Is it worth being smart? A question worthy of special attention. Maintaining intelligence at the proper level and developing it is a task that interests a huge number of people around the world. We provided some statistics on this matter in the article “Development of Thinking. What to do to become smarter”, some of which were discussed in other articles. And, naturally, any associations with such things turn out to be only positive.
However, there is a slightly different view on this matter. According to some experts, and even ordinary people, individuals with high intelligence (meaning above average intelligence) face a huge number of difficulties in their lives.
In stories about geniuses of different eras and in their biographies, it often appears that they experienced extreme suffering from loneliness, misunderstanding from others, disappointments and fears. Life is replete with examples proving that geniuses and highly intelligent people are loners, individuals isolated from society even though their activities can affect the whole world.
Actually, why even ask yourself (and others) whether smart people are happy, and, if so, what is the magnitude of this happiness? However, the educational system has almost always been aimed at increasing academic intelligence, and we, whether we like it or not, are forced to become part of it from an early age. Therefore, it is important for anyone who is thinking about a happy and harmonious life to understand whether the desire to be smart will prevent him from achieving what he wants.
A little history
Research into how high intelligence affects a person's daily life began in the first half of the 20th century, when IQ testing was still a novelty. One of the pioneers in this matter was the American psychologist, professor at Stanford University Lewis Terman.
In 1926, he used the IQ test to find gifted children and then study their development and record their life achievements. An incredible number of students in California schools took the test, and as a result, 1,500 students were selected whose IQ exceeded 140 units (some even had it above 170 units!) Subsequently, a group of these children in scientific circles began to be called “termites”, and their successes and failures are studied to this day.
Naturally, many of the termites managed to achieve success in life. An example is the American writer Jess Oppenheimer, famous for the 1950 comedy I Love Lucy. At the time of the premiere of the first episode of the film, the average earnings of children from the selected group exceeded the salary of any ordinary office employee.
But not everyone observed by Theremin lived up to his expectations. Among them were those who chose quite ordinary professions for themselves, for example, a driver, a salesman or a law enforcement officer. Thus, Theremin proved that intelligence is by no means synonymous with success. Moreover, the mind did not provide any significant support to the termites in their personal lives: among them there were divorcees, alcoholics, and even suicides. In other words, they weren't that different from other Americans or people in general.
By their example, the participants in Theremin’s experiment demonstrated that intelligence is not a guarantee of a better life. They also showed that under favorable conditions, high intelligence does not make a person more satisfied with their achievements, and under bad circumstances it does not increase the chances of self-realization. So why aren't the benefits of high intelligence so beneficial?
§3. Factors determining the development of intelligence
As in the development of other human cognitive abilities, the formation of intelligence is closely intertwined with innate characteristics and environmental influences that occur in a fairly early period of a child’s life.
For effective development at the initial stage, the weight of the child at birth is important. It has been shown that when a newborn weighs less than 1.5 kg, developmental delay is especially significant and its consequences do not depend on income. The child's future abilities deteriorate in the presence of chromosomal abnormalities (for example, Down's disease, Turner syndrome, etc.), or illnesses of the mother during pregnancy.
Burden of Intelligence
In 1990, contacted termites were asked to rate their lives. And they said that they did not enjoy success at all, but suffered from the hopes of their youth. And this sense of responsibility for one’s “duty”, together with the expectations of others, was observed (and is observed now) in many gifted children.
An example is Sufian Yusuf, a girl who entered Oxford at the age of 12. Later she left her studies and went to work as a waitress in a restaurant. And then she completely sunk to the level of a prostitute, entertaining her clients by solving complex equations during sex.
Another common problem that highly intelligent people often report is that they are much more aware of the shortcomings of the world in which they live. If most of the inhabitants of our planet do not think about this at all, then people with high intelligence can suffer from insomnia, thinking about how much humanity has wallowed in its stupidity, and what awaits us all next.
Constant anxiety can also be considered a clear sign of a high IQ. Thus, in one of the institutes in Canada, a survey was conducted among students, and it showed that the smartest students more often experience anxiety attacks during the day. They are worried mainly by simple everyday difficulties. Telling them about it seems difficult. And when something bad happens, they think about it longer.
Subsequent studies have established that the level of anxiety is influenced by verbal abilities. For example, when playing word games, anxiety increases, but when solving spatial puzzles, it decreases. However, the next topic turned out to be more interesting.
“Blind spots” of the psyche
Many people believe that high intelligence is akin to wisdom, but it is impossible to equate these concepts, because often even very smart people make stupid choices. University of Toronto professor and rationality researcher Keith Stanovich has found in his research that IQ level affects the decision-making process, namely, it affects impartiality.
Intelligent people have a tendency to selectively apply information acquired through previous learning, but otherwise their objectivity in decision-making is almost no different from the attitude towards problems of people with ordinary indicators of intelligence. But there are other interesting findings.
