I have an IQ of 143 but I can't get a job. Do you think IQ tests are a good indicator of intelligence?

Intelligence is not a single measurable characteristic; instead, there are a broad range of individual aptitudes. Because an IQ test does not isolate and measure these different faculties, it's not very predictive of what you will excel at.

An IQ is the score from an IQ test. In fact IQ tests do a pretty good job of measuring so-called general intelligence, g.

"1. Intelligence is a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings--'catching on,' 'making sense' of things, or 'figuring out' what to do.

"2. Intelligence, so defined, can be measured, and intelligence tests measure it well. They are among the most accurate (in technical terms, reliable and valid) of all psychological tests and assessments. They do not measure creativity, character personality, or other important differences among individuals, nor are they intended to.

"3. While there are different types of intelligence tests, they all measure the same intelligence. Some use words or numbers and require specific cultural knowledge (like vocabulary). Others do not, and instead use shapes or designs and require knowledge of only simple, universal concepts (many/few, open/closed, up/down)."

--"Mainstream Science on Intelligence," Wall Street Journal, Dec. 13, 1994, p A18

http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/intell/mainstream.html

BTW: 7/10. Simple, yet effective.

You appear to be good at the IQ test (at least one test unless you just got lucky) but not at job applications / interviews. If you are actually intelligent, you will quickly learn how to correct whatever is limiting you.

Fffff wrote:

Intelligence is not a single measurable characteristic; instead, there are a broad range of individual aptitudes. Because an IQ test does not isolate and measure these different faculties, it's not very predictive of what you will excel at.

A good IQ test like the Wais 4 measures many different aptitudes.

You'd be surprised. I've met some pretty dumb people in my life, and intelligence does open up a lot of avenues if you use it right.

If you are intelligent, then that's already a plus, but as we see a lot of today, there are some very smart people out there that waste their time on video games for example and don't do anything with that intelligence outside of limiting themselves by their activities.

Try to get a grant to go to school or something. Go to some open houses at the campuses or get email addresses and start asking instructors whatt he course entails and if you can visit to see it in person. Last, make sure it's a degree which is worth something. A lot of people go for a business Management degree because it's the easiest degree to get, but int he long run, you're a dime a dozen. Liberal Arts degrees don't add up to much, and most people who take them that are successful already were talented before they took them and just used them to add to what they already had.

Industrial Maintenance is a good paying thing currently. in Wyoming you can make ups of around 80-90k a year off a 2 year degree. Some businesses are willing to hire you part time, pay for your schooling, then contract you for 4 years upon completion of the courses. Lots of good jobs are hands on now, and most of them don't really take much time to get the certifications or an undergraduate for.

Being smart is one thing, you can figure stuff out quickly by looking at it. You don't have the ticket (college) or the trade (trade skills), so you need to get some to be worth something. You're still young enough to join the Navy or the Air Force for education benefits though you'd be 30 when you got out. The Sir Force has a CCAF program which basically you do your gen eds after technical training and it's an associates degree then you can start your bachlors right away using Tuition Assistance.

It's not what you know. It's who you know. Some of the dumbest people on planet earth have great jobs because they all knew the right people.

I think IQ tests are a good measure of intelligence, but that being intelligent does not imply that you are capable of getting a good job.

It certainly helps if you know how to use it. Intelligence is a tool, not a crutch. Don't rely on it. Apply yourself.

Do you think getting a job is a good sign of intelligence?

maybe you're a lazy POS? A schlub? Asperger'ed? Lack personal hygiene? IQ is but one social factor.

Werty wrote:

Do you think getting a job is a good sign of intelligence?

Me? No. But I think that most intelligent people are capable of getting good jobs if they choose to apply themselves in a particular way. Even social skills can be learned.

wsdfg wrote:

A good IQ test like the Wais 4 measures many different aptitudes.

The WAIS makes only a weak attempt at differentiating between distinct aptitudes and does a poor job of measuring them. Its categories are arbitrary and each involves the use of many different aptitudes. It's a joke.

