Intelligence And Intelligence : The Values Of Success And Success In Life

If you had that one piece of the puzzle that would have prevented the bombings of the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon on September 11 2001 would you know it? If you saw someone do something weird or suspicious before the attack on September 11 2001, would you have called the police? If someone had walked into a United States Embassy in a foreign country and said that they know someone was going to use a plane to destroy New York in two days, could this have stopped the attack? Intelligence Analysis puts the raw sources of information together, make predictions based on the data, and finally publish the results.

     Since the development of the intelligence quotient, schools in every part of the world have been using the IQ test to categorize millions of students into three groups. These three groups, which are the gifted, the average, and the retarded, are falsifications that perpetuate in our world culture and cause many gifted students to be deemed retarded and vice a versa. Why then is the IQ test so heavily relied on in our school systems? For schools the answer is simple, an I.Q. test is a reliable predictor of a students later performance in academics. This answer is relatively true, but where the I.Q. test falls extremely short is with testing the multiple

Gottfredson, (1997) stated that intelligence is ‘a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience.

Smart people can categorize their strengths and weakness giving them the opportunity to leverage those strengths and weaknesses. Successful and intelligent people have the ability to evaluate, and analyze their abilities. This is different compared to Spearman's g factor because it elaborates how intelligent people can be successful and excel in life (Nevid, 2015).

In an article titled “Brainpower and Bankruptcy” by Wilson Quarterly, the idea that intelligence isn’t dependent on wealth is argued. Quarterly examines different IQ scores among varying incomes and argues that having a high IQ tends to put one in more financial distress. Quarterly states that “Intelligence alone doesn't explain why individuals succeed or fail in economic life.” This quote is a critical argument that supports Rose’s claim. Throughout Rose’s article his main idea is that a blue collar worker, receiving a low income, tends to hold more intelligence than typically perceived.

Success has several definitions and differs for each person. However, In Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”, Gladwell prattles about Lewis Terman, a young professor at Stanford University during the First World War who conducted a special experiment that who charted some people from childhood into adulthood. After scanning through the results, Gladwell concludes that socioeconomic status and class as a good indicator whether an individual was destined for the higher or lower group. However, Gladwell’s findings are not truly correct due to the fact that socioeconomic class and status are only some of the factors that determine whether a person belongs to the higher or lower group.

A child’s abnormally high IQ may trigger thoughts of undoubted success for many of us, but Outliers shows us that many with unbridled promise fail to deliver. This study shows that almost all “geniuses” that fail to complete post-secondary degrees have one glaring trait in common: socioeconomic status. Gladwell presents the case of Chris Langan, a man who’s IQ nears 200 and taught himself to read by age four. Langan spend his adult years as a bouncer and later ran a horse farm. This is hardly dignified work for “the smartest man in America.” Langan’s only mistake was growing up poor. Gladwell compares Langan with Robert Oppenheimer, architect of the atomic bomb. While both were extremely intelligent, only Oppenheimer grew up affluent and gained necessary skills needed to succeed. While Langan had difficultly figuring out the procedures necessary to fill-out financial-aid forms in college, Oppenheimer was raised to learn social niceties. The author goes into great detail explaining how the experiences provided to Oppenheimer through family wealth helped separate him from a fate all-to-often

In chapter three of Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discourses about IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and evidently convinced that IQs are merely digits measuring one’s intelligence that does not determine one’s chance of success. Gladwell describes the Termites, an experimental group created by Professor Lewis Terman, as having phenomenal intelligence, who unfortunately ended up earning incomes that are “not that good” (pg.89). Description-less for a minority of lines about their incomes, the short sentence served a purpose for creating an important point across readers. The important point is that no matter how brilliant a person may be, he/she might not end up successful and earning great sums. By this, Gladwell is offering readers advice that one

Passion and determination towards long term goals (otherwise known as ‘grit’) are parts of cognitive development. (Kantrowitz 2016). Grit is seen to be necessary for academic expertise in all fields ranging from sciences to the arts. (Ericsson, Prietula and Cokely 2007). Natural born Intelligence Quotient, also known as ‘IQ’, is described as a person’s ability to complete problems and understand concepts. This is compared across the population to give an average IQ score (Latham 2006). However, can this number accurately measure whether a human will become an expert in a field sooner than a grittier person? The focus of this essay is to evaluate whether grit or IQ has the most positive effect on cognitive development.

