Intelligence Essay

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Intelligence

The concept of intelligence has been in existence for a long period of time. Defining and measuring intelligence has always been a dilemma to researchers. From dictionary.com, the formal definition of intelligence is define as, ‘manifest of high mental capacity.’ According to antiquity, having high intelligence is having extensive knowledge of facts, ability to understand concepts that is rarely comprehended by others, and the fact that an individual understand a thing that most do not understand. This origin of this definition came from Intelligence tests such as intelligence quotient (IQ) test.

Although this definition is used for general purpose, there are certain aspects of that which it fails to address. Throughout history, the most common type of intelligence is the one that is exhibited academically, in today’s society, a child is define as intelligent by the number of ‘A’s his or her report card reflects. This turns people off from making an effort to understand other areas of intelligence without seeing it on paper. As much as we associate intelligence to academic intelligence, it is worth noting that we have moved beyond the formal definition of intelligence and the word now is extended to mean different kinds of intellectual abilities such as Emotional Intelligence (EQ), Body Intelligence (BQ) and Moral Intelligence (MQ), these are define as different way of being smart (Jensen, 2012). Quoting Albert Einstein, ‘everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it’s ability to climb the tree, you will spend you whole life believing that it is stupid.’ This accurately point out that intelligence is a term that should be used interchangeably. The fact that one is not bright in class does not mean that he ...

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...exceptional intellectual capacity to understand highly complex concepts, we also take into consideration other under-rated forms of intelligence. It does not matter if an individual did not receive the best academic education from a top-notch university. A person with less education may excel in other areas of intelligence such as EQ, MQ, or BQ and be considered more intelligent than a person with an impressive education and high cognitive abilities who falls short in these other categories.

Hasnain-Wynia, R., & Wolf, M.S. 2010. Promoting health care equity: Is health literacy a missing link? Health Services Research, 45 (4), 897–903.

Jensen, K.,2013, 12 4. Intelligence is overrated: What you really need to succeed. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/keldjensen/2012/04/12/intelligence-is-overrated-what-you-really-need-to-succeed/

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