There is no such thing as "general" intelligence.

I view general intelligence as the capacity to learn. If you've ever interacted with anyone in your life, it should be plainly obvious to you that different people have different aptitudes for learning.

Your retarted. An iq is nothing more then a number. What really matters is your level of comitment and motivation to anything. If your retarted, you can still make money just look at the Rainman guy Kim Peek he made money but he's dead so I guess it's a mote point.

Just put your head to it and you will due fine. What website did you get your iq from? I want to see if I'm a genius ahhaha. Maybe so.

Your thinking and approaching the idea of "job" wrong. A job is not for money. A job is for happiness. Find something to fill you're time and it makes you happy and you enjoy it and everything just flows just right. Than, BAM you find you're job.

Oh and as for that questions. iq teste is not flawed because it is nothing more then a number or score from a test. It is what it is. Your thinking too softly. Get at it same or same and do what needs to be done. Put on some big boy underpands and make it work. The test is just a test. If you can't do anything else your retarted.

kibitzer wrote:

"2. Intelligence, so defined, can be measured, and intelligence tests measure it well. They are among the most accurate (in technical terms, reliable and valid) of all psychological tests and assessments.

Baloney. They attempt to use precise methods to measure arbitrarily-chosen categorizations of your scientists' muddy, imprecise notion of "'catching on,' 'making sense' of things, or 'figuring out' what to do." That doesn't produce accuracy, it produces precise gobbledygook.

Their categorizations are no better. What is problem solving but abstract thought combined with planning? Or maybe it's reason combined with abstract thought. There are no uncontroversial delineations between these things. Nobody has ever decided whether they're discrete or overlap. They are not proper objects for scientific study.

So of course they use specific tasks instead that are somehow supposed to generally and fully represent this pantheon of intelligence modes. The popular 3x3 "spot-the-pattern" visual test, for example, where you pick the 9th box based on whatever pattern you spot in the other 8, seems to involve them all. Leaving aside the important issue of to what extent it involves each, even more important is whether it is truly a generic method of measuring them. This goes beyond cultural fairness, and even beyond the question of whether the test-taker is in the habit of solving visual puzzles. As mentioned above, the test tasks the respondent. Before anything else, it "measures" their level of devotion to the completion of a specific task. And even if it successfully measures anything else, it is only in the context of that task. All of those ill-defined IQ categories can easily function in a more passive manner, and it can be argued that some, like abstract thought, work better when the subject is not focused on a task, e.g. daydreaming.

Consider a baseball player catching a ball. Somehow, without pen or paper, he is able to calculate the trajectory of the ball quickly and easily and run to the exact spot where it will land. While he may have learned from experience that the ball will move in a parabolic path, he still must use abstract thought to plan ahead and solve the complex problem of where the ball will be along that parabola at any particular time. But this all happens more or less automatically, he doesn't stand there thinking about it. As soon as he sees the ball he knows where it will go, and the only task before him is to run and catch it - a task so easy that if he fails it is put on the scoreboard as an "error."

This is something psychologists will never understand about the human mind: Mental vs. physical is a false dichotomy. The more you try to divide the "mind" from the body, the worse it performs. It is as much a helper to the body as a controller, and it functions much more freely and easily in the real-world activities that it evolved in than the paper-and-pencil tasks that the psychs are so keen to measure. An IQ test is a contrivance that has almost nothing to do with how people actually think.

xenonscreams wrote:

I view general intelligence as the capacity to learn. If you've ever interacted with anyone in your life, it should be plainly obvious to you that different people have different aptitudes for learning.

Who cares what your views are? An individual's "capacity to learn" varies by task. There is no single faculty that determines one's "capacity to learn" all things.

Unemployable Borderline Genius wrote:

I cannot get a job and it doesn't take a genius to get one.

There's your problem.

Finding a job is another skill set. Forget IQ.

You are not anywhere near the genius that you think you are, despite your score, if you have not figured out how to get a job yet. Use those brains to learn how to interview, have employable skills and then get along with co workers.