Written by Harriet Edmund and Published in Women’s Health and Fitness, August 2014. Click here for full article.


IQ test Intelligence testing by psychologist in melbourneIntelligence. capacity for understanding; aptitude in grasping truths, facts, meaning, etc.

The Macquarie Dictionary is a good place to start this report – after all, discussing contextual characteristics
of something demands a fundamental definition, right? And since psychology golden boys Dunning and Kruger declared that many of us are deluded about how clever we are, thanks to a well-studied cognitive bias – the Dunning- Kruger effect – we clearly can’t be trusted to gauge our own smarts.

Macquarie seems to be saying that intelligence is, oxymoronically, a fixed set of variables. Or rather, aptitude at reading the state of play and adapting. Which makes sense insofar as it mirrors many skills. It’s one thing
to hit winning forehands in the closed environment of a tennis lesson, with its basket full of balls and affable coach. Hitting the same winner when a ball is flying towards you, and subject to surrounding air flow, is quite another matter. That’s what separates Tuesday morning ladies’ comp from the Australian Open.

According to Melbourne psychologist and neuroscientist Dr Ben Buchanan, being truly intelligent is about responding to your environment to achieve your goals.

“In this world of social relationships, what’s the point in having a high IQ if you can’t get what you want from life because you have poor social skills?” he says.

So if you can fail miserably despite ranking highly on traditional measures of intelligence and aptitude, and succeed based on how well
you learn from your mistakes,
is there any point knowing whether you’re a prodigy or not?

Hypotheses hype

Many brainiacs have canvassed different ideas about intelligence.

There’s the multiple intelligence theory, coined by Howard Gardner in the early 1980s. He says there are eight types of intelligence: musical- rhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical- mathematic, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic.

Robert Sternberg’s triarchic theory is based on measuring componential, experimental and practical categories. Sternberg suggests intelligence is how well you deal with environmental changes throughout your life – which leads to modern intelligence crusaders, who say emotional and social intelligence are more important than academic achievement.

In his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman says the modern view of human intelligence is far too narrow. He writes that emotions play a major role in thought, decision-making and individual success.

IQ is a one-trick pony

Chances are your IQ score will be somewhere between 85 and 115 points along with two- thirds of the population.

If your score is above average, or you meet criteria for high or superior intelligence against the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale’s 60 questions in 30 minutes,
good for you. But it’s worth noting that job recruiters
often look for people with
an average – not astral – IQ. “Agencies purposefully
seek people of average intelligence so the person won’t get bored or frustrated
in the role,” says Buchanan, a doctor of clinical psychology
at Victorian Counselling & Psychological Services.

And anyway, reducing intelligence to a number, your 
IQ, won’t accurately reflect your holistic wit if you’re strong in one intelligence style but not another, adds Dr Buchanan.

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