Like most things, the concept of intelligence and what affects it are fairly subjective. What could be seen as “smart” to one individual may be perceived differently to another. I feel that intelligence, in itself, is on too broad of a spectrum to ever be fully attributed to just one general factor. I believe that. Some people are business savvy, while others wield an abundance of street smarts, but that doesn’t automatically make one smarter than the other.
To me, intelligence is the capacity in which a person can learn, has learned, or has the ability to learn whether it be factual or situational. Every person sees things differently and that, in itself, should speak to the concept of intelligence. If my views, those of a 19 year old college student, regarding intelligence were to not align with the head of a university psychology professor, would that make me any more or less intellectual than them? Exactly. In my lifetime, I’ve probably applied for at least a hundred jobs. I have only managed to interview for a fraction of those jobs, but oftentimes the assessments have not seemed to line up with the job at hand.
Intelligence and the factors that surround it are not easy to clearly point out, to say the least. Why is intelligence seen as significantly different cross-culturally? I get the fact that different cultures prioritize different concepts and the aspect of Western and Eastern hemisphere variances, but is there not some common ground regarding intellect? Can intelligence really be modified?
A number of people go their whole lives believing that once they reach a certain age, however smart they are at the time is how they stay until they die. It may not be significant, but I know plenty of people, myself included, who have taken and retaken the SAT or ACT test in order to get better scores. Of course, I studied harder the second time around, but I also guessed too. Did the extra studying modify my IQ or was it just luck that I scored higher the second time? Is intelligence, for the most part, a product of nature or nurture?
I believe that a lot of the smarts that a person has at any given time can be attributed to their parents. Quality schools and a diverse learning environment can enhance and allow intelligence to deviate a bit, but nothing will change what mom and dad gave you.
