Exploring Relationship of Family Variables on Intrapersonal Intelligence of Young Adolescent Girls

There is a wide gap between the popularity of intrapersonal intelligence as a concept and its application in society. People often misinterpret intrapersonal intelligence for a form of magnetism or gregariousness. They don't perceive it as something that can be improved and they identify it as, “either one has it or one doesn't”. By understanding what intrapersonal intelligence really is and how we can administer it in our lives, we can commence to leverage all if that intelligence, education and experience stored over a period of time. Similar idea was proposed by Howard Gardner in the theory of multiple intelligences, where human intelligence differentiates into specific 'modalities', rather than seeing intelligence as dominated by a single general ability. Ecological Systems Theory bestowed by Bronfenbrenner (1979) discribes that there are five systems arranged from the closest to the individual to the farthest and these systems directly or indirectly affects the human development. The present study was designed to study the level of intrapersonal intelligence and impact of various human ecological factors affecting it. To achieve this aim, standardized Multiple Intelligence Assessment Tool developed by Kaur (2006) was administered on a study sample consisting of 200 students from higher secondary schools of both areas of Mahendergarh (Haryana), i.e., rural and urban. Results revealed that parental occupation, caste and discipline by the parents were found to be significantly associated with intrapersonal intelligence of the respondents. Yet other human ecological factors such as frequency of visit to relatives/ friends by respondents, exposure to mass media, type of people living in nearby area and availability of newspaper at home had no effect on intrapersonal intelligence of the young adolescents.