Intelligence Definition Essay Example for Free

Intelligence Definition Essay Evaluate Spearman’s contribution to our understanding of Intelligence. Plan: * Introduction – definition of intelligence, and say what I am going to be talking about * Paragraph one /two– outline Spearman’s theory * Paragraph three/four – evaluate how organisations use Spearman’s theory * Paragraph five – evaluate strengths and weaknesses compared to Gardners theory * Conclusion – relate back to the question Essay Intelligence can be defined as â€Å"the capability of individuals to process information to behave effectively within the environment they are in and learn from previous experiences. † (Arnold 2010). Spearman in the 1900s came up with the General Intelligence Theory. Within this essay I am going to evaluate Spearman’s theory of general intelligence by looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the theory. Firstly, looking at how Spearman’s theory can be applied to organisations, then comparing it with Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences. Spearman (1900’s) developed the theory of general intelligence. Spearman’s research followed that of Binet, who was commissioned by the school system in France to develop a way to differentiate those students who were uneducable, or severely mentally handicapped, from other students. Binet developed an intelligence test to do so. This test consisted of items (questions) that required complex processes of the mnd and examined the comprehensive individual. The success of Binet’s test led to a much greater question: what exactly are these tests measuring? The claim was that they were measuring intelligence. This led to debates about what intelligence was. In endeavouring to answer this question, Spearman observed that schoolchildren’s grades across seemingly unrelated subjects were positively correlated. He then administered different types of test to many people. A statistical analysis of the results showed that there was a positive correlation between the tests for any given individual. In other words, if an individual performed well on a test of verbal abilities, then that same person also performed well on another test of a different cognitive ability, such as numerical reasoning. Spearman named this positive correlation ‘g’, that is ‘general intelligence’. He argued that ‘g’ was identified by using a large battery (number) of tests, that is ‘g’ was not measured perfectly by any single test. His work led to others trying to create tests that would assess this general underlying ability. Spearman was the first researcher to use factor analysis (a statistical test that he developed to identify underlying commonalities, or ‘factors’). His theory is sometimes called the Two Factor Theory as he concluded that intelligence consisted of two factors. The first of these he called the ‘g’ factor, that is general intelligence that influenced all round performance. The second of these he called the ‘s’ factor, for specific abilities, which he used to account for differences between scores on different tasks, including test-specific factors such as the impact of light, temperature, the time of day that the test was given. Spearman’s major contribution lies in his ideas about general intelligence, particularly the idea that general intelligence influences all round performance. Spearman’s ideas about general intelligence continue to influence the development of cognitive testing today. And it is in the area of testing that organisations most benefit from Spearman’s work. Specifically, the idea that there is one general intelligence influences much of the testing in selection processes within organisations. For example, many organisations use cognitive testing (verbal and numerical critical reasoning) at early stages in their selection process to filter out those candidates that do not perform at the level required. Following Spearman’s theory more thoroughly could suggest that organisations might be justified in basing their selection activities entirely on a measure of general intelligence. However, this would lack credibility, or face validity, for the candidates, and for many managers. Indeed, some would argue strongly that there are more particular skills that they want candidates to demonstrate that are more directly relevant to the particular job. A major weakness of Spearman’s general intelligence theory is that it can be misunderstood, leading for example to the idea that if an individual is good at one aspect of work they must be good at another aspect. For example, a computer programmer may be very good at their job, however when they are asked to write a report they may feel way out of their comfort zone and will perform badly. However, Spearman is not arguing about ability to perform a task. Rather, he is arguing that ‘general intelligence’ explains a person’s ability across a range of cognitive tests. At this point, there is value in contrasting Gardner’s (1980’s) theory of Multiple Intelligences, which could give us a better understanding of intelligence. Gardner disagreed with Spearman’s general intelligence theory (Mullins, 2010). Instead, he thought that there are many types of intelligence and if an individual excels in one topic, it doesn’t mean they excel at everything. Theses intelligences included: Musical, Numeracy, Literacy, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Linguistic. Gardner found, therefore, that individuals can be intelligent in different areas. It might be argued that the value for an organisation would be a test that identified the particular kind of intelligence that each individual has. In conclusion Spearman’s theory of general intelligence has had a significant influence on how selection testing is designed and carried out within organisations. The desire to predict performance before hiring a new employee favours the idea that there is one general intelligence that can be assessed by a battery of cognitive tests. However, new theories such as Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory (1980’s) and Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, challenge such a perspective.

