What is interpersonal intelligence? With Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence, Its 9-Types, Importance, Development And Examples

Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of psychology and educational sciences at Harvard University, is the one who developed the theory of Multiple Intelligences, according to which intelligence is not something innate and fixed that dominates all the skills and abilities of resolution problems of the human being, but intelligence is located in different areas of the brain, interconnected with each other and that can also work individually , having the property of developing widely if they find an environment that offers the necessary conditions for it. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence

How does Gardner define intelligence ?

Intelligence is the ability to solve life problems, generate new problems to solve, develop products, offer a service of value in a community or cultural context.

Gardner’s 9 intelligencesGardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence

He identified 9 types of intelligence in human beings, each of which function quite independently (we do not have a single computer, but several computers):

1. Linguistic-verbal 
2. Mathematical logic
3. Musical / rhythm
4. Visual / spatial
5. Body-kinetics
6. Interpersonal
7. Intrapersonal
8. Naturalist
9. Existential

Next, we will know each of the intelligences established by Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences:

1. Linguistic intelligence: this type of intelligence consists of the ability that some people have to use words effectively orally or in writing. It can be seen in a more developed way in the great poets of history, editors, playwrights and journalists among others. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence
2. Logical-mathematical intelligence: it is the ability that some people have to categorize, classify, deduce, generalize, calculate, using numbers efficiently and easily. They also have the ability to perform mathematical operations, analysis, and problem solving both logical and mathematical. This type of intelligence is present in mathematicians, statisticians, engineers and accountants, among others.
3. Musical intelligence: It is the ability that allows us to create sounds, rhythms and melodies, in addition to perceiving, discriminating, transforming and expressing musical forms. It is present in composers, conductors, musicians, among others.
4. Spatial intelligence: It is the ability to visualize and graphically represent visual or spatial ideas and have the facility to orient properly in a place. Likewise, it is the ability to create layouts, charts, diagrams, and build things. It is featured in pilots, architects, sculptors, painters, among others.
5. Body-kinesthetic intelligence: it consists of mastering one’s own body to express ideas and feelings, and the ease of using the hands and being able to carry objects and / or elements. It manifests itself in athletes, dancers, surgeons and artisans, among others. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence
6. Interpersonal intelligence: It is the ability to understand, empathize and relate effectively with others. In addition to having great facility to show facial expressions, expressing different types of gestures on each occasion and skill to modulate the voice. This intelligence is presented in teachers, actors, merchants and politicians, among others.
7. Intrapersonal intelligence: this type of intelligence is manifested in reflective people, who have developed their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-discipline and are thus capable of directing their life. Present in philosophers and psychologists, among others. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence
8. Naturalistic intelligence: it is the ability to understand the natural environment, as well as the ability to recognize, classify and use elements of the environment, both urban and rural. In addition to having great ability for scientific thinking. Present in ecologists, botanists among others.
9. Existential intelligence: It involves an individual’s ability to use collective values and intuition to understand others and the world around them. People who excel in this intelligence typically are able to watch the big picture. Philosophers, theologians and life coaches are among those that Gardner sees as having high existential intelligence.

Gardner, on his last visit to Spain to receive the Prince of Asturias Award, told us that he is continuing to investigate and that he could identify up to 3-4 more intelligences. In his acceptance speech as Doctor Honoris Causa of the Camilo José Cela University, he spoke of at least one more: the Psychopedagogical intelligence of teachers and professors. Studies are showing that when young children have to teach something to others of different ages, some are able to adapt their speech and teaching method to the age of their audience, while others are not. It is probable that there is also a PSYCHOPEDAGOGICAL Intelligence. Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence

Key points in the theory of multiple intelligences Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence

To correctly interpret Gardner’s theory, it is important to take into account a number of premises: Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence

• Each person has the 9 intelligences.
• Most people can develop each intelligence to an appropriate level of competence.
• Intelligences would generally work together in complex ways and there would be many ways to be intelligent within each category. Where individuals would differ is in the intensity, the degree of these intelligences and in the ways in which they use them and combine them to carry out different tasks, to solve different problems and progress in different areas.
• The level of development of each intelligence does not necessarily match that of the rest of the intelligences: different levels of maturity coexisting with each other.
• Whenever possible, education must be individualized, “celebrate the differences”.definition of interpersonal intelligence
• Anything that we think is important, that many people need to be taught, should be taught in many different ways, because people have different learning styles.based on their multiple intelligences. Although it may seem that this only applies to teachers, the same is true in the family. We have more visual children, who will better understand the rules and the why of things if we support our teachings visually; others are more logical-mathematical and will understand us better when we use logic in our arguments; others are more “emotional” (intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence) and when we bring out the impact of their behaviors on others and on themselves, they will be more receptive. Taking this into account can help us understand why sometimes it seems that some children understand us the first time and others do not. Let’s think about how we have transmitted the information and perhaps the key is there and we discover that doing it in another way, those who had not understood us,
• During adolescence, intelligences are expressed through vocational careers and hobbies. Helping them to know themselves is an important task for parents and teachers in these years when they begin to have to make decisions regarding their future.definition of interpersonal intelligence

How do you learn to be smarter?

