not want to find a job. They live on state benefits (welfare) mainly for people with low IQ. The average IQ for law breakers is 90, but for repeat offenders it is even lower. Demographic problems are also related to OQ: women with high IQ (grades I and II) give birth less and later. In the United States, the group of women who still have illegitimate children at school age, do not look for work and live on welfare is increasing. Their daughters, as a rule, choose the same path, thus creating a vicious circle, reproducing and increasing the lower caste. Not surprisingly, in terms of IQ, they belong to the two lowest classes.
The authors of the book draw attention to the negative consequences that the increased attention of the government and society to the lower strata of society leads to. In an effort to achieve social justice and reduce differences in levels of education and income, the American administration directs the main attention and funds of taxpayers to the strained and hopeless pulling up of the lower to the higher. The reverse trend exists in the school system, where programs are not aimed at the best and not even at the average, but at the lagging behind. In the United States, only 0.1% of the funds allocated for education go to the education of gifted students, while 92% of the funds are spent on pulling up the lagging behind (with low IQ). As a result, the quality of school education in the United States is declining, and the mathematical problems that were given to fifteen-year-old schoolchildren at the beginning of the last century cannot be solved by their peers today.
Thus, the purpose of the Bell Curve is not to show ethnic differences in cognitive ability, nor is it to show that these differences are largely genetically determined. These objective and repeatedly confirmed data have not been the subject of scientific discussion for a long time. A seriously justified and disturbing observation is the separation of two "castes" in American society. Their isolation from each other and the degree of their differences increase over time. In addition, the lower caste has a more pronounced tendency towards active self-reproduction, threatening the entire nation with intellectual degradation (which is worth thinking about for the advocates of increasing the birth rate at any cost).
Popular psychological encyclopedia. - M.: Eksmo. S.S. Stepanov. 2005 .
Intelligence
Despite early attempts to define intelligence in terms of the so-called common factor, most modern definitions emphasize the ability to function effectively in the environment, implying the adaptive nature of intelligence. The concept of intelligence in psychology is inevitably combined with the concept of IQ (), which is calculated from the results of tests for mental development. Because these tests measure adaptive behavior in a specific cultural context, they are almost always culturally biased; in other words, it is difficult to measure the degree of adaptability and effectiveness of behavior outside of a given culture.
Psychology. AND I. Dictionary-reference book / Per. from English. K. S. Tkachenko. - M.: FAIR-PRESS. Wikipedia
Translated from the Latin "intellectus", it means knowledge or understanding, your personal ability to solve and comprehend various problems. You are able to see, feel, remember, and imagine. From your own experience, you try to adapt to new conditions, apply the knowledge you once gained and control your behavior based on all this - you think.
Types of intelligence.
- Analytical;
- deductive;
- Logical;
- predictive;
- Critical;
- Abstract thinking;
- Creative thinking;
- Social;
- Emotional.
All these kinds of human intelligence able to start developing at any time in life and get smarter. Start right now and see results tomorrow. This will affect your life in general, self-respect and respect of others will appear, you will see new horizons that you never even dreamed of.
Your intelligence is an understanding of life, and the ability to adapt.
A small child at the beginning of life is not adapted, he is not adapted to the world. As they grow older, understanding and perception of surrounding things comes, the goals “I want this toy” gradually arise, but time passes and the scope of knowledge expands and an idea of the world is created. There are first problems to be solved. With the first learned verses, the intellectual development of a person begins, the functions of cognition, skills and behavior are formed.
An infinite number of studies of human psychogenetics have proved that intelligence is a genetic concept. But, of course, the formation of a person's intellectual abilities depends to a large extent on the environment, the family, the environment in which he lives and works.
Levels of intelligence development.
