Which psychologist studied intelligence? Definition of Intelligence

In a number of psychological concepts, intelligence is identified with a system of mental operations, with a style and strategy for solving problems, with the effectiveness of an individual approach to a situation that requires cognitive activity, with a cognitive style, etc.

Intelligence is a relatively stable structure of an individual’s mental abilities, which includes acquired knowledge, experience and the ability for their further accumulation and use in mental activity. The intellectual qualities of a person are determined by the range of his interests and the amount of knowledge.

In a broad sense, intelligence is a person’s mental abilities, the totality of all cognitive processes. In a narrower sense - mind, thinking. In the structure of human intelligence, the leading components are thinking, memory and the ability to behave rationally in problem situations.

The concepts of “intelligence” and “intellectual characteristics” of a person are close to the more frequently used concepts - abilities, general and special abilities. General abilities include, first of all, the properties of the mind, and therefore general abilities are often called general mental abilities or intelligence.

Some definitions of intelligence can be given: intelligence as the ability to learn, intelligence as the ability to think abstractly, intelligence as the ability to adapt and solve problems.

The definition of intelligence as a set of general abilities is associated with the works of S. L. Rubinstein and B. M. Teplov. We can say that the intellectual characteristics of a person play a big role in the overall success of an activity. Abilities are considered as regulators of activity, and intellectual activity is separated into a unit in which mental abilities and the motivational structure of the individual are synthesized.

In general, the concept of “intelligence” in psychological literature has at least three meanings: 1) the general ability to cognition and solve problems, which determines the success of any activity and underlies other abilities; 2) the system of all cognitive abilities of an individual (from sensation to thinking); 3) the ability to solve problems without external trial and error (in the mind), the opposite of the ability to intuitive knowledge.

Intelligence, as V. Stern believed, is a certain general ability to adapt to new living conditions. An adaptive act, according to Stern, is the solution of a life task carried out through action with a mental (“mental”) equivalent of an object, through “action in the mind,” or, according to Ya. D. Ponomarev, “in the internal plane of action.” According to L. Polanyi, intelligence refers to one of the ways of acquiring knowledge. But, in the opinion of most other authors, the acquisition of knowledge (assimilation, according to J. Piaget) is only a side aspect of the application of knowledge in solving life problems. In general, developed intelligence, according to J. Piaget, is manifested in universal adaptability, in achieving “balance” of the individual with the environment.

Any intellectual act presupposes the activity of the subject and the presence of self-regulation during its implementation. According to M.K. Akimova, the basis of intelligence is precisely mental activity, while self-regulation only provides the level of activity necessary to solve a problem. This point of view is supported by E.A. Golubeva, who believes that activity and self-regulation are the basic factors of intellectual productivity, adding to them also performance.

One way or another, there is a rational grain in the view of the nature of intelligence as an ability. It becomes noticeable if you look at this problem from the point of view of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious in the human psyche. Also V.N. Pushkin viewed the thought process as an interaction between consciousness and subconscious. At different stages of solving a problem, the leading role passes from one structure to another. During an intellectual act, consciousness dominates and regulates the decision process, while the subconscious acts as an object of regulation, i.e., in a subdominant position.

Intellectual behavior comes down to accepting the rules of the game that the environment imposes on a system with a psyche. The criterion of intellectual behavior is not the transformation of the environment, but the opening of the environment's capabilities for the individual's adaptive actions in it. At the very least, the transformation of the environment (a creative act) only accompanies the purposeful activity of a person, and its result (a creative product) is a “by-product of activity,” in Ponomarev’s terminology, which is realized or not realized by the subject.

V.N. Druzhinin gives a primary definition of intelligence as a certain ability that determines the overall success of a person’s adaptation to new conditions.

The mechanism of intelligence manifests itself in solving a problem in the internal plane of action (“in the mind”) with the dominance of the role of consciousness over the unconscious. V.N. Druzhinin presents the concept of intelligence from the point of view of “cognitive resource”. There are two explications of the content of the concept of “cognitive resource”. The first – structural – can be called the “display-screen” model. Let's assume that there is a minimal structural unit responsible for processing information - a cognitive element. Similar elements are in connection with each other. The number of cognitive elements determines the success of solving intellectual problems. The complexity of any task is related to the number of cognitive elements representing it in the cognitive resource. If the set of elements required to represent the task is greater than the cognitive resource, the subject is not able to construct an adequate representation of the situation. The representation will be incomplete in any significant detail.

