Different Perspectives Of An Intelligent Person example essay topic

How smart are you? What really determines your intelligence? and How is it evaluated? Before any of these questions could be answered, intelligence should be able to be defined. The definition of "intelligence", according to the Webster's Dictionary is the ability to perceive logical relationships and use one's knowledge to solve problems and respond appropriately to novel situations. This of course is just one concept of what intelligence is. The topic of intelligence has been an area that has intrigued psychologists as well as everyday people.

We all have our own theories of what constitutes an intelligent person, because of our different opinions of intelligence there is no specific way to test or evaluate how smart you really are. For example, if an IQ test consists of verbal and math skills and you are a musical genius with horrendous math skills, of course your score will show you being mentally regressed in math. Because there are so many concepts of intelligence you could image that psychologists have several different ways of testing intelligence. A couple ways of testing is by using I. Q tests or by the Theory of Multiple Intelligence (which is composed of linguistics, math, music, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic intra and inter personal intelligences). Some think that the years behind you make you wise or even your social skills make you intelligent. In addition, cultures also view intelligence in different ways.

For example, intelligence in children to the Western society is what is measured in I. Q tests that are composed of linguistics, and mathematics. Theories of Intelligence 2 In contrast, to how a Mexican-American parent would define an intelligent child, which is a child that is motivated and has social skills. Intelligent people that do not mesh with society are considered to be extremes. At times people, who were considered to be savages in terms of social skills, were brilliant in a specific skill. For example, many famous people like Beethoven, Van Gogh, and Edgar Allan Poe who were all considered to be insane or have a mental instability at one point, but were thought to be geniuses in their field.

Many people have come to the conclusion that insanity, or mental instability of the artist was bases for their creativity and genius in their work. The link between insanity and brilliance is a large one, proven by many artists and writers foreseen as both extremes in societies. The artists mentioned were not very successful in their social skills; therefore, if evaluated for this skill alone to determine their intelligence the would prove to be savages and denying the area which they are considered to be geniuses would be absurd. How can intelligence be accurately determined? When there are so many concepts. There is real definition that defines "intelligence" and there is no exact way to test intelligence.

Nonetheless, we will always have concepts of what an intelligent person is. This experiment that I conducted will prove just this. People do have different perspectives of an intelligent person. Theories of Intelligence 3 Methods The two methods used for all participant.

First method, was they were all given a sheet a paper with the following question, "What behaviors or traits do you associate with intelligent people?" The participants were to take the sheets home to complete. This method was used, so they would have time to put some thought into the question. However, I also wanted to test people when the question was asked spontaneously, so this was the second method. Results Participant #1 The first person I interviewed was Sandra Bueller age 27.

She wrote the following statements down "Intelligence is... ". 1. Learn from your mistakes, 2. Open to foreign / new ideas, 3. Inquisitive, wanting to learn, 4.

Persistence, perseverance, 5. Willingness to change, adapt. Participant #2 The second participant was Janice Eberhardt age 51. Her statements were the following: An intelligent person is well read, manner of conversation / topics articulate, writing skills, and social skills. Participant #3 and #4 Participant #3 and #4 were interviewed at the same time. This interview differed from the previous two in that I wrote down notes instead of using the sheet to complete.

Theories of Intelligence 4 Participant #3 was Eduardo Fernandez age 18. Eduardo gave brief comments to the question. He said the following, "A intelligent person is someone with glasses"Not outspoken kinda like a hermit" and "Reserved". Participant #4 was Jenna Kay age 15. She was interviewed at the same time as Eduardo and gave her comments along with him. She states the following behaviors and traits are associated with intelligent people: "Knows what they are talking about"A wise person not just an older person just someone who knows more then me".

She also claimed that she distinguishes intelligent people by their physical traits. She said, "I think people that dress nice look successful and smart, like doctors and lawyers". Discussion How smart are you? What really determines your intelligence? How is it evaluated? All these questions about intelligence cannot really be answered because people have different definitions of intelligence.

Sandra claimed an intelligent person was open-minded. Janice, described intelligence as having good communication skills. Eduardo thought a reserved person was intelligent and Jenna thought a wise person was intelligent. The participants in the experiment were all correct in describing an intelligent person because it was there own personal theories. I think the most accurate way of, if any, in describing intelligence is by Gardener's Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

This theory covers a lot of possibilities of intelligence. Intelligence is often domain-specific and not domain general. Theories of Intelligence 5 If this is the case, everybody has a specific area that they have a talent in. This would be their intelligence. A quote by Martha Graham claims just that, "Everybody is born with genius, but must people only keep it a few minutes..