Howard Gardner's Intrapersonal Intelligence
Intrapersonal intelligence deals with the development and understanding of the self and using this knowledge to live well; it includes personal goals, feelings, anxieties and strengths and subsequently drawing from that awareness to guide personal behavior. Insight into oneself, into one's inner world of emotions and thoughts, especially growing in the ability to control these thoughts and to work with them consciously is the focal point here. These people often enjoy working alone, sometimes even shying away from others and off quietly by themselves. They are often strong willed, self-confident, and possess definite, well-thought-out opinions on various issues. Students who demonstrate "promise" in this domain have a working understanding of themselves and enjoy individual, introspective, and metacognitive (thinking about thinking) tasks; they may enjoy working at own pace and setting personal goals.
This (intrapersonal) intelligence contrasts with, yet complements the other social intelligence, the interpersonal ... the ability to understand and work with others. In short, the intrapersonal helps individuals distinguish among their own inner feelings and build accurate mental models of themselves so that they can then apply their own talents successfully within the wider society. They are often well-respected by their peers, to such a degree that others will come to them for advice and counsel ... while still others will see them as odd, weird or distant.
Young children can be left on their own to play happily, and may be a bit shy or stubborn. Older children may keep journals or logs, express strong emotions and well developed opinions, and seem blithely unconcerned by other kids' notions of what's "in" and what's "out." As adults, these people are self-reflective and self-aware, thus they often tend to be in tune with their inner feelings, beliefs, thinking processes, and values. They are frequent bearers of creative wisdom and insight, are highly intuitive, and are inwardly motivated rather than requiring external rewards to keep them going.
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