Howard Gardner viewed
intelligence as ‘the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are
valued in one or more cultural setting’. He reviewed the literature using eight
criteria or ‘signs’ of an intelligence:
Potential isolation by brain
damage.The existence of idiots savants, prodigies and other exceptional
individuals.
An identifiable core operation
or set of operations.
A distinctive development
history, along with a definable set of ‘end-state’ performances.
An evolutionary history and
evolutionary plausibility.
Support from experimental
psychological tasks.
Support from psychometric
findings.
Susceptibility to encoding in a
symbol system.
Candidates
for the title ‘an intelligence’ had to satisfy a range of these criteria and
must include, as a prerequisite, the ability to resolve ‘genuine problems or
difficulties’ within certain cultural settings.
Howard
Gardner initially formulated a list of seven intelligences. His listing was
provisional. The first two have been typically valued in schools; the next
three are usually associated with the arts; and the final two are what Howard
Gardner called ‘personal intelligences’.
Linguistic
intelligence involves sensitivity to spoken and written language, the
ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish
certain goals. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively use
language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically; and language as a means
to remember information. Writers, poets, lawyers and speakers are among those
that Howard Gardner sees as having high linguistic intelligence.
Logical-mathematical
intelligence consists of the capacity to analyze problems logically,
carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically. In
Howard Gardner’s words, it entails the ability to detect patterns, reason
deductively and think logically. This intelligence is most often associated
with scientific and mathematical thinking.
Musical
intelligence involves skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation
of musical patterns. It encompasses the capacity to recognize and compose
musical pitches, tones, and rhythms. According to Howard Gardner musical
intelligence runs in an almost structural parallel to linguistic intelligence.
Bodily-kinesthetic
intelligence entails the potential of using one’s whole body or parts of
the body to solve problems. It is the ability to use mental abilities to
coordinate bodily movements. Howard Gardner sees mental and physical activity
as related.
Spatial
intelligence involves the potential to recognize and use the patterns of wide
space and more confined areas.
Interpersonal
intelligence is concerned with the capacity to understand the intentions,
motivations and desires of other people. It allows people to work effectively
with others. Educators, salespeople, religious and political leaders and
counsellors all need a well-developed interpersonal intelligence.
Intrapersonal
intelligence entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate
one’s feelings, fears and motivations. In Howard Gardner’s view it involves
having an effective working model of ourselves, and to be able to use such
information to regulate our lives.
In Frames of Mind Howard Gardner treated the personal
intelligences ‘as a piece’. Because of their close association in most
cultures, they are often linked together. However, he still argues that it
makes sense to think of two forms of personal intelligence. Gardner claimed
that the seven intelligences rarely operate independently. They are used at the
same time and tend to complement each other as people develop skills or solve
problems.
In
essence Howard Gardner argued that he was making two essential claims about
multiple intelligences. That:
The theory is an account of
human cognition in its fullness. The intelligences provided ‘a new definition
of human nature, cognitively speaking’. Human beings are organisms who possess
a basic set of intelligences.
People have a unique blend of
intelligences. Howard Gardner argues that the big challenge facing the
deployment of human resources ‘is how to best take advantage of the uniqueness
conferred on us as a species exhibiting several intelligences’.
These
intelligences, according to Howard Gardner, are amoral – they can be put to
constructive or destructive use.
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