Psychological Mindedness: A Contemporary Understanding.

Abstract

Personal intelligence refers to information-processing capacities about psychological characteristics of self and others. Gardner (1983) described two kinds of personal intelligence. Intrapersonal intelligence is defined as a capacity for "access to one's own feeling lifeóone's range of affects or emotions: the capacity instantly to effect discriminations among these feelings and, eventually, to label them, to enmesh them in symbolic codes, to draw upon them as a means of understanding and guiding one's behavior" (p. 239). More recently Gardner (1993a, 1993b) stated that having an accurate model of oneself, which is necessary for effective decision making, is also an essential element of intrapersonal intelligence. Interpersonal intelligence is defined as "the ability to notice and make distinctions among other individuals and, in particular, among their moods, temperaments, motivations, and intentions" (1983, p. 239). This intelligence includes the "capacity to place one's self into the skin of specific other individuals" (p. 250). Such capacity can involve the ability to understand and predict the behaviors of others, to work appropriately and cooperatively with others, as well as to empathizeóthat is, to accurately experience the feelings and motivations of another person from the perspective of that other person (1983, 1993b). Gardner first identified personal intelligence in his landmark book, Frames of Mind: TJie Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983). He defined human intelligence as: "The ability to solve problems, or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural or community settings." (1993b, pp. 7, 15-16). Gardner provided detailed evidence that there are at least six relatively independent or modular categories of intelligence: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, and personal. He identified these intelligence constructs using specific prerequisites and criteria including: (a) evidence for basic information-processing mechanisms that are activated by certain kinds of internally or exter