Are there different types of intelligent?

[Misty Avich]

A lot of people say I'm intelligent but I don't feel intelligent. I always see intelligence as a high IQ where you're able to focus, learn and memorise facts and think logically and see the world through a scientific, mathematical or technical view. I have never been intelligent in that way. I feel like I always view the world through emotion. I once had a therapist who said I seem socially and emotionally bright, but is that possible?
Can one be intelligent (meaning above average) without book smarts or logic skills?

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

There is social intelligence, which most of us here simply lack. Though I think that by 28 I was maturing socially.

 

[Misty Avich]

I feel I have social intelligence, as I can easily work people out and understand people. But then that contradicts this Asperger's diagnosis I have.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

There are several types of intelligence. Amongst the long list, it could be emotional intelligence, social intelligence, verbal intelligence, sensory intelligence, curiosity and problem solving, pattern recognition, mathematical, etc.

As you likely know, I have been working in a large, metropolitan hospital for nearly 40 years. We are a teaching hospital with many students, interns, residents, and attending physicians. Now, obviously, one must have sufficient intellect to pass one's classes and achieve a doctorate. Some of these doctors may have the "book smarts" to pass their classes and do research, but little "common sense" when applying that knowledge at the bedside. We have others that have poor bedside manner, and others that are very personable, friendly, empathetic, and absolutely fantastic at the bedside. As a respiratory therapist, part of my day is tuning the mechanical ventilators to the patient using waveform graphics analysis. The physician is responsible for ordering some basic settings, but it's up to the therapist to make that machine breathe like the patient, and is highly individualized. If I pull a physician to the bedside to show them how the patient is breathing, most of the time physician's eyes will glaze over and not understand what is in front of them.

Intelligence presents itself in many forms, and it is best not to "judge a book by the cover", as sometimes, people will pleasantly surprise you.

 

[KevinMao133]

To answer your question misty, yes

I think you are very intelligent, yes I said it

I’m ultra focused, I’m simple minded most of the time, I’m intelligent

On the other hand, I’m not intelligent as socially I’m not good. I’m awkward and I’m also not always confident. I’m deliberate when it comes to dealing with others and it rubs some the wrong way

 

[Fino]

The theory of multiple intelligences argues that there are many. I forgot the exact number, but I want to say seven.

 

[lovely_darlingprettybaby]

A lot of people say I'm intelligent but I don't feel intelligent. I always see intelligence as a high IQ where you're able to focus, learn and memorise facts and think logically and see the world through a scientific, mathematical or technical view. I have never been intelligent in that way. I feel like I always view the world through emotion. I once had a therapist who said I seem socially and emotionally bright, but is that possible?
Can one be intelligent (meaning above average) without book smarts or logic skills?

Yes it is true, people have naturally high iqs but it is what you do with if as well.
If you do nothing with it then you are not intelligent unless you have severe mental health problems.
People with lower iq can be intelligent too.
There are different types of intelligence such as interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial, auditory, kinetic, naturalistic, verbal, logical, maths/science etc.
So people's brains work in different ways.
I have never been maths and science.
I an an empath with a sensitive and tender soul so the way I view the world is it is usually very easy for me to be nice to others and see different views but also when something is wrong it is wrong and energy where I can feel negative energy, good energy etc. But I do not know if I am always right.
I am very easy into seeing into others in the sense of having mercy on them and seeing how people are different and I may not always be correct.
But I try to see into the heart of each person.

 

[Misty Avich]

I think when people say they're intelligent we (as in all people) immediately think of book smarts. So if I say I'm intelligent I feel people will assume I will know the answer to 5^7xX6²<9.4967%, which I don't.
But I can spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious without a dictionary, Google or autocorrect.
I can also remember a lot from my past, enough to be able to put all the memories I have together and write a 300-page book about it (in fact, ten 300-page books). I feel like that is a gift.
And I am creative, although I can create a theme for a room or party but find it difficult to actually produce it. But some people seem to have that knack of getting a project like that to perfection. I know a woman who makes the most amazing cakes that are so brilliant that they actually look like real objects. She goes down to the finest and tiniest detail. I couldn't do that. I could design a cake like that, but to actually make it and get it that perfect would be difficult for me to focus that hard on.

 

[AprilR]

I have the opposite view, i see intelligence as street smarts mostly. Being able to memorize facts and numbers have never seemed like a sign of super high intelligence for me.
Therefore i always find it strange when people complimented me for being intelligent bc i had savant skills.

I think there are different types of intelligence overall

 

[Misty Avich]

I have street smarts and high alert awareness to danger. In fact as a kid I had more awareness of danger than the average kid, even though autistic children are supposed to not have awareness of danger.

 

[TBRS1]

Instead of thinking "high IQ," think "things that correlate with high IQ."

Extremely good memory. I got that. I can repeat conversations, word-for-word that I had 10 years ago.

Ability to visualize complex objects and mentally manipulate/rotate. I got that. I build things as a hobby, and am skilled in the plastic arts. I've been tested on this - off the scale.

