The Psychology of People between the Ages of 26 and 60
The paper reflects an evaluation of the psychology of people between the ages of 26 and 60. When it comes to psychiatry, there are emotional and behavioral approaches. For example, memory concentration, processing, etc., cognitive one assesses what is going on in the brain, while the behavioral approach is where psychologists look at people's actions, such as the world and what people think of it. According to the research based on successive cross-sectional studies, significant intergenerational differences can be revealed in favor of those born most recently. In this group limit of 26 to 60, those born and tested recently have performed much better than those tested at an earlier age (Davis et al., 2013).
Theories of Intelligence
Intelligence can be defined from two points of view, which is the capacity to learn from experience and capacity to adapt to one's environment. The two theories of intelligence are the theory of multiple intelligence by Gardener and the triarchic theory of successful intelligence by Sternberg (Gardener, 1984).
Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligence
Gardner has viewed intelligence as multiple abilities that come in packages. The author has believed the theory includes 7 natural intelligences. Thus, there are linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences. It has been more of a cognitive approach.
Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
On the other hand, Sternberg takes a wider view on the nature of intelligence than Gardner has done. He emphasizes that intelligence involves adaptation to the real-world environment that is more of a behavioral approach. He agrees with Gardner's idea of multiple intelligences, but he proposes a triarchic theory of three and not 8 bits of intelligence. Hence, there are analytical, creative intelligence and practical intelligences.
Challenges in Assessing Individuals in the Age Limit of 20 to 60
Test bias is one of the challenges when assessing the age limit between 26-60 since the way they are conducted at sometimes are culturally and sexually biased so as to discriminate unfairly against racial and ethnic minorities, women, and the poor. There is also an enormous social class difference and also the fact that women are not good as men at mathematics and perhaps it's only because women have not taken as much math in high school and college.
Instrument Used in Testing
A test is valid when a variety of evidence supports its utility and when inferences derived from it are appropriate, meaningful, and useful. Utilizing poor measuring instruments can lead to disastrous consequences and therefore newly developed tests should correspond to the highest standards. An instrument is concerned to be valid, if it values what it is supposed to gauge (Mackintosh, 2006).
Pros and Cons of Individual versus Group Assessment Ability
With an individual assessment, some of the advantages include attention with the individual who helps in the detection of issues, there is planning, thus, they have excellent measures of intellectual abilities. However, there are some drawbacks. One problem is the time required to administer them. A second disadvantage is the amount of training required to administer them.
With group testing, it is cheap to conduct the testing since the group is taken as one item, it is not time-consuming unlike individual testing but just like individuals, some of the setbacks include the requirement of training, supervision, and at times, the results might not be accurate like the individual assessment.
Implications of Labeling and Mislabeling Individuals
Labeling can have positive influences on individuals, but if done wrongly it can have negative effects as well. For example, if someone who is not morally upright with some willingness to change, they will feel motivated, since they have been labeled according to what they wish to become. If you label someone as a voter, and perhaps they even do not vote, they might feel good about themselves, go ahead, and vote. On the other hand, people can be mislabeled. If you label an individual in what they do not believe in, then it is a mislabeling and can lead to negative changes.
Conclusion
To sum up, intelligence is the ability to obtain and practice knowledge. It constitutes the capacity to turn to advantage late experience, behave purposefully and effectively in daily routines, decide issues, adapt to new conditions, and provide new ideas. Both individual and group intelligence can be assessed by predicting skills and knowledge acquired, or by measuring skills and knowledge that people have already learned. The primary point is not to mislabel individuals that may result in dissenting alterations.
References
Davis, S., Palladino, J., & Christopherson, K. (2013). Psychology. Boston: Pearson.
Gardener, H. (1984). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. (2007). Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 3(4), 627-628.
Mackintosh, N. (2006). Handbook of understanding and measuring intelligence. Intelligence, 34(4), 419-420.
