Meera moves from a village to Pune for college. Within weeks she learns the bus routes and manages her money well. Seeing that her hostel has no study room, she persuades the warden to turn a store room into one.
Consider the following statements:
(A) Intelligence as a construct helps us understand how Meera adapts her behaviour according to the environment she lives in.
(B) Her getting the store room changed fits the view of Gardner and Sternberg that an intelligent individual also actively modifies or shapes the environment.
(C) Her friends' everyday view of her as intelligent is much the same as the psychological notion of intelligence.
(D) Watching her, one is likely to see attributes like mental alertness and quickness in learning.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Only three
(A) Intelligence as a construct helps us understand how Meera adapts her behaviour according to the environment she lives in. — Correct. Intelligence helps us understand how people adapt their behaviour to their surroundings. Meera learning the bus routes and handling money in a new city is such adaptation.
(B) Her getting the store room changed fits the view of Gardner and Sternberg that an intelligent individual also actively modifies or shapes the environment. — Correct. Gardner and Sternberg hold that an intelligent person does not only adapt but also shapes the environment. Getting a store room turned into a study room is Meera changing her surroundings.
(C) Her friends' everyday view of her as intelligent is much the same as the psychological notion of intelligence. — Incorrect. The direction is reversed. The psychological notion of intelligence is quite different from the common sense notion that friends use in daily life.
(D) Watching her, one is likely to see attributes like mental alertness and quickness in learning. — Correct. An intelligent person shows attributes like mental alertness, ready wit, quickness in learning and the ability to understand relationships. Meera learns a new city fast, so these fit her.
NCERT (2026-27): “INTELLIGENCE “Psychological notion of intelligence is quite different from the common sensical notion of intelligence. If you watch an intelligent person, you are likely to see in her/him attributes like mental alertness, ready wit, quickness in learning, and ability to understand relationships. The Oxford Dictionary explains intelligence as the power of perceiving, learning, understanding, and knowing. Early intelligence theorists also used these attributes in defining intelligence. Alfred Binet was one of the first psychologists who worked on intelligence. He defined intelligence as the ability to judge well, understand well, and reason well. Wechsler, whose intelligence tests are most widely used, understood intelligence in terms of its functionality, i.e. its value for adaptation to environment. He defined it as the global and aggregate capacity of an individual to think rationally, act purposefully, and to deal effectively with her/his environment. Other psychologists, such as Gardner and Sternberg have suggested that an intelligent individual not only adapts to the environment, but also actively modifies or shapes it. …” |