An individual's cognitive resource may be matched to the task. In this case, the problem is solved as a particular one, without attempts to generalize the solution methods to others. Finally, individual cognitive resource may exceed the resource required by the task. The individual remains with a free reserve of cognitive elements, which can be used for: 1) solving another parallel task (“the Julius Caesar phenomenon”); 2) attracting additional information (incorporating the task into a new context); 3) varying the conditions of the task (transition from one task to multiple tasks); 4) expanding the search area (“horizontal thinking”).

M. A. Kholodnaya identifies a minimum of basic properties of intelligence: 1) level properties that characterize the achieved level of development of individual cognitive functions (both verbal and non-verbal) and the presentation of reality underlying the processes (sensory difference, working memory and long-term memory, volume and distribution of attention, awareness in a certain content area, etc.); 2) combinatorial properties, characterized by the ability to identify and form various kinds of connections and relationships in the broad sense of the word - the ability to combine experience components in various combinations (spatio-temporal, cause-effect, categorical-substantive); 3) procedural properties characterizing the operational composition, techniques and reflection of intellectual activity down to the level of elementary information processes; 4) regulatory properties that characterize the effects of coordination, management and control of mental activity provided by the intellect.

The operational understanding of intelligence grew from the primary idea of the level of mental development, which determines the success of performing any cognitive, creative, sensorimotor and other tasks and is manifested in some universal characteristics of human behavior.

From the point of view of modern ideas about intelligence, not all tasks can be somehow correlated with it. But the idea of the universality of intelligence as an ability that influences the success of solving any problems has been reinforced in models of intelligence.

Typical versions of a multidimensional model, in which many primary intellectual factors are assumed, are the models of J. Guilford (a priori), L. Thurstone (a posteriori) and, from domestic authors, V. D. Shadrikov (a priori). These models can be called spatial, single-level, since each factor can be interpreted as one of the independent dimensions of the factor space.

Hierarchical models (C. Spearman, F. Vernon, P. Humphreys) are multi-level. Factors are placed at different levels of generality: at the top level

– factor of general mental energy, at the second level

– its derivatives, etc. Factors are interdependent: the level of development of the general factor is associated with the level of development of particular factors.

Thinking is an active function of the intellect and is improved according to the laws of logic. Such mental operations as analysis, synthesis, comparison, judgment and inference are independent categories, but are carried out on the basis of intellectual capabilities, experience and knowledge.

Thinking is intelligence in action.

By the nature (depth, breadth of coverage, independence, degree of correspondence to the truth) of judgments and conclusions, which are the final results of the thinking process and the completion of complex mental operations, we judge a person’s intelligence.

Definition of Intelligence

To define intelligence (which, no doubt, is very important, because it is necessary to limit the area that appears under this name if one is going to study it), it is enough to indicate the degree of complexity of those distant interactions, starting from which we will use the term “intellectual”. A serious obstacle here is that the lower bound on complexity always remains arbitrary. For some scientists, such as Claparède and Stern, intelligence is mental adaptation to new conditions. Claparède therefore contrasts intelligence with instinct and skill, which are hereditary or acquired adaptations to repeated conditions. For him, intelligence begins with the simplest empirical searches, which are the source of those internalized searches, which then, at the highest level, characterize the activity of creating a hypothesis. For Bühler, who also divides structures into three types (instinct, training, intelligence), this definition is too broad: intelligence arises only with the act of sudden understanding (Aha-Eglebnis), while search refers to a skill. Köhler does the same, preserving the term “intelligence” only for acts of abrupt changes in structures and excluding search from it. There is no doubt that search appears along with the emergence of the simplest skills, which themselves, at the time of their development, were adaptations to new conditions. On the other hand, question, hypothesis and testing, the totality of which, according to Claparède, constitutes intelligence, are already in embryo in needs, trials and errors, as well as in empirical statements characteristic of the least developed sensorimotor adaptations. Consequently, one of two things remains: either to be satisfied with a functional definition, risking including almost all cognitive structures in intelligence, or to choose one particular cognitive structure as a criterion, but with such a (of course, conditional) choice, we risk neglecting the natural continuity of these structures .

