PSYCHOLOGY/ INTELLIGENCE - Essay Example

Your Intelligence Intelligence comes from the Latin word which means to discern. Like most aspects of psychology, intelligence is something that can’t be measured simply. Hence comprehensive cognitive exams are done to check a person’s intelligence quotient. Some of these tests are psychometric tests and aptitude tests. These IQ tests usually cover the areas of attention, auditory, visual and tactile perceptions, spatial and constructional processing abilities along with verbal and language functions, spatial and constructional processing abilities, memory and learning, and problem solving (Sparrow and Davis, 2000).

For me, intelligence is the capacity of an individual to deal effectively and to adapt well in his environment. My appreciation of intelligence is marked by those characteristics as well, and then some more. There are popular notions of the signs of intelligence, and these are some of it. These are some of the characteristics of intelligence according to my observation: Memory, focus, verbal and language competence, spatial/nonverbal competence, ability to think outside the box, having a sense of humor and by being curious.

As you can see, the first four items in the list are similar to the key characteristics pointed out by the researcher, but not the last three items. The four items can be measured by the available psychometric tests: memory tests that challenge one’s own capacity to remember, focus exams that deal with attention spans, verbal and language exams that evaluate one’s cognitive level, as well as nonverbal exams have areas in conventional psychometric tests. The ability to think outside the box is usually a sign of being creative.

Being creative, for me, is a sign that one is intelligent. Examining that characteristic entails an interview, may it be for children or adults. One should ask a difficult question that would force a person to think of radical solutions for that problem. The other characteristic for me that would entail intelligence is the sense of humor. Sense of humor implies wit, and wit implies intelligence. This would be tested easily: if the person is funny. It should be noted that not all smart people are funny though (although generally, funny people are smart people).

Being curious is also a characteristic that implies intelligence because it implies that the person is interested to learn at all time. When the person asks questions about how things work, then the person is probably intelligent. Testing it would also require an interview or a conversation, at least, to mark if the person can be curious by asking relevant questions.The major difficulties encountered when defining intelligence is the fact that it is hard to define because it has so many different aspects that sometimes, there are overlooked items.

I know that the scientists have researched on it well but there are some things that I feel are also indicators of intelligence but are very difficult to measure, like sense of humor, that’s why there are no studies that can support that theory. I put face-to face interview as the way to measure that ability because it’s the most feasible and personal form of evaluating these traits.I asked three more people about intelligence. They all agree that intelligence is strongly connected to the ability to learn knowledge in order for a person to live well with his surroundings.

For a friend, intelligence is also the capacity to acquire new skills. Another one stated that intelligence is commonsense, and the other one stated that intelligence is concerned with the ability to adapt. They believe they are intelligent, because they have passed the college entrance exams, SATS and other aptitude tests. However, once they fail an exam or a subject, they do not feel as intelligent. This is probably due to laziness, though, not lack of intelligence. However, that laziness may be an indicator that they can’t adapt.

References:Benson, Nigel. Introducing Psychology. 1999. London: Icon Books. Print.Richardson, Ken. The Making of Intelligence. 2000. New York: Columbia University Press. Print.Sparrow, Sara and Davis, Stephanie. Recent Advances in the Assessment of Intelligence and Cognition. 2000. Web. Retrieved January 24, 2012.