Psychology

What is Intrapersonal Intelligence? Definition, Examples & How to Develop

Have you ever thought about how you make decisions or tell people about your favorite activities, food, or lifestyle? That’s because Intrapersonal Intelligence helps you understand yourself better, assists you in focusing on your goals, and motivates you.

What does Intrapersonal Intelligence mean, and how does it benefit humans like you and me? If you’re interested in knowing more about this term, then keep reading because I’ve compiled this guide to answer such queries.

What is Intrapersonal Intelligence?

Intrapersonal Intelligence Definition – It is the ability to deeply understand your inner self. The word Intrapersonal is derived from Latin words: Intra means “inner or within,” and personal means “related to a person.”

Whether you understand your inner feelings, emotions, thoughts, weaknesses, or strengths, through introspection and self-reflection, is called intrapersonal knowledge.

Intrapersonal Intelligence Characteristics

Intrapersonal Intelligence Characteristics to know it better

Intrapersonal Intelligence characteristics are the identifier of famous people with intrapersonal intelligence because they tend to be:

  1. Self-aware: People who understand how they think, feel, and act are self-aware.
  2. Introspective: They can reflect on their inner selves to gain insights.
  3. Emotionally intelligent: People like them can also regulate and manage their emotions.
  4. Self-knowledgeable: Deep understanding and appreciation of their inner selves, making them into the spotlight causes shyness.
  5. Intuitive: They can connect reality dots and predict outcomes because they have intuition abilities. 

Intrapersonal Intelligence Psychology Definition

What is Intrapersonal Intelligence in Psychology? The term can also be understood in Psychology, which was defined by Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist, in 1983. It goes as:

The ability of someone to understand his own inner emotions, strengths, values, and motivations is called Intrapersonal Intelligence in Psychology.”

Further, Gardner has divided human Intelligence into 9 types to make the field more understandable and coverable. In this way, you can get a comprehensive overview of intelligence and its types according to multiple intelligence theories.

9 Key Types of Intelligence

Here are some of the types of intelligence and learning styles:

Types of Intellectual, according to Gardner.
  1. Linguistic Intelligence: The ability to understand language and make use of written and spoken language.
  2. Mathematical Intelligence: Capacity to think logically, reason, identify patterns, and work with numbers.
  3. Existential Intelligence: Understanding of deep and sensitive topics, like the meaning of life.
  4. Kinesthetic Intelligence: Energy to manipulate objects and equipping multiple physical skills.
  5. Naturalistic Intelligence: Understanding, classification, and manipulating abilities with nature.
  6. Musical Intelligence: Comprehension and production of musical skills, like rhythms, patterns, and lyrics.
  7. Intrapersonal Intelligence: Understanding your inner self.
  8. Spatial Intelligence: Perceiving, understanding, and manipulating visual information in 3D.
  9. Social Intelligence: Social ability to manage interpersonal relationships appropriately.

Intrapersonal vs Interpersonal Intelligence

Interpersonal and intrapersonal are often confusing because of their relative names, but what makes a difference is Gardner’s classification. He classified the interpersonal as another of the 9 types of intelligence, as “the ability of a person to understand social issues and people’s social behaviour.”

Let’s discuss: Intrapersonal vs Interpersonal Intelligence.

Intrapersonal IntelligenceInterpersonal Intelligence
Self-motivationEmpathy
Self-awarenessSocial Perception
Self-expressionEnjoys Communication
Executive functionsSocial Effectiveness
Feedback comes from the selfFeedback comes from others

How to Develop Intrapersonal Intelligence?

Intrapersonal Intelligence is often in human genetics, and it is how their minds work and process information, according to Gardner. However, Courtney Morgan presents another idea of how any person can develop and strengthen their intrapersonal skills.

To describe the ideology of Courtney Morgan, I’ve compiled this section on how to develop intrapersonal intelligence.

How to Develop Intrapersonal Intelligence

1. Identify Your Values

Morgan suggests that humans should have at least 5 core values that are present in every field of their lives. According to her ideology, the first thing you should do is to identify your values by working and completing the value card sort.