It is possible, however, to define intelligence by the direction in which its development is oriented, and not insist on resolving the issue of the boundaries of intelligence; the latter, in this approach, appear as determined by successive stages or forms of equilibrium. It is then possible to proceed simultaneously from the points of view of both the functional situation and the structural mechanism. Based on the first, we can say that the more “intellectual” the behavior becomes, the more complex and diverse the trajectories along which the subject’s influences on objects take place, and the more progressive compositions they lead to. The curves along which perception is carried out are very simple, even at a great distance of the perceived object. A skill seems to be something more complex, but its spatio-temporal links are articulated into a single whole, the parts of which can neither exist independently nor form special combinations with each other.

In contrast, an intellectual act - whether it consists of finding a hidden object or finding the hidden meaning of an image - presupposes a certain number of paths (in space and time), both independent and capable of combining with each other (i.e. compositions). From the point of view of the structural mechanism, the simplest sensorimotor adaptations are immobile and one-dimensional, while intelligence develops in the direction of reversible mobility. It is precisely this, as we will see later, that constitutes the essential feature of the operations that characterize living logic in action. But at the same time we see that reversibility is nothing more than the criterion of equilibrium itself (as physicists teach us). Defining intelligence as the progressive reversibility of mobile mental structures is the same as saying in a slightly different formulation that intelligence is a state of equilibrium towards which all successively located adaptations of the sensorimotor and cognitive order gravitate, as well as all assimilative and accommodating interactions of the body with environment.

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Intelligence Concept of intelligence

In everyday life, a person uses his mental abilities as an element of knowledge of the world around him. It is difficult to imagine modern reality without intelligence, without the very ability to analyze and compare objects and phenomena. Thanks to his mental activity, a person discovers enormous opportunities for self-development and self-improvement. Without intelligence, a person would not be able to make scientific discoveries, and such an activity as art would not exist at all.

Intelligence(from Latin “mind, mind”) is a highly organized system of thinking of an individual, in which new products of activity appear. Intelligence necessarily affects mental abilities and all cognitive processes.

The concept of intelligence was introduced by the English scientist F. Galton at the end of the 19th century. The basis was taken from the scientific works of Charles Darwin on evolution. The characteristics of intelligence were studied by such scientists as A. Binet, C. Spearman, S. Colvin, E. Thorne-dyke, J. Peterson, J. Piaget. All of them viewed intelligence as a field of limitless human capabilities. The task of each individual is to realize his intelligence competently, for the benefit of himself and others. In fact, only a few understand their true purpose and are ready to invest energy in developing their abilities.

The Essence of Intelligence

Learning ability

Personality cannot be imagined without mental activity. For especially developed people, development becomes an integral part of life: it leads them forward to new achievements and helps them make the necessary discoveries. The desire to learn in this case is dictated by a person’s internal need for self-realization. When the desire to express one's own individuality becomes brighter than the opinions of others, a person is able to use the full power of his mind in order to achieve tangible success.

In fact, the ability to learn is inherent in each of us. It’s just that some people make the most of the resource given to them by nature, while others find reasons to reduce this process to the level necessary for survival.

Ability to operate with abstractions

Scientists, thinkers, philosophers use scientific concepts and definitions in their activities. And not only them: students must also learn to understand the language of abstractions and operate with them freely. The ability to competently express one’s thoughts and share discoveries in a particular area necessarily presupposes mastery of the language at a high level. Intelligence here acts as a necessary link, a tool for scientific activity.

Ability to adapt to environmental conditions

The environment in which modern people live is constantly changing. Unforeseen circumstances arise that negatively affect work, mix up plans and disrupt deals. But a truly intelligent person is always able to analyze the situation that has arisen and see the benefit in it for himself. Thus, intelligence helps an individual to withstand difficult circumstances, fight in the name of a bright idea, predict the desired result and strive to achieve it.

