Abstract
M.A.
Human intelligence has been investigated from many different angles with various resulting
definitions. Biological approaches to human intelligence investigate the relationship between
the brain and the nervous system as a basis for intelligence. Cognitive approaches, on the
other hand, complement the biological approaches by viewing intelligence as an underlying
ability to perform a certain number of tasks of a given complexity. This forms the basis of
fluid and crystallised intelligence. Crystallised intelligence refers to general knowledge the
individual acquires throughout his/her life by means of the accumulation of knowledge and
skills. Fluid intelligence can be seen as man's innate ability which can be put to many
different uses. Among the cognitive theorists, it was generally accepted that man possesses a
general type of intelligence that is common to all tasks requiring intelligence and then many
different specific factors of intelligence according to each different type of task that needs to
be performed.
The systems view on intelligence attempted to find a more holistic and integrated approach to
intelligence. This view included the external world of the individual and theorists considered
the interaction between biology, cognition and social systems as a basis for human
intelligence. The ability to adapt to new situations in real-life, change existing situations and
perform familiar to extremely novel tasks in order to function effectively in the environment
became focus points of intelligence. Especially the ability to perform novel tasks was seen as
an important factor of human intelligence.
Another systems approach incorporates various independent intelligences (Gardner, 1983) to
form a theory of multiple intelligences. The different intelligences include, linguistic, logicalmathematical,
spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic and personal intelligence.
The personal intelligences are the specific focus of interest in this study.
The personal intelligences form the basis of this investigation. The literature shows that two
types of intelligences are included in the concept "personal intelligence", namely that of
intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence. Intrapersonal intelligence refers to man's ability
to understand himself, his feelings and emotions. To accomplish this, one has to have
sufficient knowledge of one's own feelings and have insight about why one behaves in certain
ways. Interpersonal intelligence, on the other hand, involves the understanding of others as it
manifests in interactions and relations to other people. This includes the ability to appraise
and identify different moods, temperaments and intentions among other people.
A related construct to personal intelligence is social intelligence, which is broadly defined as
the ability to understand and manage people. The ability to show appropriate social
behaviour, social interactions, interpersonal relationships, coping with daily, practical life
problems, knowledge of one's own and others' emotional lives and the ability to function
within a social context in a flexible and appropriate manner has been of great importance to
psychologists.
The related concept of emotional intelligence has recently been extensively described in
popular as well as scientific journals. It was defined by Salovey and Mayer (1990; 1993) and
seen as a subset of social intelligence and similar to that of intrapersonal intelligence. The
concept involves the individual's ability to accurately appraise his own and others' feelings
and emotions, discriminate among these emotions and use the emotional information to
accomplish tasks and reach goals.