Now, you must make notes or anticipate how comfortably you are living by aligning these core values into your life. Further, you should try to integrate these values into every aspect of your lifestyle to develop Intrapersonal Intelligence.

2. Have Time for Your Inner Self

Talking to your inner self is one of the most recommended things, especially when developing Intrapersonal Intelligence skills or abilities. When you talk and listen to your inner self, then you will definitely know yourself better and have an understanding of yourself.

Knowing your inner self requires center stage attention in the world of noise, so give it to yourself. Here are some other potential strategies to act on:

  • Take alone time sessions
  • Analyze your thoughts
  • Develop new hobbies and interests
  • Imagine your dreams and goals
  • Do what you enjoy

3. Write in Journal

Humans understand better when they write and along with the stress or joy of what people will to their thoughts. That’s why you should join journals or magazines as a writer to write something about your inner self to anticipate.

On the other hand, if you are a shy person, then you are free to get yourself a diary to write down your personal views. Later on, you can analyze them to understand and anticipate what you think.

4. Show Yourself Compassion

Most importantly, you need to treat yourself pleasantly while understanding your struggles to respond in a caring and kind way. In this way, you will be able to establish a strong connection with your inner self to know how you feel and act.

You are the only companion to yourself and the only member who can cure your own stress factors while appreciating. Appreciate your inner self when feeling stressed, and continue to value your struggles and as a would do.

5. Practice Mindfulness

As I’ve mentioned, appreciate your inner self. If you really want to accommodate with Intrapersonal Intelligence, then you need to practice mindfulness to appreciate the current moment. Doing so, you will be able to develop the sense of what you are feeling and why you do feel that way.

As you develop mindfulness, you can easily find out things that’ll make you strong to cope with your life challenges. In that case, your self-awareness ability would help you to cope with challenges with mindful strategies to do better every day.

FACTS: Mindfulness practices will make a strong bond between your inner self and your conscious to help you respond to your outer world efficiently.

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6. Take Therapy Sessions

According to Courtney Morgan, some people may hinder cultivating Intrapersonal Intelligence. The reasons behind this may be that they encounter hard challenges that bring them back and not letting make connections to their inner selves.

Further, Morgan suggested that they should take therapy sessions with a licensed mental health therapist for guidance and solutions. This might help them to gather insights into their moods, thoughts, and behaviors, and how they should respond to the outer world.

FACTS: Therapy is a great tool for self exploration.

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Practical Intrapersonal Intelligence Examples To Know Results

Here, I’ve put together some of the practical Intrapersonal Intelligence examples to know the outcomes, whether good or bad.

  • Rational Thoughts: Thoughts that are based on logic and reason.
  • Emotion Control: When people manage and regulate their emotions.
  • Discipline: When they obey self-made rules.
  • Concentration: Poeple when they focus on a specific goal.
  • Introspection: When you examine your own mental process.
  • Situational Awareness: The ability to perceive and understand the current environment and respond properly.
  • Specific Plans: Plans that are for development purposes.
  • Visual and Conceptual Thinking: The capability of a person to visualize the personal experience.
  • Self-direction: Capacity to set personalized goals for a specific framework.
  • Achievement: The Strong Sense of Self-Awareness and Effectively Managing Emotions.

The Closing Note

Well, that’s all about the Intrapersonal Intelligence that you should know, whether you want to develop or to classify. Gardner presented the ideology in Psychology that these intelligences only grew in human minds naturally, especially human brain works like them.

On the other hand, Courtney Morgan opposed his ideology and represent her thoughts as: “any person can develop and strengthen their Intrapersonal skills.” This statement works as an internet sensation that is going viral at the time of writing, pursuing human minds to practicals.

Saad Shah

Saad Shah is providing insightful analysis and articulate commentary on market trends, financial strategies, management tips and emerging technologies implementation tactics in different operations of businesses. His essays are brief, making even the most complex subjects approachable to readers of all backgrounds.

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