Structure of intelligence

Scientists with different approaches and different views on this problem identify concepts that allow us to determine what intelligence consists of.

Spearman spoke about the presence in each individual of the so-called general intelligence, which helps to adapt to the environment in which he lives, to develop existing inclinations and talents. This scientist considered individual characteristics to be hidden opportunities for achieving certain goals.

Thurstone characterized the facets of general intelligence and identified seven directions through which a person’s mental realization occurs.

The ability to easily handle numbers, perform mental calculations and mathematical operations.
The ability to coherently express one’s thoughts and put them into verbal form. The scientist explained what the degree of word mastery depends on and highlighted the connection between mental activity and speech development.
The ability to assimilate the written and spoken language of another person. As a rule, the more a person reads, the more he learns about the world around him. Self-awareness develops, memory capacity expands, and other (personal) possibilities appear. An individual most often receives information through thoughtful reading. This is how new material is learned, and existing knowledge is analyzed and systematized.
The ability to imagine, build artistic images in the head, develop and improve creative activity. It must be admitted that it is in products of a creative orientation that the high potential of an individual is manifested and the essence of his capabilities is revealed.
The ability to increase memory capacity and train memory speed. Modern man needs to constantly work on his resource.
The ability to build logical chains, reason, analyze the realities of life.
The ability to analyze, identify significant and significant differences between objects and phenomena.

Cattell discovered the enormous potential of possibilities that a person possesses. He defined intelligence as the ability for abstract thinking and abstraction.

Types of intelligence

Traditionally, psychology distinguishes several types of mental activity. All of them correspond to one direction or another in life or affect a person’s lifestyle.

Verbal intelligence

With the help of this type, a person always has the opportunity to communicate with other people. Writing activity perfectly develops the intellect, allows you to master foreign languages and study classical literature. Participating in discussions and debates on various topics helps you focus on the essence of the issue, determine your own values, and learn something important and valuable from your opponents.

Verbal intelligence is necessary to acquire basic knowledge about the world, so that a person has the opportunity to accumulate the necessary experience for his development. Communication with successful people who were able to reach a new level of life and achieve a state of complete independence has a positive effect on the individual’s worldview and ability to accept and think about information.

Logical intelligence

Necessary for performing logical operations and solving mathematical problems. To improve the level of logic, it is recommended to solve crossword puzzles, read intellectual, useful books, engage in self-development, and attend thematic seminars and trainings.

Logical intelligence needs constant work. To freely operate with numbers, you need to constantly perform complex calculations in your mind and solve problems.

Spatial intelligence

It is based on the visual perception of any activity with the ability to repeat it in one’s own experience. Thus, playing music and modeling with clay can become wonderful guides to self-development.

Physical intelligence. The ability to stay in excellent physical shape is the key to good health and longevity. Physical intelligence implies a strong connection with the body and careful attention to one’s well-being. The absence of disease is not yet an indicator of physical health. In order for the body to be strong and vigorous, you need to give it enough strength and attention: if possible, do exercises and any sports. It is important to give yourself daily the degree of stress that a person is able to withstand. Of course, in order to manage this process, you need to have great motivation and a desire to change something for the better.
Social intelligence. This includes the ability to communicate. Man is a social being and cannot live outside of society. In order to adequately build relationships with other people and learn to understand them correctly, you need to daily train your will and ability to hear others. Understanding between people consists of several components, an important component of which is mutually beneficial cooperation. This is the basis of any business, to understand the needs of the client, to be able to convey the necessary information to the audience.
Emotional intelligence. It assumes the development of a fairly high level of reflection in a person. The ability to think analytically, be aware of your individual needs and strive to achieve your own goals will undoubtedly help you achieve a high level of emotional intelligence. Another important component is the ability to communicate with people, understand their moods and feelings, and build models of effective interaction with them.
Spiritual intelligence. It assumes a conscious desire of the individual to know himself and engage in self-improvement. An intellectually developed person never lingers for long at one stage of development; he wants to progress and motivate himself to further actions. Individual reflections on life, the essence of being, meditation, and prayer are perfect for developing this type of intelligence.
Creative intelligence. It assumes that an individual has a certain artistic talent: literary, musical, pictorial. The need to concentrate on the task at hand, concentrate on an artistic image and embody it on paper, canvas or sheet music is inherent in true creators. But you should remember that any abilities need to be developed; they need to be given a lot of effort and attention.