Intelligence is a capacity. One must discover what intelligence characterizes each human being in order to exploit, reinforce and assimilate it . And at the same time, you have to leave space for the rest of the potentialities to be developed that will allow you to better function in conflict resolution.

In the family, from the time our children are small, we must begin to enhance all intelligences. We will be checking in which of them each of our children is faster in learning, in acquiring skill and that will fill us with clues regarding their profile and should lead us to place special emphasis on enhancing those in which they handle with less ease, then, as we saw before, in a normal situation, all people can reach an adequate level in the 9 intelligences, as long as they are stimulated adequately and sufficiently. For this, parents must be aware of these mechanisms that Gardner himself indicated in his work when learning to be more intelligent:

There are 3 factors that determine whether or not intelligences develop:

1. Biological endowment: including genetic or hereditary factors and damages or injuries that the brain may have received before, during or after birth.
2. Personal life history: including experiences with parents, teachers, parents, friends, other people that help to grow intelligence or keep it at a low level of development.
3. Cultural and historical background: including the time and place where one was born and raised, and the nature and status of cultural or historical developments in different domains.

Activators or deactivators of intelligence: crystallizing experiences or paralyzing experiences are two key processes in the development of intelligence. They are related to those situations that may have occurred at any moment in people’s lives, but that mark a skill in their development that they were unaware of possessing:

• Crystallizing experiences: they are milestones in personal history, key to the development of talent and skills in people. These events often occur in early childhood. These experiences are what ignite the spark of an intelligence and initiate its development towards maturity.
• Paralyzing experiences: experiences that block the development of intelligence, full of negative emotions, capable of slowing down the normal development of intelligences. Feelings of fear, shame, guilt, hatred, prevent grow intellectually.

Other environmental influences that also promote or retard the development of intelligence:

• Access to resources or mentors: difficulty in developing a skill, due to the lack of acquisition of an object.For example, if a child’s family is very poor, they may never be able to access the possession of a violin, piano, etc., by doing musical intelligence is not likely to develop.
• Historical-cultural factors: the context influences the development of certain intelligences. For example, in times when technical knowledge was prioritized, kinesthetic bodily intelligence probably developed more.
• Geographical factors: the place where we have grown up also has a decisive influence, since it is not the same to have grown up in the countryside or in suburban places, suitable for the development of corporal-kinesthetic, spatial, musical intelligences, than to have grown up in an apartment building.
• Family factors: the influence of our parents is especially important, due to the family influence exerted on the children. For example, a young man who wants to be an artist but whose parents want him to be a lawyer will be influenced to promote the development of his linguistic intelligence, to the detriment of the development of his spatial intelligence.
• Situational factors: being an only child, or on the contrary if it is inserted in a large family, are factors that influence the development of certain intelligences. For example, if you had to help care for a large family growing up, and you now have a large family of your own, you may have had little time to develop in promising areas except that they were interpersonal in nature.

Knowing what type of intelligence each one possesses and promoting it correctly allows:

• Minimize problems
• Increase self esteem
• Develop cooperation and leadership skills
• Increase interest and dedication to learning
• Increase knowledge
• Keep humor in mind permanently.

Summary for the most visual

Throughout this section, we have been showing tubes of different colors representing each of the intelligences. If we put all these tubes together, we would get the following drawing:

• We can represent the multiple intelligences of the person as tubes of different sizes (reflecting that we do not have the same development capacity in each of them due to our biological endowment).
• Within each tube we reflect the level of development that is achieved throughout life. It shows how an intelligence for which one has a great capacity, if it is not stimulated, can reach a lower level of development than other intelligences for which it had a lower capacity but which has been more potentiated in its education.
• Finally, a dotted line is shown to reflect Gardner’s principle according to which all people in normal situations can reach an adequate level of development in all intelligences, if they are adequately empowered.

Do you know yourself well enough to see which tubes you fill the most? Do you dare to fill in yours?

Basically, it starts from the idea that there is no single intelligence, but nine types of intelligences that are the following:

intrapersonal intelligence example