INTELLIGENCE

Different psychologists have variously defined intelligence. But the commonest future in
most definitions are that intelligence is the ability to learn, the ability to carry on the higher
process of thought, especially abstract thinking and the ability to adapt to new situation.
Variation of Intelligence follows the ‘normal distribution’ in any population.

DEFINING INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence as a concept has been understood in different ways by differen psychologists and
has, therefore, a wide variety of definitions.

Stern (1914):

Intelligence is a general capacity of an individual consciously to adjust his thinking to new

requirements. It is the general mental adaptability to new problems and conditions of life.

Thorndike (1914):

Intelligence may be defined as "the power of good responses from the point of view of truth or
fact".

Terman (1921):

An individual is intelligent in the proportion that he is able to carry on abstract thinking

David Weshler (1944):

“Intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of an Individual to act purposefully, to think
rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment”.

Binet (1905) :
“Intelligence is the ability of an Individual to direct his behavior towards a goal.

Jean Piaget (1952):

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt ones surroundings”.

Wagon:
“ Intelligence is the capacity to learn and adjust to relatively new and changing conditions.

Spearman (1923):
“ Intelligence is the capacity of the organism to adjust itself to an increasingly complex
environment”.

In short, Intelligence is the mental ability of an individual to think and act towards the
effective adjustment in the environment
NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE

The true nature of intelligence can be understood by first defining it to understand its meaning,
discussing the various theories explaining its structure in terms of the several constituents and
factors, and identifying the numerous other aspects and characteristics related to intelligence
and its functioning. We have already covered the first two points in the present chapter, let us
now concentrate briefly on last point through the following description.

Distribution of Intelligence

The distribution of intelligence is not equal among all human beings. It resembles the pattern of
distribution of health, wealth, beauty and similar other attributes or endowments. It is a normal
distribution that is governed by a definite principle which states that the majority of people are
at the average, a few very bright and a few very dull.

Individual Differences in Intelligence

Wide individual differences exist among individuals with regard to intelligence. Truly speaking,
no two individuals, even identical twins or individuals nurtured in identical environments, are
endowed with equal mental energy. The assessment of intelligence by various tests has given
reasons enough to believe that not only does intelligence vary from individual to individual but
it also tends to vary in the same individual from age to age and situation to situation.

Intelligence and Changes in Age

As the child grows in age, so does the intelligence as shown by intelligence tests. The question
which now arises is, at what age does this increase stop? The age at which mental growth
ceases, varies from individual to individual. It tends to stabilize after the age of 10 and is fully
stabilized during adolescence. The idea that intelligence continues to grow throughout life is
not strictly true. Since intelligence is basically a function of neurons and neuroglia, its
development or deterioration goes hand in hand with the development or deterioration of the
nervous system. However, in the majority of cases, the growth of a person's intelligence
reaches its maximum sometime between the age of 16 and 20 years after which the vertical
growth of intelligence almost ceases. Horizontal growth i.c. achievement, the realization of the
intelligence in terms of accumulation of knowledge and acquisition of skills etc. may continue
throughout an individual's life.
Intelligence and the Sexes

Many studies have been conducted to find out whether men are more intelligent than women
and vice versa but no significant difference has been found. It may, therefore, be stated that
difference in sex does not contribute towards difference in intelligence.

Intelligence and Racial or Cultural Differences

The hypothesis whether a particular race, caste, or cultural group is superior to another in
intelligence has been examined by many research workers. In the U.S.A. it has been a burning
problem for centuries. The results of earlier studies which take the Whites to be a superior race
in comparison to the negroes have been questioned. It has now been established that
intelligence is not the birthright of a particular race or group. The 'bright and the 'dull' can be
found in any race, caste or cultural group and the differences which are found can be the result
of environmental factors and influences.

Characteristics of Intelligence:

The main features of Intelligence are the following:

 Intelligence is an innate natural endowment of the child.