So, in order to develop literary talent, it is necessary to learn to understand the essence and meaning of what is written, study the works of great masters, and master artistic techniques and means of expression.

Peculiarities

The human brain is designed in such a way that the more often we train it, the better it responds to training. In other words, the more attention, time, and effort a person is willing to invest in his own development, the sooner the opportunities for self-realization increase and expand.

For example, if the mind is able to concentrate on certain things, then it needs to be given the opportunity to expand its field of activity over a long period of time, and then visible changes will be noticeable.

Intelligence capabilities

The truth is that the possibilities of the human mind are inexhaustible. We have such potential that if everyone were closely involved in solving individual problems, the results would very soon be very impressive. Unfortunately, throughout his life a person uses no more than 4–5% of his potential and forgets that his possibilities are limitless. How to develop intelligence to a high level? Only the personality itself determines what framework to place itself within, only we govern ourselves.

How to increase intelligence?

Many people walking the path of personal development, one way or another, ask this question. Few people understand that increasing intelligence is associated, first of all, with being an active person, being able to accept new things into your life, and striving to achieve individual goals. Read more books related to self-realization or quality literature. Ironic detective stories or romance novels are not suitable.

Thus, the concept of intelligence is closely related to the personal development of the person himself. It is important to understand that our mind cannot exist separately from us. It is necessary to regularly “feed” him with fresh ideas, allow him to do bold things and make discoveries. And then you will be able to maintain a high level of intelligence for many years, and not just use it in your youth.

Intelligence (from Latin - mind, reason, reason) is often identified with thinking in the definition: intelligence is the thinking ability of a person. However, the French psychologist J. Piaget separated these two concepts. He proposed to interpret intelligence as “mental adaptation to new conditions.” According to Piaget, “intelligence is a state of equilibrium towards which all successively located adaptations of the sensorimotor and cognitive order gravitate, as well as all interactions of the organism with the environment.” One of the main features of human intelligence is that not all content received from the external world can be learned, but only that which at least approximately corresponds to the internal structures of the individual. Assimilation (assimilation) and adaptation (accommodation) are in a state of unbalanced equilibrium, and human activity is aimed at achieving a balance between assimilation and accommodation. Another important indicator of intelligence is its organization, i.e. representation of the subject’s intellectual activity in the form of a certain structure with the identification of individual elements in it.

Piaget spoke about the stages of development of intelligence, in other words, about the stages of development of a certain structural scheme with different components that stand out in it. There are 4 stages of intelligence development. The first, called the sensorimotor intelligence stage, lasts from 0 to 2 years. The second - pre-operational thinking - takes a period from 2 to 7-8 years. The third stage is the period of specific operations - from 7-8 to 11-12 years. The last, fourth period of intelligence development is the period of formal operations, it begins at the age of 12 and develops throughout life. If at the first stages of the development of intelligence operations are, as it were, connected with objects, concrete and often undifferentiated from each other, then in the process of mastering various methods of replacing real objects, designating them primarily with verbal signs, the possibility of more diverse connections with reality arises, in other words, developed intelligence arises , which ensures human adaptation to the external environment. The stages of intelligence development are tied to a certain age, but training can speed up their passage, and in the absence of training, development may be delayed for various reasons. For example, in the studies of P.Ya. Halperin showed that with targeted training, formal operations appear already in older preschoolers.

If for Piaget intelligence is a general regulator of behavior at all levels, then for some other researchers (A. Binet, L. Wexler) it is a symbol of the ability of humans and any other living creature to learn everything new.

Thus, currently there are at least three interpretations of the concept of intelligence:

1. Biological interpretation: “the ability to consciously adapt to a new situation.”

2. Pedagogical interpretation: “ability to learn, learnability.”

3. Structural approach formulated by A. Binet: intelligence as “the ability to adapt means to ends.” From the point of view of the structural approach, intelligence is a set of certain abilities.