Associative thinking, where each separate chunk of knowledge/experience connects to all the others I have stored in my brain. This is cool. I can quickly crank out a well formed, well supported opinion (If I'm writing. Not verbally, usually). Unfortunately, it is mostly distracting. Knowing less is, weirdly, more effective in terms of actions.

I could go on, BUT...

...are these "intelligence"? If you add them together, do they form " intelligence"?

I have my doubts. I enjoy these traits, but they've never been of practical use to me because other personal traits get in the way. They make fine toys, though.

My wife chimes in "Yeah, you aren't that smart."

 

[Dadamen]

At what age did you get that Asperger diagnosis?
I think that if your social intelligence came naturally that it's not Asperger's.
The other possibility is that you learned all those social skills and that's why you are socially intelligent now.

I personally feel that I need to compensate natural lack of social and emotional intelligence with naturally high logical intelligence (IQ). But this is far worse than what would be natural social intelligence because I need to think a lot about these social skills and making a mistake accidently is easy. While normal NT social intelligence comes intuitively.

 

[Rodafina]

Misty, you may be interested in looking at Howard Gardner and his theory of intelligence.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/multiple-intelligences.html

Howard Gardner first proposed the theory of multiple intelligences in his 1983 book “Frames of Mind”, where he broadens the definition of intelligence and outlines several distinct types of intellectual competencies.

Gardner developed a series of eight inclusion criteria while evaluating each “candidate” intelligence that was based on a variety of scientific disciplines.

He writes that we may all have these intelligences, but our profile of these intelligences may differ individually based on genetics or experience.

Gardner defines intelligence as a “biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture” (Gardner, 2000, p.28).

 

[Dadamen]

Intrapersonal and interpersonal together assemble what is commonly known as emotional intelligence (EQ).

 

[Misty Avich]

It seems a lot of autistics have the linguistic intelligence, as I often see a lot of 'big words' used on the forums that I often have to find myself googling to see what the words mean. I know my posts are articulate enough but I still feel I use too many simple words, which is why I usually lose so many political arguments. It seems people on internet forums, especially autistic people, get more influenced into seeing from another's perspective if they use big words. It's just a pattern I have noticed in all my 14 years of being a member on autism sites (not just this one).

Also it seems the logical intelligence is common for autistics too, which is the stereotyped one for autism. I lack this, although I am good at spelling and punctuation and all that but not math, science or technology.

The naturalist intelligence seems to be common here too. I feel overwhelming empathy for animals and I support animal rights, but I don't think I have the naturalist intelligence. In fact I'm quite scared of being in peaceful nature places alone because in the city where I live usually the weirdos lurk about in quiet nature places and mug, rape or even murder people. Yes, some of the most beautiful places in this city became crime scenes before, in broad daylight. The abuser even got away with it a few times because he was able to abuse without witnesses then run off. He got caught in the end, when he was lurking behind a bush waiting for his next victim.

I think I'm more intelligent in the inter and intrapersonal areas, although being on the spectrum means I'm supposed to suck at that. I can identify my own emotions very easily but I think my interpersonal intelligence is greater than my intrapersonal intelligence, because I do worry way too much to the point where what I'm worrying about is ridiculous, even laughable. Like that time when I posted here worrying about ordering a personalised balloon for my dad's birthday with the logo of his favourite football team on it and worrying that I might get in trouble for copyright infringement. The reason why I worried about that was because I lacked the factual intelligence about what happens in that sort of situation and I couldn't find any useful answers on Google about it, and nobody I asked offline seemed to know. So yes, I sometimes worry because of not knowing the facts. Once I know the facts then the anxiety eases.
I seem to be good at common sense (if it's not too factual) and understanding other people and their intentions and emotions. Well, most of the time. When I do fail at this, I get frustrated and even panicky because I feel like I have denied my own positive self-belief, and it causes me to beat myself up, like ''OMG I have offended somebody, OMG I'm a really bad person, I thought I was better than that, what do I do? What if they won't forgive me? I'll become a pariah and get shamed and named'' (which did happen on another site). But, back to facts as I mentioned already, if I don't know the facts then I might say something that I didn't know could be offensive if it wasn't offensive before (like a modern PC culture thing). Like last year when I didn't know how much of a big deal this transgender thing was to people, I literally did not know, and I had never heard of the term 'transphobic'. So when I had my butt kicked by the mods on another site for something I posted that I wasn't expecting to be wrong, I was confused. Because it was all new to me. So I wasn't to know, as I had never met anyone with gender issues before and I just thought everyone were either physically a man or a woman. I've never said anything nasty about it, as I know that would hurt people, but just merely expressing my take on it was wrong, which I learnt the extremely hard way and got my reputation ruined because of it. I have learnt my lesson not to say anything about it on internet forums any more, for the sake of my reputation.
Often there is a difference between innocent ignorance and deliberate abuse. But it would be nice if people who are ignorant to gender dysphoria weren't treated like they are awful criminals or something.