A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America Essay -- health, pr

Abortion refers to a medical procedure which at times is surgical, that is used to terminate an ongoing pregnancy by expulsion of the placenta and the fetus before it is mature or viable. There are several reasons why abortion may be procured. Some reasons could be personal in the case of a pregnancy that was not planned for, others could be medical. Medical reasons could be a wide range but focusing on the health of the mother or the baby. If carrying a pregnancy to term would affect the health of the mother either physically or mentally an abortion would be recommended (Solinger 2005).cited with MLA styles When abortion is done in consideration to the health of the unborn child it is when it’s determined that the child could have dire mental or physical disabilities. The mode and means undertaken to perform the process depend on how advanced the pregnancy is, the safety and also in some cases the legality. Abortion has been performed for long periods of time and has been passed over the generations. The methods used have evolved over these generations with some proving fatal and others working like they had been expected to. In recent times, abortion can be performed safely due to numerous advances in technology and in medicine. Before 1973 abortion was not legal in the U.S and various methods were used in procuring abortions. Some of these were crude in every sense and were performed in back-alleys either, by medical professionals or by crooks (Solinger 2005). Many a time, they proved fatal to the young women who sought them and resulted in death. Some died of the abortion procedure itself while many more died of infections after the procedure. As a result, many women struggled to keep abortions a secret due to its i... ...urces. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. . Blake, J.. "Abortion And Public Opinion: The 1960-1970 Decade." Science 171.3971 (1971): 540-549. Print. Halfmann, Drew. "Historical Priorities And The Responses Of Doctors' Associations To Abortion Reform Proposals In Britain And The United States, 1960-1973." Social Problems 50.4 (2003): 567-591. Print. Hull, N. E. H., and Peter Charles Hoffer.Roe v. Wade: the abortion rights controversy in American history. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 2001. Print. Williams, Mary E.. Abortion: opposing viewpoints. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2002. Print. Brown, James. "Study findings from Linkoping University broaden understanding of induced abortion.." New York Times 22 Apr. 2010: 45-47. Print. Alphabetize and indent all 2nd, 3rd of citation Italicize tittle of books

Importance of Listening

Listening is part of communication and language arts. There are fights and miscommunications because nobody has the time to listen. This is a very important tool to avoid misconceptions and misunderstanding. Careful listening gives individual good and accurate information. Every individual should develop their listening skills. Until the 1940’s, no one seems to have thought that skillful listening required any particular training. Two causes have produced a changed attitude toward listening. First, there has been enormous expansion in the means of transmitting the spoken voice: by disc record, tape recording, radio, television, sound motion pictures, and videotapes. Second, there has been increased interest in group discussion, as shown partly by the conferences, conventions, and workshops that are held, and by the many discussion programs on the air. The language system encompasses the language of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The acquisition of these skills follows a general sequence of development: (1) listening, (2) speaking, (3) reading, and (4) writing. The different language forms have a core language system that underlies and integrates the four elements of language. Experiences with each language form strengthen the underlying language system, which in turn influences an individual’s facility in each language form. Numerous situations in everyday living require skillful listening. For example, informal conversation, social and business telephoning; interviews; taking part in conferences; listening to speeches, lectures, readings, reports, and plays; and following oral directions. From the young child, who gains much of his or her knowledge from speech activities in the classroom, to the courtroom lawyer, whose success depends largely on understanding what is said, the art of listening is a language skill vital to each person’s life and work. Good listening enlarges the listener’s command of language. Through listening to speeches, poetry, and plays, a person can gain an appreciation of literature and of the spoken language. Through reading and listening have similar problems, listeners face two special conditions. First, they must grasp the meaning at once; there is no opportunity to reflect on what was said or to go back and review it. Second, listeners are directly affected by the personality of the speaker, whose voice, gestures, and presence are often as important as the words being spoken. Thus, there are good reasons for training people to listen effectively. To be most effective, listening must meet four requirements. Listening must be focused; listeners cannot be half-hearted in their attention. 2. Listening must be exact; listeners must grasp precisely what has been said, not some vague notion of it. They must be able to take hold of the content, including the sequence of parts and their relationship to the whole. 3. Listening must be aware. Listeners must be critics as well as receivers; they must be able to distinguish the essential from the nonessential; they must be as objective as possible, alert for bias in themselves as well as in the speaker. 4.Listening must be courteous; listener owes the speaker respect and interest. In education, listening is an element of the language system that has been neglected by educators. Although concern for the instruction of speaking and reading, is common, the student’s ability to listen has been taken for granted. Students are typically expected to acquire this ability without special instructions. The fact is, however, that many students   do not acquire functional skills in listening by themselves. According to medical hearing specialists, over half the people referred to them for suspected deafness have no defect in hearing acuity and no organic pathology that would cause their seeming hearing impairment. Listening is a basic skill that can be improved through teaching and practice. Compared with the quantity of research in reading, research in listening is minuscule. One explanation for poor listening skills is that students and people today are so bombarded with constant sound that may have actually learned to â€Å"tune out† what they do not wish to hear, and they have become skillful at not listening.