The totality of a person’s cognitive processes determines his intelligence. “Intelligence is the global ability to act intelligently, think rationally, and cope well with life’s circumstances” (Wechsler), i.e. intelligence is seen as a person's ability to adapt to the environment.

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For many people, “psychological intelligence” is a new concept. It just so happens that in Western culture, intelligence is largely understood as the ability to think about something inanimate (how best to drive a nail into a board or how to navigate the path between points A and B). Since the Middle Ages, the business sphere has developed primarily in this direction. A person was presented only as a variant of a cog in a complex mechanism, and at the same time, the presence of a soul in an employee was perceived by managers rather as a disadvantage. It was only in the twentieth century that the human factor received a major role among other components of the business process.

The psychology of managing people and business relationships has increasingly begun to occupy the minds of people who want to reach the top of their professional careers.

Psychological education clearly does not keep pace with changes in the needs of the business side of our lives. Psychology appeared in school curricula quite recently, and at first not at all in a professional form, since teachers preferred to talk more with children about the psychology of family relationships. As a result, a modern adult is faced with the need to form his own psychological intelligence almost independently and with great delay. At the same time, many make a fairly common mistake, the essence of which boils down to the fact that the nature of psychological intelligence is somewhat different from its natural science version.

To develop psychological intelligence, it is not enough to study the relevant literature. In addition to being well-read, it is necessary to properly develop your senses, develop an eye for the nuances of human behavior, including your own, as well as the ability to perceive and analyze the slightest movements and states of the soul. This rather serious and far from always habitual work on oneself requires completely different talents than the encyclopedic erudition of a crossword puzzler and a TV quiz show winner. The Eastern cult of introspection and meditation has already become fashionable in our society, but has not yet become a daily habit.

Psychological intelligence in the business sphere has several main areas of application:

# personnel management;

# professional interaction with colleagues;

# personalized interaction with business partners and clients;

# promotion of products to the market.

If everything is more or less clear with the first three directions, then with regard to the promotion of goods and services it should be emphasized that marketing is inherently a synthesis of economics and psychology. It is difficult to say which component in this hybrid is more important, since it depends on the nature of the product and the company's market behavior strategy. It is important to understand that planning such types of systemic influence on potential consumers, such as advertising and PR campaigns, is unthinkable without knowledge of the psychology of a potential consumer, the psychological mechanisms for making a purchase decision, choosing one or another competing product.

There are still such insolvent pseudo-marketers who believe that in order to sell a product it is enough to set an adequate price, inform the world about its existence - and buyers will resort to them themselves. This market position has long been defeated in the fight against competitors who are actively looking for a way to the heart and wallet of the consumer. Dry, rational behavior in the modern market is less and less successful, since the majority of consumers prefer to receive additional emotions along with the purchased product or service. In principle, it can be argued that recently emotional product packaging has become an increasingly important component of marketing.

In the process of work, psychological intelligence performs the following functions.

Studying the needs of each interaction partner. We examined this aspect of professional activity in detail in previous publications devoted to factors of career success.

Predicting people's reactions to any impact on them from your side, or to this or that change in the situation that is beyond your control. Many managers or professionals whose work is dependent on other people fail in their professional activities due to the fact that they no longer focus on achieving the desired result, but on carrying out the event designed to achieve this. At first glance, the phrase you just read may seem stupid if you do not understand that before doing anything towards other people, you need to carefully check their possible reaction. Otherwise, you risk encountering an effect that is completely different from what you expected when carrying out the action.

For example, in advertising, it is first customary to test advertising materials on a small group of people who adequately represent the target audience of the impact, and only after obtaining the expected effect, launch advertising products into mass use. In principle, it is useful to carry out exactly the same work for any professional whose work involves influencing people. Before doing anything, you should ask yourself the question: “Will people’s reaction to my impact be exactly the way I planned?” The search for an answer can be done in different ways. Some people prefer live testing, when, for example, the boss, before signing an important order that affects the entire workforce, consults with one of his subordinates who is a typical representative of him. Another can make do with the power of his psychological intelligence, considering himself to be well aware of the psychology of his interaction partners and able to mentally simulate the development of the situation.

