These days we are inundated with opinions on childrearing and childdevelopment.

... Describe how psychologists have used and refined the concept of intelligence in their efforts to measure children's abilities. Critically evaluate the idea of intelligence as a single, innate ability in the light of these efforts. Introduction It is difficult to define 'intelligence' but most psychologists can agree that it refers to intellectual ability as opposed to intellectual achievement (Gardner, 1998). There are a whole host of theories about intelligence, none of which really agree with each other. Every approach comes up with a different theory of what intelligence is. Each from it's own different perspective, with it's own assumptions, and often challenge at least one other theory. What this study would do in the first part is show how the concept of intelligence, using four main approaches: psychometric, cognitive, contextual and social construction, has been used by psychologists in their, though sometimes futile attempts, to measure a child's ability. Leading from this, with

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