What Is Intelligence? This week’s lecture focused on the role of human intellige

Question

What Is Intelligence? This week’s lecture focused on the role of human intelligence. In your own words, what do you think intelligence is? Do you think intelligence is something you are born with or something that you can grow and develop? Why do you feel the way you do about that? How can engaging in good critical thinking impact your intelligence (or can it?) Your work should be at least 500 words, but mostly draw from your own personal experience. This should be written in first person and give examples from your life. Be sure if you are using information from the readings that you properly cite your readings in this, and in all assignments.

NO PLAGIARISM PLEASE!!!!! IN YOUR OWN WORDS!!!!!!!

Explanation / Answer

Following is the required work. While I have used some common life experiences, you may choose to tweak them according to your own experiences.

According to me, intelligence is the mental ability of humans to learn and understand things, apply that learning to solve problems, and adapt to situations and environment. It is about using knowledge for several purposes like reasoning, analysis, manipulation, evaluation, problem solving, decision making, etc. As human intelligence has been a subject of study since 1900s, I have known about several theories that attempt to describe intelligence in their own ways. However, my personal experience tells me that intelligence develops both because of genetic and environmental factors.

I think I am born with a brain of my own, but so has everyone around me. I possess intelligence by birth, but so does everyone around me. My mom tells stories from my childhood. Even as an infant, I knew how to cry for food and solve my hunger problem. When I could do this on the day of my birth, it means I possessed intelligence of some level. It is similar to just any baby or infant. The same is about my attachment to my caregiver. Being a newborn, I understood who my primary caregiver was. I used to be clung to my mom and would not go to anyone else. This also means I had intelligence when I was born.

On the other hand, I have also noticed that not all of us are equally bright and capable of dealing with problems in the same ways and with same efficiency at different stages of our lives. This makes me believe that the intelligence level we are born with can be grown and developed through several techniques. As everybody’s environment differs, their learning experiences and intelligence also differ.

I understand that learning and practice can lead to changes in intelligence levels. While I may have become more intelligent after proper schooling and exposure to studies of varied types, an uneducated kid may not be as intelligent as I am. For instance, I can solve complex math problems, but an uneducated person cannot. This means that my intelligence from birth has grown and developed to a large extent, but that man’s intelligence has grown limited due to only environment-influenced learning.

Further, I think there are many ways to develop our intelligence. One way I have done this is by involving in good critical thinking that can grow intelligence to a good level. I take up case studies and solve them by analyzing various aspects of it. I also develop intelligence by critical thinking during a debate. While I question the arguments from others in the debate, I also create my own arguments and analyses based on my own judgments and sense of logic. All such abilities of me together form my intelligence. As I take up more arguments and more problem solving or decision making tasks, I grow my ability to reason and judge things better every time. When I look back at my capacities, I feel my intelligence has gone higher.

Thus, my life experiences make me believe that intelligence is what I’m born with, as well as what I can develop with time, environmental influences, and my learning from education and experiences. This is what gives me a specific mental age, which may be lower than a more intelligent person and higher than a less intelligent person to me.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse W
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.