People who score high on standardized cognitive tests are oblivious to their own shortcomings. They can even see and criticize the weaknesses of others, but this does not change the state of affairs. It has been noticed that they more often make the so-called gambler's mistake, being confident that if a coin shows heads ten times when flipped, the eleventh time it will most likely show heads.
The result is incorrect bets when playing roulette or on the stock exchange and other, one might say, stupid mistakes. Thinking that fortune will finally turn to face them, intellectuals can “break the wood” so that the chips cannot be collected later.
Highly intelligent people often tend to trust their instincts and disregard rationality. Many members of the most famous and largest organization for people with high intelligence, Mensa, for example, believe in paranormal phenomena. In general, very smart people tend to act irrationally, even when the opposite strategy is available.
These are the very “blind spots” of the psyche, once again indicating that high intelligence cannot be considered a guarantee of right decisions and right actions, and proving that high IQ ≠ wisdom.
Intelligence VS Wisdom
Professor from the University of Waterloo Igor Grossman is confident that if a person is irrational with high intelligence, he should turn to the concept of wisdom, and this approach is more scientific than it might seem at first glance. Even though conversations about wisdom seem a bit vague and vague, most people would still agree that wisdom is the best way to assess any situation.
Grossman once conducted an experiment in which participants had to resolve various social dilemmas. Even before the experiment, psychologists analyzed the degree of open-mindedness of people, i.e. their ability to recognize the limits of their information content and their tendency to ignore important details that do not fit into their theories.
Those who had high scores were actually more satisfied with events and relationships with others, had lower levels of anxiety, and tended to think carefully about problems. And these are precisely the qualities that highly intelligent people often lack.
As a result, it turned out that wisdom also affects life expectancy. People who are able to admit their incompetence are much less likely to die early. It is also important to note that Grossman was able to discover that high intelligence does not accompany wisdom, because smart people are often characterized by biased thinking.
Introduction
The problem of studying intelligence, intellectual abilities and intellectual (mental) development in psychology is one of the oldest. The significance of the problem of measuring intelligence and mental development is primarily determined by the role they play in resolving a complex of social and individual psychological problems of a person. Intelligence mediates the success of activities performed by a person; the rationality of his behavior and relationships with others, the social value and social status of the individual depend on it. Intelligence plays a vital role in the structure of a holistic individuality.
At the same time, intelligence remains a multi-valued concept that reflects the ability to cognition, achieve goals, adapt, solve problems and much more. This concept is used not only by psychologists, but it is also used in the knowledge of philosophy, sociology, pedagogy, cybernetics, physiology and other areas of scientific knowledge. It also exists in everyday consciousness and is an everyday concept. Each area of knowledge develops its own ideas about intelligence.
Summary
Igor Grossman believes that wisdom is something that can be learned. It is much easier for a person to give up bias and prejudice when he switches attention from himself to other people. And if a person begins to talk about what bothers him in the third person (using the pronouns “he” and “she” rather than “I”), he will be able to create the necessary emotional distance and become less “omniscient”, and his arguments will become wiser.
Becoming wise in this understanding means becoming an intellectually humble person, learning to admit one's shortcomings and mistakes. But, of course, if a person has rested on the laurels of his intellect all his life, it will be incredibly difficult for him to rebuild and admit that it was because of his mind that his judgments were distorted all his life.
But still, sometimes every smart person should put his intellect aside for a moment and try to become wiser. However, this cannot be regarded as a call to ignorance and stupidity - the most terrible things that a person can know. Mind and intellect are the great wealth that nature has endowed us with, and it is unacceptable not to appreciate this gift.
We hope that today’s article has helped you look at the fact of high intelligence a little differently. This information should help you take a philosophical look at yourself so you can learn to use your thinking wisely.
And in addition, we only want to conclude that we are always with both hands for the development of thinking and intelligence, because being smart and growing intellectually is undeniably better than remaining at the same level. Therefore, no matter what intelligence you have now, you have something to strive for. We sincerely hope that you understand this and know how to achieve your goal. If not, the article “Development of Thinking. What to do to become smarter."
We wish you high intelligence and deep wisdom!
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- The concept of reducing creativity to intelligence
- What You May Not Know About Intelligence
- General Intelligence Factor
- Vitality Quotient VQ: What is it and why is it important?
- Guilford's model of the structure of intelligence
- Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences
- To develop or to degrade?
- Wechsler test
- IQ: what is it and how is it measured?
- 13 strange but true signs of high intelligence: scientists' opinions
Key words: 1LLL, 1Cognitive science
INTELLIGENCE – WHAT IS IT?
(article based on scientific literature, list of sources is given at the end)
When a person is said to have high intelligence, what does this mean?
