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Does Your IQ Actually Matter?
IQ does matter for certain careers, but not all.
Know that, from a psychological perspective, the Intelligence Quotient was developed as a measure to predict academic success.
It was never designed to identify any other intelligence, including what people commonly know as “street smarts”.
Most agree that, while IQ tests are great at determining academic success (and success in fields closely related to academics), it is a questionable determining factor for the broader sense of intelligence (which would include things such as creativity and social intelligence).
There is a popular theory among educators (not psychologists however, due to the lack of testability) that talks about 8 intelligences, known as the “theory of multiple intelligences”.
This theory includes things like musical intelligence, body-kinesthetic intelligence, and naturalistic intelligence, to name a few.
But even when you talk to psychologists about the IQ they will not be as outspoken as they used to be, because they know that it is merely a good indicator for success.
But, as with all of psychology, a “good indicator” means that there is a correlation between IQ and academic success (not a causation).
