Reflection paper on intelligence
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Reflection
1. The meaning of being smart
Being smart means the ability to acquire knowledge and skills from daily interactions with events and other people. It also refers to the capacity to adapt to the immediate environment regarding social and cultural life. That ability manifests in one's attention to events that require divided or selective attention. A smart person has a high memory, reasons fast and solves problems with ease and accuracy. Such a person makes the right decisions that are founded on logical concepts. A smart individual often acquires new knowledge and skills from experiences and adapts to present situations fast depending on the surrounding culture.
2. Is intelligence and other intellectual abilities fixed or change with experience?
Intelligence and other intellectual abilities are not fixed. One can improve them by acquiring skills to recall, representation of acquired knowledge, and critical thinking. Intelligence improves especially when one has a positive attitude that intelligence can be made better. Therefore, the level of one's intelligence partly depends on the beliefs one holds. Learning from daily experiences can, therefore, enhance intelligence.
3. My greatest ability shows up in emotional intelligence because when I go through an emotional experience am able to perceive and express it. I integrate such emotions in my thoughts. That has always led to some people appreciating my reasoning in an emotional setting. My weakest ability is in cultural intelligence. I am poor in adapting to challenging situations from diverse cultures. Some of my behaviors and beliefs that are acceptable in my culture may appear stupid in other cultures and I do not take it kindly when one challenges me to adapt to their culture. For example, my culture does not appreciate or allow wife inheritance where a husband dies. However, other cultures in Africa particularly in Western Kenya encourage wife inheritance by the brother to the husband if the husband dies.
4. General comment regarding this course
I have learned that the human brain forms the biological base of intelligence particularly regarding the working memory. However, the degree of intelligence varies throughout one's life. Among the factors that lead to the variations include cultural interpretation of the term intelligence and daily experiences. Such experiences bring forth various aspects of learning, and on how one is able to adapt to the prevailing situations.