Intelligence and Adversity

May 19, 2023

In the previous articles (Moore’s Law, On Intelligence and Memory, Intelligence and Curiosity) in this series, I discussed the nature of memory and curiosity with respect to how we might define and measure intelligence. This article looks at some of the more recent developments in the academic disciplines that examine and evaluate intelligence, particularly those aspects that are more closely associated with the affective domain of human experience.

In 1997, Paul Stoltz coined the term ‘adversity quotient’, adding to the existing measures of intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional quotient (EQ), creative quotient (CQ) and social quotient (SQ). While the other quotients are perhaps better known and more self-explanatory, the notion of a measure of the ability to maintain composure to overcome challenges and hard times is fairly new.

According to Stoltz, AQ points to an instinctive response to adversity, no matter how great or small, that can be directed, controlled, endured by individuals with high AQ. Some will flee from challenges and fail, others will go with the ‘flow’, seeking to assimilate or accommodate for the sake stability, the third category will harness the power of adversity to achieve and fly higher still in the face of defeat. I might call these three states of response to adversity flee, flow, and fly!

From an educational perspective, understanding the ways in which we respond to adversity and striving to develop tools to cope and endure in the face of future challenges is essential learning. Individually, at any given time there are many facing hardship and adversity. Collectively, during the years of COVID, our AQ was no doubt tested to the limit. There were some who had to flee and others who went with the flow, but we can also point to some inspiring examples of those in our community who overcame despair and emerged hopeful and happy. They are the fliers! How did this happen?

If we return to a recent episode of adversity in our lives, we might recall what is termed the ‘pit of despair’. When we fall into the pit of despair, we can be mired in the quicksand of hopelessness – an all-consuming dead weight that no matter what we do, we feel that nothing will ever change for the better. Transcending that feeling of despair without any particular reason for doing so and creating a sense of hope that things will change for the better is a powerful weapon against the clutching, draining, exhausting, colorless inertia of living in a state without hope.

First of all, accepting that the emotional state of despair is just one point on an incredibly complex spectrum of human emotions is crucial. Just to experience despair is in itself an elegant demonstration of the richness and diversity of our humanity. Acknowledgement of despair (awareness: admitting the problem) is a start. Defining the cause comes next (identifying and understanding failure). Standing up without delay is the next step (ownership: embracing the problem). And finally, taking action to move forward (attitude: positive and constructive).

Individuals of high AQ find hope, where none exists; they seek the promise of better things to come, when there is no logical reason to do so; they are creative in the face of failure; and they endure, despite setbacks. Perhaps at another level, there is an attitude towards life itself that seems to be associated with those of high AQ: gratitude. Now, what might we say about having a sense of gratitude for our problems? This seems like odd advice – why should we be grateful for adversity? Awareness of challenges and moving through the steps to resolve adverse situations is just one part of the experience. A demonstration of high AQ also may generate a highly personal and positive appreciation of the adversity itself. We ‘bounce back’, not only because we are good at overcoming problems, but because we embrace as a part of our own sense of value that the problems are a natural and integral part of life itself.

In this series on the nature of intelligence, memory, curiosity, and perseverance, there is much on which we might reflect. Surrounded by increasingly agile and dazzling demonstrations of AI prowess, we must not lose sight of the fundamental things that drive human development: our innate curiosity, ability to learn, our propensity to create, our instinctive intuition, our courage to ensure, and our faith when reason deserts us. Perhaps at a deeper level, immersed in adversity, surrounded, engulfed, and overwhelmed, all serve to create a heightened sense of living. For without awareness of the ‘questions’ of life, curiosity about why it exists, the risk of failure, the allure of success, and the hope for a future filled with more interesting and complex questions, we fail to grasp an important aspect of life itself: it has a beginning and it has an end. We may live in the moment, but we live with a keen awareness of its transitory nature and we are free to ask ‘why’.

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

T.S. Eliot, The Rock (1934)

Dr. Malcolm Pritchard

Head of School