High level of intelligence
There are quite a lot of people with a high level of intelligence. They easily cope with a large amount of information, feel easy in complex and multitasking matters, their world is much wider and higher than that of the others. They often annoy others, because they will not be silent if they hear or see a mistake. They are demanding of others as well as of themselves. Constantly analyzing and rethinking their own and other people's actions, they cannot come to terms with the simplicity and primitiveness of the thinking and actions of others. People with a high level of IQ usually do not give in to strong passions and emotions, controlling themselves. They will never say to themselves that they are smart, because they understand their tiny place in the incomprehensibility of the Universe.
Average level of intelligence.
People with an average level of intellectual development make up a quarter of the world's population. They are able to achieve certain heights, however, they lack the potential to reach higher levels. Although they are hardworking and do not stop there, constantly engaging in mental fitness. These people study well at school from childhood, then successfully graduate from universities, usually a career in management awaits them, without requiring special mental abilities. Among them are many creative people, actors, artists, musicians, as well as school teachers, cultural workers and many other professions.
Low level of intelligence.
Twenty percent of the entire population of the Earth is assigned to people with a low level of intelligence. These are people who successfully completed school, received a profession, but do not want to get a higher education. They, for the most part, are engaged in physical labor, in areas and industries where it is not at all necessary to use the abilities of the intellect. This also includes another tenth of the population who completed their basic education with difficulty, and possibly special schools that help to obtain it. Their field of activity is working professions and service personnel.
Mental retardation.
About nine percent of people on Earth have some degree of mental retardation. People with a severe degree cannot take care of themselves and live in special institutions.
A person lives in society, and apart from it he cannot develop. He must understand that it is possible to achieve certain heights in society only through his own development, through the development of his mental abilities.
How to develop your intellect.
You can develop your intellect in many ways, the main thing is that the lesson is not boring, but brings pleasure. Spend as much time exercising as you can.
Physical exercises.
This is a mandatory workout that engages and develops several muscle groups: squats, push-ups from the floor or table. You need to be outdoors more often. Any physical activity, such as running, skiing, cycling, swimming, will help blood flow to the brain, which means that the work of brain cells will increase significantly.
Intellectual and logic games.
This type of exercise trains the mind well, concentrates the memory. Many celebrities and great minds of the world have loved board games. Here is not only a manifestation of memory and ingenuity, there is also passion. Starting at an early age, offer your children educational games and puzzles. By yourself, not bad, learn to play chess, poker, backgammon, even dominoes, why not. There are wonderful sites with interesting exercises for the mind.
Reading books and fiction.
Read more and often. This develops emotional memory, broadens one's horizons, develops and contributes to the formation of good taste. Fiction should alternate with cognitive, then the effect is enhanced. Tell relatives and friends about the main idea of the book, recommending individual works, try to remember the names of authors and main characters. Start learning poetry. It is better to start with famous and beloved authors, tell them at parties and holidays, family gatherings and at a meeting with friends. Do not be afraid to seem like an eccentric, I assure you, this will only add bonuses to you!
Exact sciences.
Start with math. Solve problems and exercises with your little sister or with your child. Make this a game of "Who can solve it faster?" It will energize both you and him. There are textbooks on logic. The exact sciences organize, put things in order in the head, put everything on the shelves, this will help the speed of thinking and develop memory. In such exercises, a wide range of qualities of your mind is developed: logic, analytics, deduction, abstract and predictive.
Learn to learn.
Keep learning, your brain has unlimited possibilities! After all, by learning, we gain life experience, the necessary information. We learn to master knowledge, unknown hitherto, which means we become more experienced and more interesting for others. Giving back the accumulated knowledge, our benefit to society increases. Our significance raises us in our own eyes, causes us to self-respect. No study has hurt anyone yet. Plus, it certainly leads to material benefits! Not bad, mastering penmanship with your non-dominant hand, the opposite hemisphere will get a good stimulation.
Learn foreign languages.
People with a high IQ tend to know several foreign languages. Why don't you take up the study of at least one? This will entail the development of memory, will allow you to think and reason with a good knowledge of the language, will reveal to you the primary sources of great writers, will ensure free communication in a foreign country, and again, will open up new, hitherto invisible horizons. Travel and discover the world and write down your impressions, shake up your brain and body!
