In: Psychology
What Is Intelligence? This week’s lecture focused on the role of human intelligence. In your own words, what do you think intelligence is? Do you think intelligence is something you are born with or something that you can grow and develop? Why do you feel the way you do about that? How can engaging in good critical thinking impact your intelligence (or can it?) Your work should be at least 500 words, but mostly draw from your own personal experience. This should be written in first person and give examples from your life. Be sure if you are using information from the readings that you properly cite your readings in this, and in all assignments.
PLEASE NO PLAGIARISM!!!!!! PLEASE PUT IT IN YOUR OWN WORDS!!!!!!
Thorndike defines intelligence as “one’s capacity to deal effectively with situations”. According to me Intelligence is the capacity and ability to acquire, understand and apply knowledge, emotions and skills. Intelligence is innate and also something which develops as we grow. Heredity, environment, culture, gender, prenatal and postnatal environment, physiology conditions etc play a role in determining intelligence. It has been seen in many studies how post natal environment determines intelligence. The use of alcohol and drug during pregnancy effects the development of the fetus. This also has an effect on intelligence. Thus I can say that intelligence is something we are born with. I say intelligence is innate as genes play a role in determining the characteristics of an individual. Genes also carry intelligence from parents to the offspring. One example from my personal life is that when I and my brother took an intelligence paper pencil test as part of a practical experiment of my college the result turned out that our intelligence score were almost the same. I say intelligence also is something that develops as we grow because environment, culture, race plays a role in determining intelligence. During pregnancy when a mother does not take care of herself properly and is undernourished this effects the development of the fetus by making the fetus prone to various hazardous diseases that may have an effect on the intelligence. Unhealthy home environment may lead individual to just stay at one place and not participate or take part in any activities. This way that individual is not learning or gaining any knowledge. If a healthy and competitive environment is provided at home, school, during play then an individual gets a chance to explore and figure out or come up with innovative ways or techniques to solve problems. This way his intelligence will develop. I was a quite child during my high school days as I was not having a healthy home environment. I would not take part in any activities and I could see my performance in simply activities was very poor. After few years when my home environment was good I could see myself taking part in various activities, exploring things, going out and learning things from different people and applying those skills to solve problems. I say culture also a plays a role in determining intelligence because different culture approach problems and or use different decision making techniques. If one is exposed to these cultures he will learn to approach a problem from various perspective. Good critical thinking helps one to think out of the box solutions for a problem. When one thinks critically he thinks of pros and cons before making a decision. This way one is using his intelligence to learn from past experiences and apply it in future eliminating the errors. Critical thinking also exercises the brain to think about things one could have never imagined or even thought of before. Intelligence plays an important role in one’s life and is very important for survival. Intelligence is not only about looking at an individual’s performances based on the score. Intelligence can also be determined by the emotion of the person. Emotional intelligence helps individuals to look and understand other peoples emotion and act accordingly to maintain a good relationship as well manage oneself and people in a better way.