China And Africa Term Paper

Africa is a continent with vast untapped and unexploited natural resources, and China due to its growing economy; has a demand for these resources. China has therefore helped Africa to re-establish it self as source of valuable commodities for the Global market and also assisted to put a focus on Africa’s politics and why it remains poor (Snow 1998, 64). China’s interest in Africa is empirical and obvious; it needs to secure oil for its fast growing economy and Africa is open to the idea, in inference to the opportunity of foreign investment. Chinese industries rely heavily on imported raw materials, for example, Zambia abundantly supplies copper and the Democratic Republic of Congo supplies cobalt and precious metals like diamonds. For China, Africa is a safety value for its growing population. In the past India merchants have prospered for long in Africa and today Chinese migrant traders are increasingly concerning the markets. There are Chinatowns increasingly popping up in various parts of the African continent, where cheap commodities like shoes, house-hold wares and cloths are being dumped (Dan 2009, 121). The Chinese investor has targeted oil rich countries, constructing infrastructure for them, with the fallacy of dishing out big loans, while the labor and equipments are been imported from China. China presents it self as a poor nation so as to gain alliances with the 50 plus African nations in the global summits- what a personal contradiction. These alliances ensure that China gets votes in the UN General assembly, consistently making Africa very useful both economically and politically. Because the votes could help China in the future, if ever there would arise a row over Taiwan and many other sanctions. In return Africa gets booming trade with China, export of raw materials and this helps the African economies to grow. The intellectual autonomy China has over Africa is that, Africa continues to export unprocessed goods and its industries continue to diminish, leaving a lot of locals unemployed. For example the collapse of various textile industries, factories and local manufactures, while China’s industries flourish because they have both supply of raw material and market for their goods in Africa (Alden 2007, 56). But in comparison to the western companies, that have been known for their corrupt practices and undermining the Africans, the Chinese companies have been well received even though it is based on a fallacy that is not automatically visible to them. The Pros China has increasingly become a role model for Africa, because of its phenomenal economic growth. It has given inspiration to small African economies that they too can become important economic players in the global scene. The key lessons China offers Africa are as follows: China has a large domestic market which has served as a major stimulus for its innovations and economic growth. With that kind of inference, African countries are now focused on promoting regional integration, for example The East Africa Corporation, so as to expand their internal markets. Africa is also learning from China that to experience economic growth, it must invest heavily in infrastructure as a foundation for economic renewal. And the positive attribute to this is that China is providing resources, in form of infrastructure, to support Africa. There has been increased investment in Science and Technology that has vastly assisted China experience an economic transformation. China has therefore given it self the mandate to strengthen the scientific infrastructure of the African continent, as well as increasing the admission of African students to its universities. For example, recently there was a launch of a postdoctoral program for African students and the study entails a package of $22000 worth of scientific equipments after the completion of the study. Africa is also learning from China that good governance can lead to consistency on economic growth. Africa took up multi-party democracy, because the world views western style of democracy as a prerequisite for economic growth. But it is empirical to state that it is inconclusive making it a fallacy. It takes concerted collective effort to foster any kind of growth. Western industrialized countries have therefore been offered new opportunities to engage with Africa on terms that are without prejudice, as they did before. Countries like the United Kingdom are responding with intuition to the challenge by seeking renewed relations, through regional integration bodies. The issues involved go beyond interest in natural resources and market for commodity, because the centre of global stability and security is fast emerging to be the African continent (Taylor 1998, 23). The Cons In another perspective, China’s involvement in Africa is being viewed as predatory, odious and brutish. Some African leaders like the former president of South Africa, Thambo Mbeki, have warned against China’s persistence in pushing for raw materials, they feel it is a new form of neo-colonialist adventure. That in exchange for its raw materials, Africa gets low quality imports and little attention to developing an impoverished continent. Human right groups in the 1980 had