Culture to the masses!
Visit exhibitions and theaters, concerts and cinema halls. Emotional development will give impetus to the understanding of beauty. Listen to classical music, teach your children to do it! Only by following all these recommendations, you can reach a new intellectual level.
Bad habits are the enemy of the intellect.
Everyone knows the harmful effects of alcohol and cigarettes on the brain. Therefore, if you want to start breaking into a new level of "game", you will have to give up bad habits.
Enjoy mental exercise. You have every right to increase the level of your intelligence! You deserve a better life, from birth God has given you this jewel - the ability to think!
The idea of discussing the mental abilities inherent in a person often irritates people, sometimes even causes a feeling of resentment. This is due to the misperception of the subject. Scientists have vast information about individual differences and abilities. They perfectly understand where they come from. And they know very well how to develop intelligence. However, this information rarely gets into the press. Basically, the reader is provided with a comparison of people by nationality, race, gender. And of course, the author tries his best to avoid discrimination. This is what irritates people.
Intelligence research draws a negative reputation from the past. They owe this to early work in this area. Indeed, in ancient works they tried to prove that a certain group of people is superior to others and deserves exceptionally special treatment. Today's works are aimed at the development of all people, regardless of the intellectual level. The use of such techniques allows achieving excellent results.
We define goals
How to develop intelligence? This question worries every person from time to time. And since interest in the topic is massive, it means that there are a lot of answers. The desire to become smart is a very voluminous concept. And if you are ready to seriously take up the development of intelligence, then first determine the goals. After all, it is impossible to strive for what you do not clearly see ahead.
Imagine a mentally intelligent person. What is he? For example, this is a person who freely communicates on topics in which others understand little. Or your imagination slipped you a personality that easily solves any TV quizzes and crossword puzzles. Or maybe you consider knowledge in stock strategies or aircraft design to be the pinnacle of mental activity? It is necessary to develop intelligence for specific goals. By honestly answering the question, you will determine the task to which, in fact, you are striving.
Choosing strategies
Before throwing all your strength into the development of intelligence, analyze your abilities. If from the very childhood mathematics caused you a persistent disgust, then is it worth it to study number theory? Or memorize Gumilyov's poems, even if Pushkin once caused a headache? Naturally, with patience, you can achieve good results in any field. But if you direct your efforts to development in your favorite business, then an excellent result will be given much easier and with little bloodshed.
The desire to impress others with smart conversations is very easy to realize. It makes sense to start reading. Books that develop intelligence will tell you how to interest the listener, how to conduct conversations correctly. A little secret - read the literature on the topics that are most often raised in your environment. This will allow you to insert from time to time interesting information and facts gleaned from books. It is only very important to really understand the literature you read so as not to get into an awkward position.
Sometimes, wondering how to develop intelligence, people pursue the goal of becoming rich. It's time to stop and analyze the situation. Are all rich people smart? No. Do all smart people necessarily become rich? Again no. Then, if the goal is wealth, it is necessary to reconsider the strategy for achieving it.
The desire to become an intellectual designer implies concrete steps. Simply put, you should develop your abilities in this area in order to become a competent specialist. Take a closer look at authoritative individuals who have achieved considerable results. Read the same books they studied. When you start moving in this direction, the vector of further development will take on clearer forms.
How to define intelligence?
To tell the truth, there is no exact methodology that allows you to determine IQ. The most commonly used test for intelligence, the author of which is Eysenck. However, this technique, even without looking at its popularity, loses somewhat to others. The tests of R. Amthauer, D. Raven, D. Wexler, R. B. Cattell are more accurate. Therefore, to determine your level of intelligence, you need to apply several of them, and possibly all. Only then will the resulting score more accurately correspond to your mental abilities.
Remember that any technique determines the IQ relative to the mental development of the "average" person in accordance with age. And yet, most people rightly believe that the perfect intelligence test has not yet been found. After all, any technique shows only the level of knowledge and awareness.
