Intelligence

1)How should intelligence be defined?
There are many ways of defining intelligence. In general intelligence can be defined as the ability to learn from experiences, solve problems and use the knowledge to adapt in to new situations. According to Binet, intelligence is an individual‘s metal aptitudes. According to Gardner, intelligence is not one’s specific ability, but rather the abilities to do certain things in different areas which are called “General Intelligence”. There are different types of intelligences such as linguistic, musical, logical, physical, spatial, social, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligence.

2)What are the elements of intelligence?
There are two elements that build up intelligence which are environment and genetics. We could compare intelligence as the growth of plants. If the genetic outcome of the seed is tall, with good care the plant will grow tall. If we do not supply the plant with enough nutrients, the plant will not grow tall even though it contains the tall genes. This is the same as human, if we are not properly educated, no matter what good genes our parents give us; we will not have much intelligence.

3)Is intelligence testing valid? Reliable? Ethical?
The test is reliable only if the test yields consistent results from multiples trials of taking the alternate form of the test. A reliable test should produce a bell curve that have a variety of score producing a range of results. The intelligence test claims itself as a reliable test, but from my point of view I think it is not reliable. The intelligence could yield difference results if we have more practice on it; therefore I think intelligence is not reliable.

The test is valid only if the test predicts or measures what it is suppose to. There have been companies that use intelligence test to measure if a person is capable to do a task, and claims that it is valid. I think intelligence is not valid because the purpose of intelligence tests is to measure “the ability to learn from experiences, solve problems and use the knowledge to adapt in to new situations”, but they only measure part of them but not all.

Lastly, I think intelligence test is not ethical at all, in fact I think intelligence is just an unreliable and a non valid test. Scores from the intelligence could not judge how “SMART” you are, you might get a 60 on the IQ test but you are talented at other fields such as music or art (Savant syndrome). A score on the intelligence could not determine if you have the ability of performing certain task or the ability to do certain things. In fact a person with a high IQ score might not be able to cope with the environment because he is lack of EQ. The community now a day has a misconception that people with high IQ score are smart, and in contrary people with low IQ score are dumb. IQ test has caused people believe in this misconception and form a discrimination to those who have obtained a Low IQ score.

4)How can variations in intelligence be explained?

Variations in intelligence can be explained by the elements that build up intelligence which are environment and genetics. Intelligence is built up 50% by genetics and 50% by environment. This figure does not mean that genetics and environment is exactly a one to one ratio to every particular person. It means that the difference in genetic and environmental factor of a particular group varies one to one intelligence vs. genetics ratio.