lobbied for certain ethical standards for western companies who were doing business in Africa. There was also a foreign corrupt practices Act which prohibited the United States companies from paying bribes to corrupt African government officials. Contrary to that effect, Chinese enterprises operate in Africa with no morals and ethical constraints. Based on the inferences like the relationship between Sudan and China, it is empirical to state that, China can deal with any rogue regime in Africa so long as its quest for raw materials is met and there is market for its commodities. This is because a state like Sudan has been in war and many of its Southerners displaced because of the civil war that has been in the country for several decades. Yet China supplies military arms to them so that it can have access to the oil that is available in Sudan. It also supplies arms to Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and other repressive governments, while using its veto power i n the UN, to block sanctions against the same tyrannical regimes (â€Å"The Economist† 2011). China secures its contracts through outright bribery. They offer to build presidential palaces (as was the case in Zimbabwe, Angola and Sudan) and sport stadiums in exchange for a major contract. To say that China’s deals are transparent is nothing but a theory which can be discounted by the facts against it: The deals are based on barter terms that are dictated by them. In such a case, there arise contradictions to the Sino- African agreement of 2006, where they stated a win-win situation for both parties. A good inference, is the exploration of oil in Nigeria, and in exchange China rebuilds its dilapidated railway system, while supplying all the necessary equipment and importing personnel from China at a price that they will determine. In such a case, there arise a great opportunity for exploitation and plunder of African rich resources. This is an outright contradiction to the agreement. Further more, the influx of Chinese products in to the African market has evidently led to the devastation of local industries, consequently leading to loss of employment for the African locals as factories closedown throughout the continent. One of the most affected areas is the textile industry, where Chinese synthetic fabrics flood the market replacing cotton that is readily available in Africa. These being the case, anti-Chinese sentiment are arising in different parts of Africa, a good example, in South Africa traders threatened not to sell Chinese manufactured goods, else where some Chinese workers in Africa have been attacked and even killed by local Africans. This is definitely a valid reason to question on the positive implications of the relationship between Africa and China. Intellectual autonomy is a matter of great concern in the increased engagement of China and Africa as it halts steps towards democratic accountability and better governance. The West may have extreme prejudice when dealing with nations that do not progress on these fronts, but China see’s that as an opportunity to strike a deal. In 2003, the IMF suspended a pledge of aid to Angola amounting to $ 2 billion, because of rampant corruption. China saw it as great opportunity to strike an oil deal with the Angola’s government, and as an incentive, they also offered the $ 2 billion for the aid that Angola required. The world views China’s intentions in Africa as noble, but its real intentions are known; to elbow out Western companies, to get access to resources at a cheaper price, seek untapped markets for the Chinese manufactured goods and dump its surplus population in Africa. The sheer acceptance of the Chinese workers and experts as part of the development package for the African nations is causing a spring up of Chinese communes across Africa. In Zambia the expatriates from China have reached a disturbing number of 100000, with Nigeria having a total of about 120000 and Namibia 40000, not forgetting that these numbers are increasing by the day. But the apparent thing is that the Chinese government has a secret plan called Chongqing Experiment, and it aim is to resettle over 12 million Chinese farmers on African soil; whether this is a mere theory is yet to be proven but the facts are overwhelming that such an experiment may exist. China has surely experienced rapid economic growth, but this has come with an immeasurable cost on the environment. So if Africa does not adopt low-carbon growth strategies, the economic transformation will not be realized. This is because development that impacts negatively on the environment is short lived as within no time the natural resources will be depleted leaving industries with no raw materials (Freeman 1975, 104). It is evident that China has assisted in propelling Africa’s economic growth rate, being the second largest trading partner, after United States. It is importing 1/3 of Africans crude oil and Africa needs the infrastructure being provided by China to rebuild its dilapidated infrastructure to increaser its economic productivity. But as China deepens its forays into Africa, the continent should be careful not to come from neo-colonialism, into a new form of neo-colonialism being offered by China.