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Running head: PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGENCE
Perception of intelligence
PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGENCE
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Introduction
Culture is the way of life of a particular group of people. Culture may be exhibited in
different aspects such as language, social organization, education, and food. Research has
shown that culture consists of four main concepts; the first being customary behaviours by a
group of people where they celebrate births of new born, grieve the dead and conduct unique
childbearing practices. The second is in the cultural code which include expectations,
assumptions and emotions that are exhibited through the customary behaviours. The third
concept is the artefacts which are the things that are of esteem to a culture and the fourth is
the cultural institutions i.e. religion, politics and the various social systems. Intelligence, on
the other hand, is conceptualized as the general mental ability to make judgements, learn and
decision make. Theories have been formulated that are in support of the notion of intelligence
being viewed from a cultural a cultural perspective (Parr, 2010). However, the paper will
basically analyse these aspects; culture and intelligence i.e. the way different cultures
perceive intelligence, the factors that influence the cultural perception of intelligence and
give an explanation on how intelligence is measured in the various cultures.
The Asian perception of intelligence is governed by the culture and tradition of the
people in this region. The continent consists of a wide ambit of cultural differences and
beliefs, for example, India is situated in South East Asia and is made up of over 200
dissimilar languages. Their official language is Hindi that is one of the most spoken
languages in the world after Chinese and English. Confucian, Taoist, Hindu and Buddhist are
some of the philosophies embraced by some of the Asian cultures which advocate for moral
and religious attitudes that directly affects the reflective aspect of an individual behaviour
which in turn interlaces intelligence with religion and moral behaviour (Latchaw, 2016).
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Migratory patterns factors serve as the reason some of the South East and East Asian
cultures bear similarities in cultures, for instance, Taiwanese, whose official language is
mandarin Chinese blend in culturally through their official language as much as it is widely
spoken in South East Asia in four different tones. Intelligence is a notion of variance as food,
language, and religion in the different Asian cultures. Differences in perception of
intelligence are exhibited particularly when a subgroup gestates some behaviours as
intelligent and another on the other hand does not regard the behaviour as intelligent.
Traditions also influence the notion of intelligence as Asian cultures since the earliest times
are inclusive of; Taoist, Confucians, Hindu and Buddhist (Peterson, B. (2011).
Taoist tradition perceives an intelligent person as to be the one who has the
knowledge on Tao, is able to put it into practice and is flexible enough to respond to
transitions in prompt circumstances. The Hindu and Buddhist philosophies on the other hand
view intelligence in the behaviours such as determination, mental effort, knowledge, decision
making, discrimination and the ability to notice. The Buddhist perception of intelligence is
the ability to acquire knowledge and that knowledge is acquired through the utilization of the
five senses which is quite similar to the western conception of intelligence whereby motor
skills and perception are required to gather knowledge. To a Buddhist, intelligence in its
purest form is not erratic or egoistic since a poor temperament is a hindrance to a person’s
ability to ingest knowledge. Intelligence to a Buddhist conceptualizes intelligence in its
purest form within an individual that is past a necessary stage, the stage where one has let go
thoughts that are egocentric, self-centred to attain untainted form of intelligence. At this stage
the individual is expected to restrain from negative emotions, preconceptions, and nonpleasing temperamental behaviour (Cocodia, 2014).
Taiwanese-Chinese individuals perceive intelligence as interpersonal where it
sympathizes with others and having the ability to handle daily matters and on the other hand,
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restraining Show offs and having an individual philosophy of life displays intrapersonal
intelligence. General cognitive ability, intellectual self-promotion, and intellectual effacement
and for the Asians conception of intelligence social skills and knowledge are generally
necessary (Cocodia, 2014).
The African culture is exhibited through the continent that is made up of thousands of
ethnic groups that own different cultures. It is a continent that displays a multifariousness of
beliefs, religion, social organization and food. African cultures own some basic similarities
and differences in their conception of intelligence. The Yoruba people of western Nigeria for
instance, emphasize on the significance of having intelligence and acceptable behaviour
whereas the Ibo culture of the same country emphasizes on possessing practical skills
showing that there are subcultures within the various cultures. Intelligence in the Yoruba
culture is an attribute that should be exercised on a daily basis and that everyone owns it.
Researchers found out that some communities in the African continent, social competence
and intelligence were held as one, while other cultures viewed intelligence as containing all
social relationship. Intelligence is an aspect that is regarded highly in the African cultures
more so conforming to the extended family systems, parents in African communities believe
that having social responsibility and the cognitive ability is interlinked to them. A research
conducted to the Luo people of east Africa exhibited that their take on intelligence consists of
four concepts; rieko academic intelligence in terms of them being westernized, paro which
was the practical thinking, luoro which was the social aspects such as respect, responsibility,
and winjo which was about the understanding of instructions. Intelligence varied between the
adults and the children as a term such as ngom was used to cite children with good
judgement, responsible, and own the ability to understand and interpret matters of complexity
quickly, speed, verbal accuracy and cognitive speed. Wisdom, cleverness, having the ability
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to invent and being unselfish were all the attributes that an utat (term referring to adults) had
(Cocodia, 2014).
From the discussion above, it is easy to allude similarities do exist between different
cultural groups regardless of the geographical location. An individual that possesses cognitive
skills and ability is considered intelligent. An individual that has skills such as decision
making, verbal accuracy, problem-solving and inference is considered intelligent within these
cultures.
There have merged more psychometric tools since the earliest development tool of IQ
testing by Galton, in preference, Raven’s progressive matrices which is made up of standard
progressive matrices, coloured progressive matrices that was for children and the advanced
progressive matrices for adults that possess higher IQ. It is a pencil and paper test that is
inclusive of multiple choices, it has 60 matrices that have a part missing and one has to select
the one he or she think is missing from the among given 6 or 8 choices. It is advantageous as
it can be administered a large or small group depending on one’s preference and time is not
limited (Kitayama & Cohen, 2010).
Conclusion
In conclusion, intelligence demonstrated over years through explicit and implicit
theories is an aspect that is significant in the individual conception of intelligence. Cultures
from the study seem not to be conforming to the definition of intelligence. Nonetheless, from
the discussion, intelligence will never cease to be debated on. On the other hand, with a view
on relevant literature that focuses on intelligence and culture displays the two aspects as
interwoven and that a culture or subculture of a person determines how intelligence will be
conceived.
PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGENCE
References:
Cocodia, E. A. (2014). Cultural Perceptions of Human Intelligence. Journal of
Intelligence, 2(4), 180-196.
Kitayama, S., & Cohen, D. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of cultural psychology. Guilford Press.
Latchaw, J. (2016). Online Postsecondary Student Perception of Instructor Emotional
Intelligence and Student Performance: A Quantitative Correlational Study (Doctoral
dissertation, Northcentral University).
Parr, C. (2010). Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count
(review). College Literature, 37(2), 210-213.
Peterson, B. (2011). Cultural intelligence: A guide to working with people from other
cultures. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Sternberg, R. J., & Kaufman, J. C. (2013). The evolution of intelligence. Psychology Press.
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