How Am I Smart?

The topic in General Psychology this week is intelligence. While most people think of intelligence as “book smarts,” we’ve been discussing more up-to-date theories such as that of Howard Gardner.  He has proposed that there are actually multiple types of intelligences which traditional intelligence tests don’t measure. While the theory is a bit controversial (big surprise!), many components of it have merit.

Can we say that a person with a high degree of logical-mathematical intelligence who can’t keep a job is smarter than a person with a high level of interpersonal intelligence who has an average IQ? Is a person with a high degree of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (like a dancer or athlete) “dumber” than someone with linguistic intelligence who can write short stories?

Here’s a list of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences from your text (Lefton and Brannon, Vango Books, 403) with a brief description of each. After reading and thinking about these types, share whether you think Gardner’s theory has validity. You might also consider answer Gardner’s question: “How am I smart?” There’s a big difference between that and, “How smart am I?”

• Linguistic: Sensitivity to the sounds, rhythms, and meanings of words; sensitivity to the different functions of language.
• Logical-mathematical: Sensitivity to and capacity to discern logical or numerical patters; ability to handle long chains of reasons.
• Musical: Ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch, and timber. Appreciation of the forms of musical expressiveness.
• Spatial: Capacity to perceive the visual-spatial world accurately and to perform transformation on initial perceptions.
• Bodily-kinesthetic: Ability to control bodily movements and to handle objects skillfully.
• Interpersonal: Capacity to discern and respond appropriately to the moods, temperaments, motivations, and desire of other people.
• Intrapersonal: Ability to access one’s own feelings and to discriminate among them and draw on them to guide behavior; acknowledge one’s own strengths, weaknesses, desires, and intelligence.
• Naturalistic: Ability to make fine discriminations among the flora and fauna of the natural word or the patterns and deigns of human artifacts.
• Spiritual: Ability to master abstract concepts about being and also the ability to attain a certain state of being.
• Existential: Capacity to understand one’s place in the universe and the nature of being in both physical and psychological terms.