Innate Intelligence - Essay Example

Evaluating intellectual, logical, analytical and rational skills and capacities, the IQ measurement and scoring paradigm was perceived of by society as the definitional competence measurement methodology and the predictor of performance and success potentialities. Those who scored high on the IQ measurement were assumed to possess the requirements for success and leadership. This assumption, predicated on belief in the scientific accuracy and comprehensiveness of the IQ test and measurement, sustained the usage of IQ measurements for several decades.

Perceptions regarding IQ as the ultimate, and most comprehensive, measurement of intelligence and as the predictor of success and leadership potentiality began to wanes, consequent to the intervention of psychologists and psychological research. The arguments raised maintained that while IQ could function as a partial predictor of success, it was hardly a predictor for leadership potentiality or, for that matter, long-term sustainable success. Long term, sustainable success and leadership potentiality were determined by the possession of the "ability to tune into the world, to read situations and connect with others while taking charge of their own life".

Emotional intelligence has been popularly portrayed as critical to human success and sometimes even more important than IQ (D. Goleman, 1995), yet sparse evidence exists supporting such a claim. A considerable amount of research has been conducted on the construct of intelligence during this century, but especially during the past 50 years. The examination of specific abilities that extend beyond the concept of general undifferentiated intelligence has been especially important. In the 1960s, in particular, a growing number of cognitive theorists studied neuropsychology, neuroscience, and higher mental processes.

These efforts, described as the cognitive revolution (Miller, Galanter & Pribram, 1960), had a substantial influence on theoretical psychology and more recently in applied psychology. The cognitive revolution has impacted the way intelligence is conceptualized and measured.Spearman (1904), who invented the technique of factor analysis and applied it to the measurement of intelligence, defined intelligence in terms of the over arching construct of "ease or rapidity of problem-solving ability." More specifically, according to Spearman, an intelligent person apprehends experience (i.e., recognizes and understands the various elements that constitute a given situation), understands the salient interrelations among elements of the situation, and has the capacity to extrapolate those interrelations to new and unfamiliar situations.

Spearman's (1904) factor analytic data suggested that various measures of intelligence loaded on a single factor, labeled Intelligence. Thurstone (1938) proposed seven reasonably distinct primary mental abilities (verbal comprehension or understanding word meanings; facility with numbers; perceptual speed or ability to rapidly discriminate between complex visual presentations; word fluency or rapid and flexible usage of words, such as making rhymes or