Success
is Thinking & Working
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Last revised on Tuesday, 23 June, 2009
Welcome and thanks for stopping.
This personal and plain web site is mainly about my ongoing interest in the
psychological construct human intelligences ... or, to rephrase all of
what immediately follows in the form of a
simple question: "Are we who we think we are due to our
biological background, agreeing that inheritance and genetics play a firm
factor in our overall cognitive makeup ... or can we enhance our cerebral smarts via
deliberate practice and by best utilizing our various intelligences?"
Here is how I interpret all of this.
I liken the broad field of human intelligence research as to an
intellectual continuum. Each end of this continuum houses a major cerebral
camp, each camp being polar opposite to the other as to the definition of
human intelligence. Those psychologists who practice their wares in the traditional camp suppose that smarter
individuals are more intelligent than others are because they possess the right genes. In other words, such
campers argue that the cognitive capabilities of humans include stronger biological underpinnings, and are more genetically
influenced. To sum up their stance, they argue that there is only one (1) unitary general factor
called g that accounts for a large part of the variance between all of us.
The opposing camp houses more liberal-minded psychological theorists. They disagree
strongly with the contents of the immediate above paragraph, disputing this
more hereditary stance ... arguing instead that it is the environment which
strongly influences gene expression. Their stance is that our multiple smarts
are composed of various cognitive capacities and that it is the combination of
these cerebral capabilities via deliberate practice
which constitutes our overall bundle of smarts. Still others argue that males
and females tend to select the best environments that suit their particular
abilities. This latter viewpoint considerably complicates that gene-versus-environment debate.
To sum, I now believe that all of our intelligences and various levels of expertise are products of mother nature
plus nurturing environments. However, we must remember that we are not fully slaves to our genes or prisoners
to our background. In short, I view
success as stemming from a blending of best using those intelligences
that our parents passed on to us and by developing those special talents that we have deliberately polished over
the years.
As the 'jury is still out' on all of the above, might the content from some of the below links aid us
in better understanding this most interesting psychological construct?
Book Reviews | Home | Human Intelligences Data Base | Intelligences | Name Index | Subject Index | Writings
Ottawa | Revised on Tuesday, 23 June, 2009