 It helps the child in maximum learning in minimum period of time.
 The child is able to foresee the future and plan accordingly.
 The child is able to take advantage of his previous experiences.
 The child faces the future with compliance.
 He develops a sense of discrimination between right or wrong.
 The developmental period of intelligence is from birth to adolescence.
 There is a minor difference in the development of intelligence between boys and
girls.
 There are individual differences with regard to the intelligence between boys and
girls.
 Intelligence is mostly determined by heredity but a suitable environment necessary
to improve it.
THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE

The theories of Intelligence propagated what is the structure of Intelligence or what are the
different components of intelligence. There are many theories, out of which three are given
below

1. Spearman’s two factor or Eclectic theory

2. L.L.Thurston’s Group factor theory or Anarchic theory
3. Guilford’s theory of Intelligence (SI)

Spearman’s Two factor theory of Intelligence

 Proposed by Charles E. Spearman –(1923) (American Psychologist)

According to Spearman:-
 Intelligence consist only two factor General factor (g) and Specific factor (s)
 ‘g’ factor is general mental ability towards different tasks.
 ‘s’ factor is specific capacity that helps the person to deal with specific problems
 ‘g’ factor remains constant while ‘s’ factor varies with the intellectual activity. For
example, One’s performance in physics= g+s1; Maths =g+s2; English =g+s3
 Different activity requires different combination of ‘g’ and ‘s’.
 ‘s’ factor influenced by education and training whereas ‘g’ is innate

‘g’ factor

 Universal inborn ability

 General mental energy
 Amount of ‘g’ differs from individual to individual
 It is used in every life activity
 The greater the ‘g’ in individual, the greater the success.

‘s’ factor

 It learned and acquired in environment

 It varies from activity to activity in the same individual
 Individuals differ in amount of ‘s’.
 Mass of ‘s’ is unlimited.
 We can improve ‘s’ factor.

L.L.Thurston’s Group factor theory.

For factors not common to all intellectual abilities but common to certain activities comprising
a group, the term 'group factor" was suggested. Prominent among the propagators of this
theory was L.L. Thurston, an American psychologist. While working on a test of primary mental
abilities, he came to the conclusion that certain mental operations have a common primary
factor which gives them psychological and functional unity and, which differentiates them from
other mental operations. These mental operations constitute a group factor. So there are a
number of groups of mental abilities and each of these groups has its own primary factor.
Thurston and his associates have identified nine such factors. They are:

1. Verbal factor (V)

is concerned with comprehension of verbal relations. words and ideas.
2. Spatial factor (S)
is involved in any task in which the subject mani- pulates an object imaginatively in space.
3. Numerical factor (N)
is concerned with the ability to do numerical calculations, rapidly and accurately.
4. Memory factor (M)
involves the ability to memorize quickly.
5. Word fluency factor (W)
is involved whenever the subject is asked to think of isolated words at a rapid rate.
6. Inductive reasoning factor (RI)
is the ability to draw inferences or conclusions on the basis of specific instances.
7. Deductive reasoning factor (RD)
is the ability to make use of generalized results.
8. Perceptual factor (P)
is the ability to perceive objects accurately.
9. Problem-solving ability factor (PS)
is the ability to solve problems with independent efforts.

Guilford’s Theory of Structure of Intellect Model (SOI Model)

J. P Guilford (1961) developed the structure of intellect model on the basis of the factor
analysis, He suggested every mental process or intellectual activity can be described in terms of
three basic dimensions or parameters ,such as Operation, Content, Production

He argued that intelligence consisted 150 different and independent skills.

Each of these intellectual abilities or structures is interlinked.

Therefore, he thinks 5x5x6=150intellectual abilities, which are presented below:

Intellectual abilities are placed under three broad categories

1. Operation
 Cognition: Individual is able to recognize thing.
 Memory: Ability to recall or retrieve learned information
 Divergent production: we think in different directions searching and seeking for some
variety and novelty. It closely associated with creativity. General to Specific
 Convergent Production: it is generation of information conventionally accepted and it
determines the response.
 Evaluation: reaching decision making or judgments

2. Contents
 Visual : it is a concrete material, which has been perceived through the eyes.
 Auditory : it consists of the matters or information perceived through ears.
 Symbolic: it is composed of letters, digits and other conventional signs.
 Semantic: it is the form of clear-cut verbal meaning or ideas for which no examples are
necessary
 Behavioural: Social intelligence which enables one to understand human
communications.

3. Products
 Unit: To grasp sensory perception in to their uniqueness.
 Classes: The ability to categorize ideas.
 Relations: The ability to understand, the relations between or among existing things.
 Systems: the ability group ideas or problems into space or the ability to structure
problems for solutions.
  Transformation : the ability to produce the future shape of a certain object situation
under a certain circumstances.
 Implications: The ability to understand the implied meanings.

Education Implication of SI Model

 Helpful for constructing various type of Intelligence test suitable to different age group
 Study individual difference in society
 Discovered many mental ability which were not known before
 Vocational testing