Intelligence by definition is “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills” (Oxford Dictionary, 2014). However, many psychologists argue that there is no standard definition of ‘intelligence’, and there have been many different theories over time as psychologists try to find better ways to define this concept (Boundless 2013). While some believe in a single, general intelligence, others believe that intelligence involves multiple abilities and skills. Another largely debated concept is whether intelligence is genetically determined and fixed, or whether is it open to change, through learning and environmental influence. This is commonly known as the nature vs. nurture debate.

There is a relationship between intelligence and culture because intelligence is culturally shaped and defined and some cultures support and identify it as very vital in the context of social and ecological aspects. In the early years, there was a bias towards intelligence tests because they used English language and culture. The formation of Wesler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Addition (WAIS,IV) in 2008 by David Wesler was meant to minimise the bias. According to Westen, Burton and Kowalski (2006), intelligence assists human beings to take control of their lives and it varies cross culturally because the power dynamics differ in each society and this leads to differences in behaviour and line of thinking. These authors describe intelligence as multifaceted, functional and can be defined by culture because it is universal and studying intelligence using different culture as a sample that can be used to question Western ideas about intelligence with some emphasis on the assessment of skills and abilities using culturally appropriate methods (Benson, 2003)

Once a person has an idea of what intelligence is and what it means, a final thought one might consider is what influences are responsible for the different types of intellect. Two possible influences are genetics and the environment in which one lives, with genetics being the strongest influence (Santrock, 2009, pg. 302). Most researchers agree that a person’s genetics and environment interact with one another to influence the outcome of that person’s intelligence (Santrock, 2009, pg. 302). Genetic influences should be pretty obvious, so there should be no need to explain it; a person’s environment on the other hand, can involve several factors. An environment can consist of elements such as a person’s school, home, friendships, family relationships, and workplaces. All of these components factor in to influence a person’s intelligence.

For decades, a lot emphasis has been put on certain aspect of intelligence. This intelligence is called IQ ( Intelligence Quotient ). IQ includes aspects of Mathematics, spatial learning, Verbal, logical reasoning, and memory. This intelligence could predict to a significant degree of performances and some degree of personal and professional success. However, some people with fabulous IQ scores are doing poorly in their life. They somehow are wasting their potential by thinking, behaving and communication in a way that hinders their chances to succeed. There is something missing in the success equation. The missing part in the success equation is EQ or EIQ ( Emotional Intelligence Quotient ).

Intelligence is used by everyone to help them in everyday life. Where people get their intelligence, however, is debatable. A person is born with an amount of inherited intelligence; this intelligence is considered nature, genetic, or heredity. Then there is intelligence that comes from the ability to learn from experience; this intelligence is impacted by nurture or the environment. It is known that both genetic and environmental factors determine intelligence, but the subject is controversial among professionals. Does nature or nurture have a bigger impact on intelligence? Is it true that some people are born with high intelligence, but are limited by their environment? Given the proper tools, can a person increase their intelligence? How accurate are IQ tests?

Most people commonly describe success, as being wealthy in life. This is not the meaning entirely, the definition of success is simple. A person is successful, if he or she has very good payment at his or her work and if he or she is happy with the job, they are doing. Education really leads to success. If a person has good education, he or she can choose their careers and be successful at it. Education is a form of learning in which the knowledge and skills is being transferred from a group of people to another or from a generation to the next, through teaching and training. Any experience that has a formative effect on the way someone thinks feels and acts can be said to be educational. Apart from education, other different traits lead