Finding Your Genius: Different Kinds of Intelligence By Timothy Aaron Whiston At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Mainstream society tends to define intelligence through very limited parameters. From pre-school through the collegiate level a person’s intellectual worth is quite inaccurately determined solely by his or her ability to work with numbers, remember details, and handle language skills.

Students who do not excel in mathematical operations or the ability to communicate via accepted linguistic structures are often labeled as “slow”, inept, or worse. Even outside of the classroom people are measured and judged smart or dumb by virtue of their skills with numbers and written/verbal communication.

It’s right to celebrate a talent with numbers. And it’s good to honor an ability to master sentence structure or remember, manage, and communicate written information.

But these skills are far from being the only determinants of strong intelligence. In fact recent scientific studies have identified multiple types of intelligence.

In addition to the verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematic intelligence recognized and rewarded by the standard academic system, researchers at Harvard have identified the following types of intelligence:

Visual/Spatial Intelligence – This measure of intelligence manifests in the visual perception of the environment, the ability to form and manipulate visual imagery, and the orientation of the body and other objects in space. Simply put, an individual with great visual/spatial intelligence might excel at graphic arts, sculpting, observation of the environment, freehand carpentry, and so forth.

Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence – This of course deals with one’s physical dexterity, fine motor skills, and the ability to learn and express via physical movements. A person with enhanced bodily/kinesthetic intelligence might excel at sports, dancing, sex, and/or have a natural ability to work with hand tools or solve problems through physical means.

Musical Intelligence – This expression of intelligence is fairly self-explanatory, and pertains not only to understanding/producing harmonious music, but also to rhythmic timing, dance response, and the intuitive relation to natural sounds and melodies.

Interpersonal Intelligence – This form of intelligence is often manifested in the ability to understand, communicate with, coordinate, and even manage other human beings. People who are smart in this area find it easy to form relationships and maintain harmonious interaction within overall groups and communities.

Intrapersonal Intelligence – This expression of intelligence is the ability to understand the self, and to interpret and work with thoughts, emotions, instinctive reactions, and intuitive notions.

Naturalistic Intelligence – This form of intelligence involves the ability to observe, understand, and work with the natural world of plants, animals, and even weather patterns and geological phenomenon. Strong organizational and classification skills are typical of this intelligence range.

Dr. Howard Gardner deserves our gratitude for initiating the studies that have categorized this wide range of different intelligences. In the near future it is likely that even more will be done to uncover and organize the less traditional types of human intelligence.

Reviewing the list above, and being aware of the standard verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematic intelligence patterns, where do you feel your genius lies? Don’t be modest here; it’s very likely you have active or latent talents within one or more areas of intelligence.

Spend some time observing yourself and being honest about the things that come naturally to you in life. Refer to the basic list of intelligence types and see if you can match yourself with some of the traits mentioned.

Understand of course that I’ve only made a very basic outline in this article. Each form of intelligence can be greatly extrapolated on.

Often undervalued by mainstream (and especially elitist) society, these additional forms of intelligence have played a critical role in human survival over the past several thousand years! Furthermore all manifestations of intelligence, not just the two facets that are nurtured and praised by our stunted educational programs, color the vivid and wonderful nature of humanity.

It’s time we as a species transcend the limitations of “traditional” definitions of intelligence and embrace our greatness in the many forms it becomes manifest.

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