Eysenck test results
Most of the methods have a very strong influence on the attitude towards the subject in the future. So, a high IQ will allow the child to get into a prestigious class in which education is built on a complex program. In the US, people are hired based on their IQ test scores. In the modern world, a lot of attention is paid to such techniques, although not a single creator can vouch for a 100% result.
Hans Jörgen Eysenck introduced a scale from 0 to 160 for his test. The normal IQ of an average person was taken as 100 points. Therefore, to test mental abilities means to compare yourself with others.
The largest category of the population (50%) has an IQ in the range of 90-110 points. It is this audience that needs constant development of the mind in order to raise its level. Excellent intelligence - more than 110 points - 25% of people have. Unfortunately, the remaining 25% have an IQ level of less than 90. It should be noted that only 0.5% of the population has high intelligence - results that start from 140 points. People whose level of development does not reach 70, as a rule, have mental retardation.
Emotional intellect
Such a concept arose in psychology quite recently. But interest in it is quite high. What is emotional intelligence (EQ)? This is the ability to understand one's own and other people's emotions and feelings, to feel them, to convey to people, to manage them. Awareness of all this lays the foundation for successful interaction with other personalities.
Numerous studies by theorists and practitioners of psychology prove that the level of a person's achievements is determined to a greater extent by emotional abilities than by a classic IQ test. Thus, the concept of “being smart” has been transformed. Today it is the ability to understand one's own and other people's feelings and, of course, control one's own.
- Expression of emotions and accuracy of assessment. It is necessary to understand the feelings, both your own and those of others, regardless of whether they are associated with internal or external events. In other words, it is an opportunity to determine any emotions by appearance, physical condition, thoughts, behavior. The ability to accurately express all your feelings and articulate the needs associated with them.
- The use of emotions in mental activity. How a person feels depends on what and how he thinks. It is no secret that emotions quite strongly influence the entire process of thinking and prepare the individual for subsequent actions. This ability allows you to learn to think more effectively. Having figured out how to manage feelings, a person can look at the world from completely different angles, and therefore, it is much better to solve the problems that have arisen.
- Understanding emotions. This is a person's perception of the source of feelings that arise, the ability to classify them, to determine the connection between them and words. Ability to understand complex manifestations and predict their further development.
- Emotion management. All feelings affect thinking. That is why it is important to take them into account in making decisions, various tasks, in choosing behavior. The ability to manage emotions will allow you to evoke the necessary feelings, if necessary, or completely move away from them.
Methods for developing emotional intelligence
It is believed that a person who has achieved high results in this area increases his efficiency several times in various social areas. At the same time, it acquires the ability to feel happy.
The opinions of psychologists who study emotional intelligence are different. How to develop what is inherent in nature? Some people think it's impossible. Others hold a different point of view, and even developed a corresponding methodology.
To form the ability to recognize and evaluate emotions, it is necessary to identify them from time to time. "What am I feeling at the moment?" - such a question will help to learn understanding. Evaluate the basic concepts: sadness, joy, fear, anger. It is with them that you need to start.
Try to identify the source and intensity of the emotion you are experiencing. To do this, come up with a scale from 0 to 10. If the control over the feeling did not require much effort, this is 0. And the uncontrolled emotion is 10. Such a scale will tell you all the nuances of your feelings. Over time, you will be able to reduce your attitude towards negative emotions to the desired level.
The next step should be to expand the range. Formulate your own ABC of emotions. According to her, try to determine emotional condition surrounding people.
When you do anything, try to be aware of what you are experiencing. Learn to express your feelings, translate emotions into words. Remember that most relationships broke down from misunderstanding and understatement.
Music influence
Pleasant melodic sounds can not only be enjoyed. Music and intelligence are strongly interconnected. With it, you can significantly increase the efficiency of work.
We are not talking about people who understand complex musical forms, and therefore have a high level of intelligence. The melody has an amazing effect on any person. It is noticed that music lovers increase concentration, memory improves, attention develops. It should be noted that such processes are quickly consolidated and are long-term.
