In a class activity on intelligent persons, students described people they admire. Anjali wrote about her aunt, who moved from a village to Pune after marriage. Within months she had learnt the bus routes, planned the family budget and found a job. Meera wrote about her uncle, a farmer in Latur. When the rains failed for two years, he did not stop at saving water on his own field. He persuaded the villagers to build a check dam and a shared tank, so the whole village had water through the next summer.
The teacher said that the aunt's case fits one psychologist's view of intelligence, while the uncle's case fits a wider view. Whose view of intelligence does the uncle's case best illustrate?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Gardner and Sternberg
Option (1) Alfred Binet — Incorrect. Binet defined intelligence as the ability to judge well, understand well and reason well. It is about good thinking, and it does not speak of changing one's surroundings, so it does not fit the uncle.
Option (2) Wechsler — Incorrect. Wechsler saw intelligence by its use for adaptation to the environment: thinking rationally, acting purposefully and dealing effectively with it. The aunt settling into Pune fits this view; the uncle went further than adapting.
Option (3) Spearman and Thurstone — Incorrect. Spearman and Thurstone explained the structure of intelligence: Spearman a general factor (g), Thurstone a set of primary mental abilities. Neither view is about shaping the environment, so it does not fit the uncle.
Option (4) Gardner and Sternberg — Correct. Gardner and Sternberg held that an intelligent person not only adapts to the environment but also actively modifies or shapes it. The uncle changed the village's water supply with a check dam and a shared tank, so he shaped his surroundings.
NCERT (2026-27): “INTELLIGENCE … |