Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence

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Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence

• Personality and Individual Differences
• Lecture 2
• MInna Lyons

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Lecture Contents

• Theories of intelligence
• Nature/nurture
• Why do we care?
• Intelligence testing
• Emotional intelligence (EI)

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What is intelligence?

• ability to understand complex ideas, adapting to
  new environments, learning from experience,
  engage in various forms of reasoning, overcoming
  obstacles by taking thought(Neisser et al, 1996)

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• intelligence is an attempt to use ones
  cognitive skills to achieve a state of well-being
  within ones cultural context (Sternberg and
  Grigorenko, 2004)
• Adaptation , shaping and selection

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• ..intelligence is what the tests test
• (Boring 1923)

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Intelligence and culture

• Culture affects what is considered as intelligent
• Africa (Kenya) Harmonious inter- and intra-group
  relationships
• China (Taiwan) doing what is right, humility,
  benevolence, g
• US- practical problem solving, verbal ability,
  social competence

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Is there a g?

• Spearman (1927) General intelligence, g, is a
  statistical measure of performance across variety
  of tests
• g is genetically inherited, and cant be
  influenced too much by environment
• Intelligence can be easily measured with
  psychometric tests
• The concept of g extremely simplistic

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IQ (intelligence Quotient)

• Measures ability on linguistic, spatial and
  logical spheres
• E.g. the Stanford-Binet Intelligence scale, the
  Wechsler tests
• Criticism learning, culture, relevance to real
  life, doesnt test for all kinds of intelligences

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Is the g genetic?

• Some evidence of heritability from twin studies
• Danger of eugenics
• The Flynn effect- IQ scores have been rising
  steadily over the decades, but we dont know why!

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Or are there many intelligences?

• Gardner (1980) there are many, at least 8 forms
  of intelligences
• Visual/spatial
• Verbal/linguistic
• Logical/Mathematical
• Bodily/kinestetic
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalist
• Little empirical support for the theory

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Stenberg (1985) three-part theory

• Analytic-analyse, critique, compare, contrast
  things. (Psychometric tests)
• Creative-create, explore, discover, invent,
  suppose, imagine (creativity tests)
• Practical- apply, use, implement, put into
  practice (tests of practical intelligence)
• Stenberg et al (1999) 3 abilities seem to be
  separate from each other

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Stenberg et al (1999)

• Compare and contrast two theories of depression
  (analytical)
• Propose your own theory of depression (creative)
• How might you help a friend who has depression?
  (practical)
• No correlations between the 3 abilities!

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Practical intelligence (PI)

• Can be tested using problem solving scenarios an
  individual might encounter in their everyday life
  (Stenberg, 2000)
• Practical intelligence not correlated with g
• Negative correlation between PI and IQ in
  children in Kenya!
• PI tests can be used to supplement conventional
  IQ testing

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Emotional intelligence (EI)

• Salovey and Mayer (1990), Goleman (1995) EI
  psychometrically different from IQ
• Bar-On (2000) EI Part of general social
  intelligence?
• multifactorial
• Can be measured by self-reports, questionnaires
  or performance in EI related tasks
• EI correlates with well-being and health, but not
  with academic achievement

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A cautionary note

• After 15 years of research, still little
  agreement
• Many different tests, disputes about validity
• EI show weak construct validity (Mayer et al)