Psychology assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Psychology assignment - Essay Example Sometimes it is defined as the ability of a person to cognitively manipulate information and problem solve. Many tests, such as the SAT and/or ACT, are designed to capture these cognitive abilities through appraising skills in arithmetic and reading. However, many psychologists and scientists alike argue whether this is a fair assessment of intelligence. One of the more encompassing theories of intelligence comes from Howard Gardner who developed the Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner proposed that there were seven â€Å"types† of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligence. This theory into intelligence provided a good explanation for why those that have impaired cognitive abilities could still perform a concerto or create an artistic masterpiece (Shaffer, and Kipp 350-52). Raymond Cattell theorized another important component in which intelligence is commonly defined. He postulated two main components of intelligence: crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence. Crystalline intelligence consists of all the knowledge we have complied together in memory and is stored for future use. Fluidic intelligence refers to our problem solving ability and the ability/speed in which we are able to process information. These types of intelligences are inversely proportional, meaning that the older we get the more developed our crystalline intelligence gets and our fluid intelligence decreases (Sigelman, and Rider 227). This can show a trend in both the biological and environmental conditions resulting in intelligence in relation to the aging process. Psychology has been a field of study, which has been influenced by a wide variety of other disciplines such as biology, philosophy, and culture. This is because the field of psychology intertwines ideas from all of these areas, which prompted the questioning of whether the majority of psychological phenomenon was the resul t of the biologically driven concept or whether it was the result of the environment. Many different aspects of psychology are more driven by these components. Theories dealing in the sub-discipline of neuroscience and clinical disorders often are driven by the biology. Thoughts such as in many counseling theories and health psychology relate directly to the environment in which the individual is interacting with. Therefore, many have taken the middle ground by showing that psychology is influenced by epigenetic principles, which relies on the premise that both biology and environment equally influence the course of a person’s development. The beginning of the nature vs. nurture debate in regards to intelligence started with Francis Galton. He was a cousin to evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin. Galton followed the studies of his cousin and took a strong interest in his theories of natural selection and the involvement of the selection of traits. He also had knowledge in th e field of genetics where it was hypothesized that information and hereditary traits were past from parent to offspring through genes. Therefore, Galton hypothesized that no amount of schooling and studying could affect one’s intelligence due to the fact that keys of intelligence are passed through genetics and that this ran in families. Galton was the scientist who coined the term â€Å"