And what is intelligence in simple words? How to develop human intelligence? A lot is said and written about intelligence.
But what do people understand by this word? In fact, there is no single definition of intelligence. In psychology, different points of view and theories are accepted that define this concept and personality characteristics. Or, in other words, there are different types of intelligence, each of which characterizes a person’s success in a certain area. For example, Piaget defined intelligence as “adaptive thinking or behavior.” In this article we will introduce some types of intelligence that are important for the development of children and human success in different areas of life. So , intellectual behavior is... Psychometric intelligence.
This is what is most often meant when we talk about intelligence quotient (IQ), measured using tests that consist of intellectual tasks on various topics.
It shows a person’s ability to perform certain cognitive actions, the formation of certain cognitive skills (generalization, conceptual thinking, the ability to think by analogy, etc.) as well as in terms of the degree of assimilation of certain knowledge and its application to solve certain abstract problems. Psychometric intelligence shows
the level of “general” intellectual development.
It is also called general intelligence. In turn, general intelligence is divided into its different types, in particular, verbal (semantic, related to language) and non-verbal. Sometimes the following definition is even given: Intelligence is what is measured by intelligence tests. It does not assess other parameters of intellectual ability - common sense, a person's ability to acquire, store and use knowledge to solve problems, interpersonal skills, creativity and much more. Psychometric intelligence also depends on the social environment in which the child lives and on heredity. However, it may change over time. Typically, IQ increases in those children whose parents are interested in their intellectual success, encourage them to achieve, and there is a harmonious environment in the family, i.e. parents are neither too strict nor too indifferent. IQ also depends on the genotype. The IQ correlation of identical twins, who share the same set of genes, is higher than the correlation of fraternal twins and normal siblings. Thus, psychometric intelligence depends on heredity and environment. Is it possible to increase IQ and develop it? Yes, this is possible with training and a supportive environment. What do intelligence tests (IQ) predict?
Intelligence tests are often called “mental development tests” because...
the main thing that they show is the degree of a person’s involvement in a particular culture and its requirements, but they do not show the ability to learn and develop. To some extent, psychometric intelligence (IQ) predicts academic performance. The higher the IQ, the more likely a person is to perform well in school. This dependence is most pronounced at the initial stage of education - from 6 to 13-14 years, then it begins to decline. But if a child does not study well, this does not mean that he has a low IQ, because... Other factors also influence academic performance. (for more details, see our website PERFORMANCE AND INTELLIGENCE LEVEL
) If we talk about indicators of success in professional activities, then psychometric intelligence (IQ) is not the main indicator. According to various studies, its contribution to professional success is up to 20%. For various types of professional and educational activities, there is a certain IQ threshold. If the IQ is below this level, then the person will not be able to engage in this activity. But above this threshold, many other personal characteristics of a person begin to significantly influence success in the profession.
Practical (implicit) intelligence.
This concept was introduced by American psychologist Robert Sternberg.
Practical intelligence describes
people's ability to evaluate everyday problems and take action to solve them, i.e. cope with practical life tasks. This type of intelligence implies that a person’s intellectual behavior consists of three aspects:
- Taking into account and understanding the context of the situation.
- How a person uses his experience and how he reacts to novelty.
- Information processing skills.
In this case, a person’s intellectual behavior is actions aimed at adapting to the real world.
The ability for intellectual activity in this case is determined by the degree of adaptation. And to the question, “What is high intelligence?”, we get the answer that this is the level of ability to correctly assess the context of a specific situation and make the right decisions based on one’s experience and information processing skills. According to Stenberg, intelligent people are those who can either successfully adapt to their environment or change their environment to better suit them. A sign of practical intelligence is the ability to successfully solve everyday life problems efficiently and accurately without having to spend a lot of time thinking. An important factor in this is how quickly and efficiently a person processes information. According to this approach, intellectual behavior depends on culture, subculture, age and specific social conditions. It is practical intelligence that largely determines a person’s success in various areas of his life. Stenberg himself called him “the intelligence of success.” An intelligent person, from Stenberg’s point of view, knows and takes into account his strengths and weaknesses, and acts taking them into account. Sternberg wrote that being “successfully smart means knowing when you are in the wrong place at the wrong time—in the wrong job, in the wrong relationship, or the wrong place to live.” Numerous studies have shown that practical and general intelligence are very weakly correlated.
What are the means of developing practical intelligence in children?
The most effective remedy is to trust the child to independently solve some real problems, of course, in accordance with his age. The sooner you start this, the better (see 3-year crisis). It is also important to help him find the resources to successfully cope with problems and compensate for what he does not do well. The development of practical intelligence occurs when solving and analyzing practical life problems. And we remember that the success of solving a particular problem depends on the context of the situation. Social intelligence. Social intelligence
shows how much a person is able to correctly understand his own behavior and other people.
