Intelligence Chapter 8 Part II

1. IntelligenceChapter 8Part II William G. Huitt Last revised: May 2005

2. Emotional Intelligence • Emotional intelligence • A type of intelligence that includes an awareness of and an ability to manage one’s own emotions, the ability to motivate oneself, empathy, and the ability to handle relationships successfully • Peter Salovey and David Pizarro • Proposed that emotional intelligence includes the ability to perceive emotions, the capacity to use emotions to aid cognitive processes, the comprehension of emotions, and the ability to manage emotions • Daniel Goleman • One of several authors who have popularized the notion of emotional intelligence; insists that the goal is balance and that every feeling has its value and significance

3. Emotional Intelligence • Personal components of emotional intelligence • Awareness and management of one’s emotions • Among individuals who experience intense emotions, individual differences in the ability to assign meaning to feelings predict differences in the ability to manage emotions • Self-motivation • Self-motivation refers to a strength of emotional self-control that enables a person to get moving and pursue worthy goals, persist at tasks even when frustrated, and resist the temptation to act on impulse

4. Emotional Intelligence • Interpersonal components of emotional intelligence • Empathy • A sensitivity toward the needs and feelings of others; appears to be a higher level of development that springs from self-awareness • One key indicator of the empathy component of emotional intelligence is the ability to read and interpret nonverbal behavior • Handling relationships • Two components of emotional intelligence that are prerequisites for handling relationships are (1) the ability to manage one’s own emotions, and (2) empathy, or the ability to perceive, understand, and relate to the emotions of others

5. Creativity • Definition • The ability to produce original, appropriate, and valuable ideas and/or solutions to problems • Creative process • Research studies indicate that useful and genuine creativity rarely appears in the form of sudden flashes • Creative ideas that come to conscious awareness have been incubating for some time

6. Creativity • Four basic stages in the creative problem-solving process

7. Nature of Creative Thinking • J. P. Guilford • Convergent thinking • type of mental activity measured by IQ and achievement tests • consists of solving precisely defined, logical problems for which there is a known correct answer • Divergent thinking • The ability to produce multiple ideas, answers, or solutions to a problem for which there is no agreed-on solution

8. Nature of Creative Thinking • Convergent thinking • characterized by greater activity in the left frontal cortex • Divergent thinking • marked by higher levels of activity in the right frontal cortex

9. Measuring Creativity • Tests designed to measure creativity emphasize novel or original approaches to arriving at solutions for open-ended problems or to producing artistic works • The main weakness of creativity tests is that they measure creativity in the abstract

10. Characteristics of Creative People • Expertise • Expertise in a specific area or endeavor is built up over years of disciplined practice • Benjamin Bloom and his associates • Studied 120 case histories of people who had made notable creative contributions in six different fields • Every one of these individuals had unquestioned expertise, based on high-quality training, and unyielding determination

11. Characteristics of Creative People • Openness to experience • Creative individuals are open to experience and will entertain, at least initially, even seemingly irrational thoughts that uncreative people might dismiss • Independence of mind • Creative people tend to be independent thinkers • They cherish this independence and, especially in their area of creative expertise, prefer to go their own way • Intrinsic motivation • The creative are more likely to be intrinsically (internally) motivated

12. Characteristics of Creative People • Perseverance • Creative endeavor requires intelligence and hard work • Thomas A. Edison • Held 1,093 patents, claimed that his magnificently creative contributions were accomplished by 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration • Albert Einstein • Published 248 papers and persevered for 10 years on his theory of relativity before it was finished