Science & Self-improvement

The aim of the earliest intelligence tests, as the one devised by Alfred Binet in the beginnings of the 20th century, was to predict school performance. When using school grades as a reference, one can say that intelligence tests have a good performance. It must be noted, however, that school learning depends not only on intelligence, but also on other factors such as the persistence and the interest of the pupil. It is also important the influence of parents, schoolmates, and teachers.

Researchers not only investigated the relation of school grades with IQ scores. Social success, measured by social status and income, has also been analyzed, and a positive correlation has been found. The same occurs with the social status of the individual’s parents, but when this effect can be neglected, as in the case of siblings, it is observed that a greater IQ gives more possibilities to attain high status and income.

It must be realized, nonetheless, that individuals with the same IQ may differ amply in social status and income. The variation is so large as to turn practically impossible to predict if a person will have a successful life taking into account only his intelligence score. If we define a successful person as one that achieved high social status and income, it is clear that to be a gifted person does not guarantee to be a successful person. There are several reasons for this, but the most important is that gifted people have troubles in establishing their own identity, and this affects negatively their possibilities of success.

Although intelligence enables the person to learn faster than the others, which generally result in a successful career, greater intelligence does not enable him to solve his emotional disorders and social maladjustment. In addition, the gifted person experiments difficulties during childhood to establish satisfactory relationships and to find an adequate role, and during maturity to integrate within a labor environment.

It is often assumed that the gifted person can manage on his own and needs not support, but it is not so. To be more intelligent does not imply that is unnecessary the support of other people; neither it excuses a thorough practice in the selected field. Many people stood out because they had opportunities and impulse given to them by other people.

Having special capacities is a highly disturbing experience and the outstanding child or teen-ager needs support and comprehension from the adults. If these elements have not been present, the grownup may find his talent uncomfortable. A higher intellectual capacity permits to develop faster, but does not assure reaching a higher emotional or moral level.

Intelligence tests’ scores may be used to predict social success. In the United States, certain universities demand from applicants for prestigious professions–as law and medicine–to have high scores on tests like the LSAT and the MCAT. Consequently, a high score on these tests can predict a better occupation and, to a certain extent, a good income.

However, the variance of a psychometric measure of intelligence is large enough to allow substantial variations in social status (and even bigger in income) for people with the same IQ. IQ is not, therefore, a good predictor of social status or income. It cannot be said that a gifted person will be necessarily a person with high social status and good income.

Although a correlation of 0.33 was found between status level and IQ, the psychometric score is only one of the factors that contribute to social success. The social status of the individual is also affected by other factors such as the social status of the parents. Parents’ social status is responsible of one third of the variance of their children’s social status, and about one fifth of the variance of their income.

Intelligence scores have been applied to predict work performance as it can be appreciated through supervisor reports and similar information. In the majority of cases, intelligence scores are weakly related with work performance. Other traits such as ability for social relations, personality type, etc., are of equal o greater importance than intelligence as what to respect to work performance.