2.1 What is Intelligence?

Intelligence of a human being is a property that is very difficult to be defined in a clear and specific way, because usually this term has different meanings in different people, cultures and societies. Even for the global scientific community, the term intelligence has been, for many years, a source of controversy since its exact definition and measurement formats of acceptance is not unanimous and general. In popular sense, intelligence is the general mental ability of people to relate what they know to a particular problem or situation solution.



In popular sense, intelligence is the general mental ability of people to relate what they know to a particular problem or situation solution

The meaning of human intelligence is difficult to be defined in a few words and its meaning has been changed during the years. The following are some of the more popular definitions of the term "intelligence" currently:
● "The ability to learn or to profit from experience"
(Dearborn, 1921)
● "The ability to acquire the ability"
(Woodrow, 1921)
● "Intelligence is what intelligence tests measure"
(Boring, 1923)
● "A global concept that involves an individual's ability to act intentionally, think rationally and to deal effectively with the environment"
(Wechsler, 1958)
● "Intelligence is a general factor that crosses all kinds of performance"
(Jensen)
● "A person who possesses intelligence insofar as he had learned, or can learn, to adjust to their environment"
(Colvin, cited in Sternberg, 1982, p.30)
● "Intelligence is the adaptation to the environment"
(Unknown)
● "Intelligence is the power of the mind in the order that is perceived in a situation that was considered messy"
(R. W. Young, quoted in Kurzweil, 1999)
● "Intelligent activity is to capture the essence in a given situation and respond appropriately to them"
(Unknown)
● "Intelligence is the ability to use optimally limited resources - including time - to achieve the objectives"
(Kurzweil, 1999)
● "Intelligence is what you do when you don't know what to do"
(Unknown)
● "Intelligence is a hypothetical concept that we define as reflected in certain types of behavior"
(Unknown)

 

2.2 General Intelligence – Factor “G”

General intelligence, also known as "G factor", refers to the existence of a common ability that influences performance on mental ability measures. General intelligence is based on measure of people’s performance across a variety of mental tests.

The existence of general intelligence was first described by Charles Spearman in 1904. Spearman found that those who performed well on one cognitive test tended to perform well on other tests, while those who scored badly on one test tended to score badly on others. He concluded that intelligence is general cognitive ability that could be measured and numerically expressed. According to Spearman, this G factor is responsible for overall performance on mental ability tests.

In terms of psychometrics, general intelligence can be measured and expressed by a single number, such as an IQ (Intelligence Quotient) score. The idea is that this underlying general intelligence influences performance on all cognitive tasks.

Intelligence quotient (IQ), developed in 1905 by Alfred Benet, a French psychologist and lawyer, is the main scale used by many scientists and educators to quantify intelligence. The initial purpose of the scale developed by Benet was to use it as a diagnostic tool to identify students who needed special attention, based on the idea that the intelligence of a child depending on relationship between chronological age and mental age. For example, for a child of three years old, reciting the alphabet is a relatively difficult task, while for a six years old would be relatively easy. As a three year old child, what he was able to do would be considered very intelligent, while the same thing that could not be done by a six years old would be considered less intelligent.

The mental tests published by Benet were interpreted differently by the rest of the English speaking countries, especially in England and the United States. These tended to be a common ideology and interpretation of the results quite differently from that of Benet in France. In the U.S., the eugenics movement sought to demonstrate in 1908 that intelligence is inherited almost entirely, because it really encourages that intelligence is a work environment conducive to their development, and found useful in measuring intellectual development through test as evidence to scientifically prove the superiority of the white race.

Professor Lewis Ternan and his team at Stanford University found the need to adapt the test according to the parameters of education in California. The methods of testing and outlining intelligence are established with new rules not only applicable to teenagers, but are extended to people with older ages. The review is called Stanford- Benet scale, which is a universally recognized and applied test to determine people's IQ.

Monitoring and studying large groups of children from poor families who have been adopted and raised by a family with more favorable cultural and economic environment, have established that these children fail to achieve a higher intellectual level than those of the same origin but have been raised by their biological parents in an alleged atmosphere of conflict and poor economic culture. These studies have disproved the theory that had formerly under which "social class differences produce different intrinsic aptitude, ie an" unequal intelligence "which is genetically inherited (passed from parents to children), and is fixed and invariable." These basic assumptions are now considered totally wrong, because intelligence really fosters an environment conducive to the kids’ development.

Currently scientists, statisticians, psychologists, educators and researchers all agree that intelligence or IQ (intelligence quotient) of a normal baby is determined by 60- 80% of natural genetic factors (genes inherited from mother and father) and by 20- 40% of environmental factors.

