The Intelligence Consists Of Three Main Aspects?

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Are There Different Kinds of Intelligence? (1)
The Intelligence Consists Of Three Main Aspects?

Clearly, something more than a single test score is needed to guide our evaluation of person's intelligence. I believe it makes more sense to consider intelligence as a complex phenomenon that is best described as a synthesis of various skills and abilities.

In this way a person can be considered intelligent in some respects and less so in others. For example how would you evaluate the intelligence of the following individuals?

• A Nobel Prize winner who regularly forgets where he puts his car keys.
• A thrice-divorced chess champion.
• A company chief executive with history of stress-related heart problems.
• A doctor who smokes and drink heavily.
• A brilliant musical composer plagued by creditors.

In view of such contradictions, various theorists have sought to broaden the traditional understanding of intelligence.

"The Three Main Aspects of Intelligence"

In the 1980s Yale psychologist Robert Sternberg proposed the "triarchic" (three-part) theory of intelligence, which states that intelligence consists of three main aspects:

• “Analytic Intelligence”: The ability to analyse, evaluate and compare.
• “Creative Intelligence ”: Skill in using past experience to achieve insight and deal with situations.
• “Practical Intelligence ”: The ability to adapt to, select and shape the real-world environment,

Successfully intelligent people, according to Sternberg, are those who are aware of their particular strengths and weaknesses and develop further their abilities in order to achieve success in the future.

"EMBRACING THE WIDE SKY", A Tour across the Horizons of The Human Mind, Daniel Tammet, 2009, page 49