While listening to music, synchronous work of both hemispheres of the brain is noted. This increases its potential several times, therefore, mental activity is more productive. Scientists have proven that the synchronization of the work of the right and left hemispheres is the first step on the path to genius. At the same time, it was music that played the leading role.
It should be noted that not every melody develops a person's intellect. Bulgarian scholars recommend listening to masterpieces dating back to the 17th-18th century, written by composers who worked in baroque style and early classicism. It turns out that this music, written several centuries ago, still has the most powerful effect on memory and reason. The secret is that when writing their works, the masters used certain formulas that were passed down from generation to generation by ancient music schools.
Mozart's masterpieces with their unexpected overflows, transitions, overflowing of sounds, with their richness of various nuances are sustained in a 30-second "loud-quiet" rhythm. This fully corresponds to the biocurrents of the brain. Such music literally pours energy into the body. Thus, doing any business with melodic accompaniment of the immortal creations of Vivaldi and Mozart will greatly increase the efficiency of work. After all, it is not for nothing that scientists call individual fragments the music of the intellect.
Particular attention should be paid to the enemy of reason. Unfortunately, pop music dominates. You can't do any vocal music. Even when it comes to opera. The effect of voice on a person has the exact opposite result. The level of employment is dropping sharply. Modern trends, such as rave, techno, metal, house, do not contribute to the development of intelligence at all.
Surprisingly, regular listening to jazz and classical without any effort in two months can develop intelligence to a fairly decent degree. This is something to seriously think about.
Logical games
How to develop intelligence? Start playing games. First of all, it is, of course, chess. They are considered the best game for the development of intelligence, since they require a lot of concentration, logical analysis and calculations. At the same time, not only mental activity begins to be stimulated, a person develops intuitive thinking. If you're not a chess fan, look for other mind games. It can be: billiards, Rubik's cube, tic-tac-toe, mahjong. Perfect for this purpose is solving puzzles. Moreover, they can be anything: verbal, semantic, drawn or mathematical.
Reading Literature
This is perhaps the most accessible and powerful method of developing intelligence. As noted earlier, if you want to thoroughly understand one issue, study the literature on it. Start with textbooks, various manuals, brochures.
If you have more global goals - make it a rule to read every day. Books that develop intelligence and thinking will not allow the brain to “relax”. In addition, a person who reads a lot never experiences difficulties in communication. He always knows what to say to his interlocutor.
Information analysis
Ideas that arise in the head can be generated in the brain. It is much better to write down such thoughts. Learn to reflect in writing. As a rule, the recording of each subsequent step will begin on a piece of paper. And this process allows you to activate several parts of the brain at once. It is noticed that at this time the concentration increases almost three times. Thanks to this, the analysis of the situation becomes much deeper. Therefore, you save yourself the possibility of making the wrong decision.
Time relax
It is quite a difficult thing to develop intelligence if you constantly sleepy. Take the necessary time to rest. It is no secret that it is difficult to concentrate on an important matter if attention is scattered and inward. Studies have confirmed that fatigue lowers IQ by several points. That is why, in order to maximize mental faculties, you need to get enough sleep. Start going to bed on time. And the results will surprise you within a week.
Instead of a conclusion
If you are thinking about how to develop intelligence, strive to increase IQ, first awaken in your mind a thirst for knowledge. Try to constantly develop the brain, think a lot and learn to philosophize. Activate your curiosity and be ready to find answers to most questions on your own. Remember that a sharp mind is the path to wealth, harmony with others and with yourself, understanding the meaning of life.
Intelligence ... In everyday use, we are used to using this word as a synonym for the mental abilities of a person and rarely think about how many meanings and shades of meanings are actually invested in it, how many scientific theories and approaches are devoted to the interpretation of this phenomenon.
Who, for example, will immediately answer what verbal intelligence is? What is the relationship between thinking and intellect, intellect and ability?
