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Meaning, Nature and Characteristics of Personality

Meaning of Personality

Intelligence is one of the most significant single characteristics influencing education. The capacity to acquire and utilise information is referred to as intelligence. Success in school, college, and one’s own vocation, social adaptability, general knowledge, and so on are all related with the idea of “intelligent.” The term intelligence is derived from the Latin verb ‘intellegere,’ which means to comprehend.

According to Alfred Binet, “Intelligence is the ability for judgement or common sense.

Thorndike defines “Intelligence as one’s capacity to deal effectively with situations.
For Jean Piaget, “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to one’s surroundings.
In the words of Cyril Burt, “Intelligence is the capacity of flexible adjustment.”

According to David Wechsler (1977) : “The global capacity to think rationally, act purposefully, and deal effectively with the environment.”

Intelligence is characterised as the mental capability of reasoning, planning, problem solving, thinking abstractly, comprehending complicated concepts, learning rapidly, and learning from experience. It is more than just book knowledge, a certain academic competence, or test-taking ability.

Simply said, intelligence is the capacity to think critically and adapt to and learn from everyday life situations.

Nature and Characteristics of Intelligence

Intelligence does not come through hard work. It is a natural gift. Memory is not intelligence. A smart individual may have a bad memory. Intelligence is not a talent that a worker gets through deliberate effort. Individual intelligence is not a guarantee of good behaviour.

To comprehend the essence of intelligence, we must first grasp the categories of intelligence proposed by E.L. Thorndike and Garret:

Concrete Intelligence: It is a person’s capacity to grasp genuine events and respond appropriately to them. The tangible intelligence is visible in a variety of daily tasks. This form of intelligence is useful when dealing with physical items or drugs. This intellect is found in engineers, mechanics, and architects.

Abstract Intelligence: A person with abstract intelligence may react to words, numbers, and symbols. The typical academic disciplines in school need for abstract intelligence. After a thorough study of books and literature, one gains this knowledge. Good philosophers, teachers, attorneys, and other professionals possess this kind of intellect.
Social Intelligence: Social intelligence is the capacity for a person to respond in social circumstances that arise in daily life. The social intelligence metric is the ability to respond appropriately in social settings. People with this level of intelligence are adept at persuading and earning friends. It is possessed by politicians, ministers, diplomats, and social professionals.

Thus, we define intelligence as the capacity for environmental adjustment, the capacity for perceiving relationships between various objects and methodologies, the capacity for problem-solving, the capacity for independent thought, the capacity for learning the most in the shortest amount of time, and the capacity for gaining knowledge from both one’s own and other people’s experiences.

As a result, intelligence is a personal trait that each person possesses; it is not distributed equally among all people. Regarding IQ, there are significant individual differences among people.

Characteristics of Intelligence

The main features of Intelligence are the following:

The inherent attribute of children is intelligence.

The youngster gains the most knowledge in the shortest amount of time thanks to it.
The youngster is able to look forward and make plans.
The youngster is able to benefit from his prior knowledge.

The youngster is willing to face the future.
He learns to distinguish between good and bad.
The period from infancy through adolescence is when intellect develops.

Between boys and females, there is a slight variation in how intellect develops.
Boys and girls differ from one another in terms of intellect on a personal level.
The majority of intelligence is dictated by genes, but it may be improved in the right circumstances.