I.Q. measurement = intelligence + [narcissism?]

However, Angela Lee Duckworth from the University of Pennsylvania has found that this power [Predictive power] is overrated. The link between our IQs and our fates becomes muddier when we consider motivation - an aspect of test-taking that is often ignored. Simply put, some people try harder in IQ tests than others. If you take this into account, the association between your IQ and your success in life becomes considerably weaker. The tests are not measuring intelligence alone, but also the desire to prove it.

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Duckworth writes, "These findings imply that earning a high IQ score requires high intelligence in addition to high motivation. Lower IQ scores, however, might result from either lower intelligence or lack of motivation."

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Duckworth herself recognizes that people who actually administer the tests will be well aware of the issue of motivation. She says, "Where the problem lies, in our view, is in the interpretation of IQ scores by economists, sociologists, and research psychologists who have not witnessed variation in test motivation firsthand. [They] might erringly assume that a low IQ score invariably indicates low intelligence."

Is this view common? Sternberg thinks so, pointing to the fact that Duckworth's study was newsworthy enough to be published in PNAS, one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals. "[This shows] how off-track our society has gone in its acceptance of commercial persuasive appeals to buy into standardized tests as some kind of panacea for predicting almost any outcome in life that we value.

"The irony of the study is that it shows the tests indeed can be useful, but as joint measures of cognitive skills and motivation. The tests also indirectly measure many other variables, such as quality of schooling, type of socialization in the home, and parents' ability to provide their children with a home environment that fosters the kinds of skills that tests measure. IQ tests, like all tests, are agglomerate measures of many things. They are not pure measures of some kind of "intelligence" or anything else.

When I was a pre-schooler, my mother, a First Grade Teacher who stayed at home with us until we were in school, taught me First Grader skills well before I entered school. This resulted in my placement into First Grade while I was a lot younger than the rules allowed, and I remained the youngest in my class throughout school. (Not an advantage, believe me – I was a bully magnet, and the girls were three times my size). But my preschool maternal priming gave me an advantage on the I.Q. tests which in those days were administered prior to First Grade. I scored at the high end of superb, just one point off of colossal, a result that dogged me for a sizable portion of my life. (If I’d scored one point higher, I’d have had to kill myself to compensate for my failures). I remember my parent’s constant advice: ”you’re smarter than that!” (That’s not advice, Mom). I realized that the test which haunted me was rigged in my favor, or rather that I had been rigged to perform well on the test. In my mother’s mind, that test defined me, and she tailored me to the definition.

I did well in school, as was expected, until I reached Jr. High School. At that point, the narcissism which had been ingrained in me kicked in, and rebellion took over as I grew to hate all authority, especially those who ran schools and classes. That led to the inevitable rejection of the authority of any deity that might happen by. This rebellion, and the narcissism behind it, carried into my adult life where I continued to reject authority, including those who thought they were my boss in the workplace. This came to seem natural to me, because I was smarter and I had the test numbers to show it. The I.Q. test did, to a certain extent, define me.

This is one reason that I have to smile when Atheists gloat about their 3 percentage point margin in I.Q. testing; I think, Is that all ya got? But I also realize now (I have known for years, now) that I.Q. tests don’t tell much about the person, and as this study indicates, motivation and many other factors figure into the intellectual functioning of all people.

It would be well if all I.Q. testing were dropped, completely, in my opinion.