Introduction, Characteristics, Factors Affecting Intelligence

Intelligence

Intelligence is a property of the mind that encompasses many related mental abilities such as the capacities to reason, plan, solve the problem, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. It is inborn all round mental efficiency and is also regarded as mental energy capable of being transferred from one activity to another.

According to Binet,” Intelligence means reasoning, judgment, memory and the power of abstraction.”

According to Wechsler,” Intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment.

Characteristics of Intelligence

• It is an innate mental ability that grows and is influenced by the environment.
• It shows the capacity to adapt to or changed sisituationsuickly and correctly.
• It consists in of the ability to carry on the higher mental processes such as reasoning, criticism, application, judgment etc.
• It implies the capacity to learn difficult tasks and the ability to solve incrincreasinglyficult
• It shows the capacity to observe relationships and detect absurdities.

Factors affecting Intelligence

Hereditary Factors

Hereditary refers to traits that are passed down from parents to children through their genes. Several researchers have said that this is a good way to measure intelligence. Adoption studies are important to find out how intelligence is affected by both genes and the environment. Compare the IQs of adopted children to the IQs of their biological family members and other members of the family that adopted them. Another way is to look at twins. Fraternal twins share 50% of the same genes, while identical twins share 100% of the same genes. Researchers have found that even though identical twins are raised apart, there is a high correlation between their IQ scores. So far, investigators have been able to find identical twins who were separated as kids and grew up in different places. In these types of studies, the high concentrations between twins who lived far apart ranged from 0.67 to 0.78. Most studies on adoption have shown that a child's IQ is more likely to match that of their biological parents than that of their adoptive parents. Most studies on adoption have shown that a child's IQ is more likely to match that of their biological parents than that of their adoptive parents.

Environmental factors

The condition of the environment also plays a big part. Researchers have found that a rich environment helps raise a person's IQ (9good have environment, mother-child interaction, child rearing, schooling). Studies have also shown that kids whose parents didn't go to college grow up in bad places and don't get many chances, which limits their natural abilities and is linked to a low IQ. In France, a well-controlled study on adoption found that moving an infant from a family with low economic status to a family with high economic status raises the child's IQ by 12 to 16 points. Wahl Stern (1999) found that every year that a person doesn't go to school, their IQ drops by 5 points. In studies of identical twins, pairs of siblings who are not twins, and pairs of people who are not related to each other, it has been found that the IQs of pairs who grew up together are more similar than those of pairs who grew up apart. When a person is severely malnourished before birth or in their first few years of life, it can slow down the development of their brain and have long-term effects on how smart they become. There is a strong link between lead exposure and a lack of intelligence. It is thought that this increase is due to things in the environment. (Better nutrition, education, access to computer media, and a higher level of intelligence require jobs.)