Achievement and Intelligence

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Achievement is simply defined as the process of accomplishing or acquiring something successfully. In other terms, this is the act of having accomplished one’s goals or objectives successfully in a particular field. Some of the key terms that are used to define achievement would include attainment, accomplishment, and performance. Unlike achievement, there is no accepted definition of the term intelligence.

The term is defined differently by anyone who addresses it in the contemporary world, and most of these definitions rarely refer to anything in particular. However, despite the many definitions that surround the term, there is one which seems to bear much weight compared to the others, as it was observed in the words of one of the renowned psychologists in the American history.

According to David Wechsler, intelligence is the global capacity of humans to understand and act reasonably and to be able to think rationally and deal effectively with the environment on which they are exist (Sternberg, 1997).

Both achievement and intelligence can be assessed through various tests, to determine how different individuals have mastered the values. Achievement test is designed to assess the level of knowledge or skill which an individual has developed within a given period of time.

In most cases, these tests would measure what someone has acquired through learning, as it is commonly applied in schools to assess whether pupils have mastered what has been taught to them by their teachers. These types of assessments, whereby a person’s score is assessed against a group of individuals who have been given the same lessons and exam are often referred as standardized tests (Haladyna, Nolen and Haas, 1991).

Obviously, high scores in the test would usually indicate high achievement, while low scores indicate a failure, which can necessitate remediation of the studies by an individual.

Intelligence tests, on the other hand, are used to record abstract abilities, as they are attached to various individuals. As it is observable from literature on the subject, there are diverse ways through which intelligence can be acquired. For instance, it has been argued by researchers that, learning or study is one of the most effective ways through which people can become more intelligent in life.

However, scholars in the field have always observed that there is a variety of different intelligences for people. This explains the reason why some people would be good in one thing and terrible in others. Intelligence is measured by an IQ test, which is used to assess a person’s ability to understand and cope with the environment from which they belong (Blackwell and Trzesniewski, 2007).

The IQ test simply measures the potential of individuals in the outside world, by use of a standardized deviation. An example of an IQ test is whereby people are taken through a quiz, to test their reasoning on a particular field or subject. Both achievement and intelligence are important values in the field of psychology, for they do contribute enormously in the success of the field in the cotemporary society.

As it would be observed, the intelligence tests based on the IQ have never been accurate in assessing all forms of intelligence in humans (Eysenck, 1991). It all starts with the fact that, scientists and scholars have failed to come up with a definition of intelligence, which is acceptable universally. One example which explains the inaccuracy in the tests can be seen on the issue of culture diversity.

Although it is obvious that IQ assessment aims at being culturally unbiased, this is actually not the case, considering the fact that different cultural groups would present different perceptions about intelligence.

Additionally, these tests would tend to favor some individuals more than others, since different people have different intelligence strengths. In this regard, there is no way intelligence can be assessed accurately in all cases.

Nine types of intelligence have been identified so far, and this would include; interpersonal, existential, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic, linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, and spatial. Each of these forms of intelligence is measured differently, depending on their varied nature and construction.

References

Blackwell, L. & Trzesniewski, K. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child Development, 78(1), 246-263.

Eysenck, H. (1991). The IQ Argument. Race, Intelligence and Education. New York: The Library Press.

Haladyna, T., Nolen, S., & Haas, N. (1991). Raising standardized achievement test scores and the origins of test score pollution. Educational Researcher, 20(5), 2- 7.

Sternberg, R. (1997). The concept of intelligence and its role in lifelong learning and success. American Psychologist, 52(10), 103.

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Achievement and Intelligence

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