2.4 Coefficient Is Intellectual - IQ

The Intelligence Scale Stanford-Benet (SB5) is a method most commonly used to determine the cognitive abilities of individuals aged from two to 85 years. An IQ score represents reasoning and thinking skills. It is calculated by dividing the mental age by chronological age and multiplying the result by 100. For example, if the chronological age of a child is 8 years old and an intelligence test reveals that his mental age is 10, his IQ score is more or less 10/8 = 1.25 x 100 = 125.

The mental age is determined by a series of standardized tests that measure intelligence in five areas:

- The fluid reasoning
- Knowledge
- Quantitative reasoning
- The visual-spatial processing
- Working memory.
- Verbal scores and yield are combined to produce a score scale.

The Stanford-Benet scale suggests that the average IQ of the population is between 85 and 115. A score of 100 is considered the average IQ of the entire population. The IQ of a genius is 140.


The factor G has a normal distribution in the general population, suggesting probably a product of several genes that interact with the environment (Tayyari, F. 2004).
The median full scale score or the average IQ is 100.

People in the middle area of the graph with an IQ of 100 are able to obtain a university degree. People in the IQ 110-119 or "high average" are more able to succeed in professional activities that are intellectually demanding, like managers, lawyers, etc. People in this range may have better memory, faster processing speeds and superior skills of decision making. The range "superior" IQ score of 120 or higher are those who will become doctors, scientists, academics, engineers, and the like.

In conclusion, the average IQ of the population is 100. Therefore, 68% of the population has an IQ between 85 and 115.



- People in the 110-119 or "high average" IQ range are more capable of succeeding in professional activities that are more intellectually demanding as managers, teachers lawyers and so forth. People in this range might have better memories, faster processing speeds and higher decision-making skills.

- People in the average range with an IQ score of about 100, are capable of earning a college degree. This range fits also clerical workers, sales workers, high school graduates, skilled workers (e.g., electricians, cabinetmakers), craftsmen and foremen.

- Semi-skilled workers (operatives, service workers, including private household) are in the range of 92.

- Unskilled workers are usually in the rage of 87 and below.

2.5 Multiple Intelligences

For general purposes, a broad definition of intelligence is "a global concept that involves an individual's ability to act intentionally, think rationally and interact effectively with the environment." (David Wechsler, 1958).

In 1990, Salovey and Mayer coined the term emotional intelligence EI as "a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to control one's feelings and those of others, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide the thoughts and actions" (Salovey and Mayer, 1990).

For many parents and educators, the traditional IQ test (using models developed by Benet) is a poor measure for evaluating the various forms of talents and innate abilities that children have.

Initially psychologists and scientists began to define the term intelligence, and focused on individual cognitive aspects such as memory and problem solving in mathematics, but then many researchers acknowledged that non-cognitive aspects are also important, as the factor of emotional, personal and social. In 1983, Howard Gardner wrote his theory of multiple intelligences and proposed that interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences are as important as the type of general intelligence as measured by IQ and related tests in life. These multiple intelligences are:


1. Logical-mathematical intelligence (ability to solve problems that are logical and mathematical)

2. Linguistic-verbal intelligence (ability of a person to use the word and language)

3. Visual-Spatial intelligence (ability to create a mental model of shapes, colors and textures)

4. Kinesthetic intelligence (ability to control the movement of the whole body for physical activity)

5. Musical intelligence (ability to create sounds, rhythms and melodies)

6. Interpersonal intelligence (ability to interact and understand others)

7. Intrapersonal intelligence (consciousness that we understand what we do

8. Naturalist intelligence (understanding scientific observation of nature)

Currently, a significant percentage of educators and educational systems around the world have adopted the theory of multiple intelligences as the basis for the education and development of children and the planning of primary school programs.br>
Regarding psychometrics, intelligence called "G factor" in relation to "general mental ability", which is based on measuring the performance of individuals through a series of mental tests. The factor G is normally distributed in the general population, suggesting that it is likely a product of several genes that interact with the environment.

2.6 Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups. Emotional intelligence includes three skills:

1.1. Emotional awareness, including the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others;

2. The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving;

3. The ability to manage emotions, including the ability to regulate your own emotions, and the ability to cheer up or calm down another person. r>
WaWayne Payne was the first who introduced the term emotional intelligence in his doctoral dissertation entitled "A study of emotion: developing emotional intelligence” in 1985.

In an article published in Mensa Magazine in 1987, Keith Beasley uses the term "emotional quotient." It has been suggested that this is the first published use of the term. The concept of emotional intelligence is popularized in 1995, after publication of psychologist and New York Times science writer Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.

According to Salovey & Mayer (1990), “the emotional intelligence could defined as the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions”. (From “Emotional Intelligence,” 1990)

2.7 Social Intelligence

Social intelligence is the capacity to effectively negotiate complex social relationships and environments. According with some experts, it is social intelligence, rather than quantitative intelligence, that defines humans.

The social intelligence has been described as “a model of personality and individual behavior in which people are presumed to be knowledgeable about themselves and the social world in which they live” (Bar-On, 1994, p.38).