The Concept of Intelligence under Different Cultural Perspectives - Essay Example

My western culture assumes various concepts about intelligence. My culture mainly associates intelligence with one’s ability to engage in rational debates. Informed Individuals with great knowledge of utilizing academic concepts in developing lucid arguments are considered to have a high degree of intelligence. The concept of intelligence takes a different dimension in Chinese culture. Similar to the western culture, the Chinese culture associates intelligence with the idea of rational thinking. However, the Chinese idea of intelligence stresses one’s skills in relating with others. Consequently, the culture observes that intelligent persons understand and associate with others appropriately. Indeed, people informed by the Chinese culture believe that intelligence entails knowing when to reveal and not to reveal one’s intelligence. In my culture, the concern of relationship or association skills is of minimal attention when describing the concept of intelligence.

Examination of the online tests
Online intelligence tests provide an attempt of measuring intelligence, but they cannot determine one’s intelligence comprehensively. Initially, the Australian Test strength emerges with the idea of using versatile questions that cover various areas. Consequently, the test is capable of testing diverse knowledge. Additionally, the system uses questions that are cut across different cultures. This means that the test is capable of examining multicultural concepts. However, most of the questions in the test demand understanding of Australian cultural concepts. This limits the test since individuals who are familiar with the Australian culture are advantaged over others.

The second test or the American-Australian test is more appropriate for examining the intelligence of people from diverse cultures. The test uses cultural-influence-free questions to avoid the challenge of cultural bias. For example, the question that demands an individual to state the number of weeks in a year is independent since the answer to this question is constant. The test also distributes questions heavenly among different cultures. However, the test has numerous limitations. Initially, some of the questions used in the test may appear ambiguous in some cultures due to different cultural teachings. Subsequently, some questions lack constant answers since various answers may be correct under different contexts.

Factors that have the greatest influence on intelligence
Environmental and biological factors have the greatest influence on intelligence. Biological factors refer to the effect of genetic composition while environmental influence includes an array of stimulations that surround an individual (Hunt, 2011). Studies have identified that intelligence tends to run in families and offspring resemble their biological parents in intelligence (Hunt, 2011). This asserts the possibility of biological factors in determining intelligence. Furthermore, the environment influences intelligence since it provides an individual with essential input and experimental materials for developing his intelligence. This means that enrichment or insufficiency of the environment would produce differences in individuals’ abilities. Conclusively, intelligence-testing systems should devise strategies for minimizing the effect of culture to enhance their accuracy. Read More