The ability to interact with others and adapt in society depends on how developed it is. It characterizes a person's ability to understand himself and others. The importance of social intelligence is very great for adaptation, success, building long-term interpersonal relationships, predicting the behavior of another person. Often there are people who have a high level of “general abilities” and knowledge, but are unsuccessful in interpersonal relationships, with low adaptability, both in professional and personal life. The higher a person’s ability to see the world from the point of view of other people and to be aware of his behavior, the easier it is for him to understand interpersonal situations and act in accordance with this understanding. What means are there for developing social intelligence in children?
For preschool children, the best way is role-playing games, in which they gain communication experience. By the way, this is one of the reasons that children who attended kindergarten or had the opportunity to communicate with peers in other places generally adapt better to school than children who were mainly at home. In adolescence, special classes aimed at developing an understanding of oneself and other people sometimes help. Research shows that such programs have an effect, although not very large. But the most important condition for the development of social intelligence is the family, the style of parental education. It is in it that the child learns to understand other people and become aware of his own.
Emotional intellect.
Emotional intelligence
is a characteristic of a person’s ability to perceive and understand their emotions and the emotions of other people, regulate them and take them into account in their activities.
It consists of the following abilities: 1) The ability to understand emotions, i.e. recognize (in yourself and other people), as well as understand the reasons that caused them. 2) The ability to manage emotions, regulate them, incl. and their external manifestation. 3) Take emotional information into account in your thinking and activities. These abilities can manifest themselves either directed at themselves or at another person. Thus, we can talk about intrapersonal and interpersonal manifestations of emotional intelligence. It is important to note that people who pay too much attention to their emotions, but do not try to understand them and do nothing to regulate them, cannot sufficiently understand and regulate various emotional states. What does emotional intelligence affect? First of all, people with higher emotional intelligence have better stress tolerance and have fewer health problems.
Emotional intelligence is an important complement to success in your career, especially where you need to work collaboratively with others.
Research shows that people with high EI are more energetic, goal-oriented, and more satisfied with their jobs. Is it possible to develop emotional intelligence?
There are programs for the development of EI of varying duration.
Research shows that they mainly help in better understanding and regulating your emotions. The effectiveness of the program depends on its duration and content. Short-term (1-2 days) results do not give, but can push participants to be more attentive to both their emotions and those around them. In conclusion
In addition to those discussed, there are other types of intelligence that characterize different aspects of human activity.
For example, the American researcher Howard Gardner created the theory of “multiple intelligences”, in which he considers nine types of intelligence: linguistic, spatial, logical-mathematical, musical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, spiritual (existential). According to Gardner, all these types of intelligence are independent of each other, and some people may have exceptional development of one type, but poor development of others. Is there a “most important” intelligence that determines a person’s success?
And which intelligence is better? The answer is simple - there is no such intelligence. In different situations, one or another type of intelligence can play a decisive role. For example, there is an opinion that highly intelligent people do not need developed emotional intelligence, since their cognitive abilities are high enough to succeed. Naturally, this opinion only makes sense in situations that do not require teamwork or interpersonal interaction. How many such situations occur in life? No less widespread is the belief, especially in the educational environment, that the main thing is knowledge, the development of conceptual and logical thinking, i.e. everything that leads to the development of psychometric intelligence. But numerous studies show that IQ is not the main factor in achieving professional success, much less in interpersonal relationships and everyday life. All types of intelligence contribute to a person’s effectiveness, to his ability to engage in intellectual activity. For example, a level of “general” intellectual development may be combined with low social, practical or emotional development. Of course, a certain intellectual level is necessary for many types of activities and personal life of a person, but it is not the only condition for adaptation and success. There are often cases when a person’s high general intelligence is largely devalued by the inadequacy of his behavior in various situations, lack of understanding of other people, inability to take into account the context of the situation, etc. It should be noted that the success and adaptability of a person depends not only on different types of intelligence, but also on other personality traits - temperament, motivation, worldview and, sometimes, even appearance, as well as special abilities. And a very important factor is a person’s ability to recognize their strengths and weaknesses and use information about themselves to achieve success.
Sources: Robert J. Sternberg, "Beyond IQ: The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence." The structure of social intelligence Savenkov A.I., Electronic journal “Modern Foreign Psychology” 2020. Volume 7. No. 2. P. 7-15. Belova S.S. Subjective assessment of another person’s intelligence: the effect of verbalization // Social intelligence: theory, measurement, research / Ed. D.V. Lyusina, D.V. Ushakova. M.: Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2004. Lyusin D.V. Modern ideas about emotional intelligence. D. Shaffer Children and adolescents: developmental psychology. V.N.Druzhinin Psychology of general abilities. M.A. Cold Psychology of Intelligence: Paradoxes of Research.