And there are questions that many, on the contrary, have probably thought about repeatedly. For example, how to increase the level of intelligence and is it possible to do this at all if you are not too lucky with genetics?
Explain, measure, improve
The concept of intelligence is multifaceted. In general, the definition sounds like this: a relatively stable structure of human mental abilities. However, psychology offers to study these abilities from different points of view. So, in a number of concepts, an attempt was made to consider the creative components of intelligence (for example, the idea of insight, justified by Gestalt psychologists), and, say, supporters of the sociocultural approach consider it one of the results of socialization.
Everyone knows a way to quantify intelligence using IQ (intelligence quotient) tests. And although this technique is not unreasonably criticized, nevertheless, IQ now serves as a universal indicator of normal and abnormal intellectual development.
So, an indicator in the range of about 50-70 allows you to diagnose a mild intellectual disability, and data below 50 - a severe intellectual disability. And what is the intellectual development of a normal level, if you give the answer in the same numerical dimension? Values from 80 to 120 are recognized as the norm (such a wide range is explained by a wide variety of tests).
What does the development of the intellect of a person generally depend on, and how can it be influenced? Scientists around the world are struggling to find an answer to this question, but so far the data obtained is very ambiguous. Someone says that you can’t argue with genetics, but someone believes that increasing the intelligence of any child can be ensured by the right conditions for education.
There is also a lot of debate about how to quickly and permanently increase intelligence, although the main methods are known: to learn new things, solve crosswords and puzzles, do not forget about physical exercises ... And yes, the brain needs constant training: progress is lost as quickly as it builds up.
He is different
Given how differently psychology explains the concept itself, it is logical that both the types of intelligence and its structure also do not have an unambiguous scientific interpretation.
The middle position between these two levels is occupied by the so-called group factors. Their presence is justified by the fact that it is possible to group similar indicators for which one ability is responsible. The English psychologist Turnstone singled out more than a dozen group factors, but the following seven of them have become recognized:
- fluency of speech.
- associative memory.
- Understanding words.
- Numerical factor.
- Perception speed.
- Spatial thinking.
- Reasoning and logic.
Also interesting is the theory, the founder of which was the British and American psychologist Raymond Cattell. He said that the human intellect consists of two layers: fluid and crystallized.
As for the types of phenomena, it is appropriate to recall the theory that belongs to Howard Gardner. Studying intelligence, he came to the conclusion that there are multiple types of it, and therefore the standard measurement of intellectual abilities as a whole should give way to a differentiated approach. These types are:
- Logico-mathematical ().
- Intrapersonal (the ability to clearly understand one's own feelings and desires).
- Interpersonal (understanding what this or that emotion of another person means).
- Musical (perception of sounds and their various characteristics (pitch, tone), sense of rhythm).
- Spatial (the ability to represent an object in different dimensions, visually evaluate its parameters).
- Bodily-kinesthetic (body control).
- Linguistic (associated with language, speech, the ability to formulate and coherently express thoughts).
Consequently, at school, children are considered successful in whom linguistic, interpersonal and logical-mathematical types of intelligence prevail. However, for example, someone who dreams of becoming a dancer is more likely to be concerned with how to develop the intellect of the other - bodily-kinesthetic and musical, the future architect will need a spatial type, and so on.
Mind and feelings
Let's pay attention to inter- and intrapersonal types. They are often combined, because both of them are responsible for recognizing emotions, only in one case their own, and in the other - those who are nearby. What is emotional intelligence and how to increase its level have been written a lot lately, but much less about some of its negative features.
Indeed, people who read colleagues (and most importantly, bosses) like an open book do not have to demonstrate professional achievements in order to move up the career ladder. In addition, a developed ability to recognize emotions can provoke excessive self-confidence. A person knows about his own ability to understand others and relies on first impressions, not wanting to dig deeper, which leads to completely wrong conclusions about the situation and its participants.
So it turns out that you need to think not only about how to develop emotional intelligence, but also about how to protect yourself from the dangers that emotional competence is fraught with. Author: Evgenia Bessonova