Formation of an individual approach to a specific person. Let us remember one very important truth: all people are different. Meanwhile, most people act in their work as if they do not know this. To some extent, they can be understood, since applying one universal approach to everyone at once requires less economic costs, and is not so troublesome. But such a strategy of influencing people can seriously reduce the effectiveness of the measures taken. For example, there are people (and there are quite a lot of them) who perceive information very poorly by ear, preferring to see everything with their own eyes. If the company's management makes an important announcement only through the corporate radio, then some part of the workforce will simply not pay attention to it. And there are also those to whom information reaches only if you contact them personally. And this should not be perceived as a capricious show off - this is an individual feature of their psyche. There can be a great variety of such circumstances that prompt a professional to resort to an individual approach in his business relationships. Therefore, you first need to identify these individual characteristics of interaction partners, and then think about ways to behave adequately for them.

Formation of an average approach to the target group. We often find ourselves in a situation where, despite all our understanding of the effectiveness of an individual approach to people, it is very difficult to implement, and too expensive (for example, if this is an advertising campaign designed for a large audience). In this case, you need to be able to choose exactly such a universal approach to interaction partners so that its effect is as maximum as possible.

Imagine the following situation: in the target group there is one blind person, and all the rest are sighted, and many of them do not perceive information well by hearing. The specialist knows about the presence of a blind person in the target group and decides to choose an auditory method of influence for his action. How adequate will this approach be? A blind person may hear the message, but the significant part of the group simply will not pay attention to the information provided. It is clear that this professional solution option will not be the most effective of all possible.

Good knowledge of the psychological nature of the people who make up the target group of influence often allows one to choose an intermediate approach between the individual and universal options to increase the effectiveness of the action being carried out. If the target audience clearly falls into several more or less homogeneous groups, then in relation to each of them you can choose an adequate method of influence that gives the maximum effect. In the example discussed above, you can use a visual method to influence a group, and a blind person should not be too lazy to convey information individually in audio form (for example, by telephone or in a personal meeting).

Having understood what the business type of psychological intelligence is, let’s consider ways of its formation and development. At the beginning of the article, a skeptical assessment was given to the book version of psychological education. However, it should be clarified that reading relevant literature is extremely important for the formation of psychological intelligence, but this should in no case be limited to. At the same time, it must be emphasized that both literature on scientific psychology and books by experts in worldly wisdom can be a good source of useful knowledge - everyone must make a choice based on the individual characteristics of their perception and personal preferences.

The next important source of psychological intelligence is practical training in various training centers of the relevant profile. All kinds of trainings and other forms of group work with a psychological focus will help you to perceive in practice the phenomena and mechanisms described in books, the individual characteristics of different types of people, and also, in a training mode, to master new behavior options in interaction with other people.

The third component of psychological education is individual work. Group forms of classes provide a huge amount of practical knowledge and impressions, which subsequently must be carefully absorbed on your own. In individual work, a lot of time is spent observing people, including yourself. An attempt to understand the characteristics of each person’s psyche usually includes both searching for the reasons for actions already committed and predicting future actions. Comparing the actual development of events with your forecasts provides rich food for working on mistakes. Moreover, such an everyday experiment for the purpose of psychological education can also contain active actions, when you, with your test influences on certain people, provoke them to some kind of reaction and compare the resulting effect with your expectations.

Naturally, only self-digging makes it possible to penetrate into the most intimate and inaccessible depths of the human soul, therefore psychological introspection should occupy an important place in self-education. But you should not limit yourself to one analysis of your own psyche, since the synthesis of something new in your behavior, in your feelings will give you important information about the capabilities (and limits of capabilities) of the human psyche in its development, in the formation of new formations. This will help you subsequently be more adequate in your expectations and demands in relation to other people. For example, if you have spent a long time training yourself to be self-disciplined in carrying out your own work plan for the day, you will not demand that your subordinates develop this ability in themselves the next day, and this will save you from conflicts with them, since they, of course, , would consider your demands unfair.

The next publication will talk about such a manifestation of intelligence as continuous professional guidance throughout one’s career, allowing a person to ultimately come exactly where he planned.