CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

       The concept of intelligence is one of the prized possessions a person can have. It is a fundamental concept that has become a convenient evaluative expression covering a wide variety of domains (Davey, 2004). Over the years the concept has passed through the laboratories of many psychologists trying to find a definition and explanation for the term. For example, singers are described as having intelligent voices, footballers as having intelligent feet, horses as running intelligent races (Davey, 2004)

          Many people use the term in their daily language in a way that suggest that there is agreement about what intelligence is, but psychologist cannot agree at all. According to Santrock (2009) even the most intelligent people have not been able to agree on how to define the concept of intelligence. Some experts describe it as the capacity to adapt and learn from experiences. Some still argue that intelligence includes characteristics such as creativity and interpersonal skills (Santrock, 2009). In general term, some psychologists see intelligence as being a single aptitude while others see it as representing a cluster of aptitudes or mental skills (Davey, 2004)

No common definition, interpretation, understanding and conceptualization of intelligence have been found because of the differences in social and cultural definition of what an intellectual behaviour is. The term is socially constructed, that is, different cultures and people group see it as being whatever attribute that brings success within that group (Sternberg and Kaufman, 1998). . A working definition that would encompass both academic and non-academic definition of intelligence and applies to people of all social and cultural background is what is searched for.

          Since 1916, when Binet came out with the first ability test till now, the discussion on intelligence has produced various dimensions of intelligence. Modern scholars of intelligence consider the question of whether intelligence is a single mental ability. (You are either intelligent or not) or whether a number of specific abilities make up the overall intellectual ability. If intelligence comprises a number of abilities, there is also the question of what these specific abilities might be (Plutchik, 1980))

          In addressing these issues contemporary research on intelligence has opened new dimensions of the concept of intelligence that makes the definition of intelligence more comprehensive. Sternberg and Defferman (1986) as reported by Davey (2004), asserted that intelligence comprises of learning and adaptive abilities; ability to understand and control oneself; practical problem solving ability; verbal and social competences. It is the ability to learn from experience; apply knowledge to solve problems and to adapt and survive in different environment. Sternberg (2008) and Gardener (1983) argue that the concept of intelligence should be expanded to encompass a greater variety of abilities. Sternberg (2001) proposes what he called Triarchic intelligence in which he propounded that intelligence consists of three forms- the contextual, which specifies behaviors considered to be intelligence in a particular culture; the experiential, which specifies how experience affects intelligence and how intelligence affects a person’s experience; the componential, which specifies the cognitive processes that underlie all intelligent behaviours.

            Sternberg believes that the cognitive processes that contribute to intelligence fall into three groups;

1. Meta component, which controls, monitors and evaluate cognitive processing
2. Knowledge acquisition component which encodes, combines and compare information and
3. Performance component which executes strategies assembled by meta component.

        According to Him (2009) all the above mentioned components contribute to three aspect of intelligence namely, analytical intelligence which has to do with abstract reasoning, evaluation and judgment. This is the type of intelligence that is crucial to most academic work and that is assessed by conventional Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test; Creative Intelligence, which involves the ability to generate new ideas and to be innovative in dealing with new problems; Practical Intelligence which involves the ability to deal effectively with the kind of problems that people encounter in everyday life, on the job or at home.

              For Sternberg, creative and practical intelligence move beyond what the IQ measures and enter into the realm of what Wechsler (1940) called non-intellectual intelligence. That is intelligence applied not by mental or cognitive ability. This is also related to what Gardner (2002) called personal intelligence. In Gardner’s view, there is nothing as a single intelligence; rather he argued that there are at least eight intelligences namely, Verbal skill, Mathematical skill, Spatial skill, Bodily kinestic skill, Musical skills, Interpersonal skills, Intrapersonal skills and Naturalist skills.

         In their view, intelligence include for instance, interpersonal and intrapersonal capacities to discern and respond appropriately to the feelings, moods, temperament, motivation and the desires of other people. It also has to do with the ability to access one’s emotion and to discriminate among them and draw upon them to guide behaviours, knowledge of ones strength and weaknesses.

            Some scholars as seen above agree that combination of emotion with cognition would lead to a better day to day adaptation and conflicts resolution by not only using ones intellectual capacities but also by the additional information provided by one’s emotion. This aspect of intelligence focuses on what is called emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to perceive and express emotion accurately and adaptively, to understand emotion and emotion knowledge, to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions and feelings, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions (Mayer, 1990). .Emotional intelligence (EI) has to do with the ability to know, express, monitor, manage and use one’s and others people’s feelings, moods and temperaments, so that it works for a person and not against him.

            Most scholars in the field of emotional intelligence have described it to include one or more of the following key components; the ability to recognize, understand and express emotions and feeling; the ability to understand or decipher how other people feel and relate with themselves; the ability to manage and control emotion; the ability to manage, change, adapt and solve problems of personal and interpersonal nature, the ability to generate positive influence and be self motivated (Santrock, 2009). It is those set of skills that allow a person to use emotion to adapt, to perceive, understand and regulate moods and to use emotional information to improve cognitive processes and reasoning. 

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