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Questions & Answers
Question #1121539843Saturday, 16-Jul-2005
Category: Theory Typing IQ
What is the correlation between IQ and psychological type? If there is such a correlation, this would entail that smarter people can be identified based off appearance. Clarification please. -- Jonah Feldman
Your Answers: 1+ 12+ 25+ 44+
A1 There are many forms of intelligence that are not measured on the standard IQ tests. Many feel that standard test are culturaly, and ethnicaly biased. -- Topaz
A2 Aside from all controversies that lie in the credibility of IQ; I was simply wondering if there is a statistically significant correlation between certain psychological types and IQ. -- Jonah
A3 I would expect types with I, N, T and J characteristics to rank higher on standard IQ tests. Why? Because they are individually assessed (I), require abstraction (N), logical thinking (T) and ability to discard unlikely solutions (J). I've always benefited from this bias. -- Andre - INTj
A4 There should be no real bias due to the fact that having a "strong" function is a benifit AND a handicap. (Hang on...let me explain!) For sake of example, let us use the interpretation that the "T" functions ( and ) are the "smart" functions. By this interpretation, one would naturally assume that the "T" types would have a natural advantage over "F" types in an intellectual excercise such as a standard IQ-test. However, in socionics, a person is naturally confident about thier strong functions...(see where this is going yet?)...and therefore may be less inclined to question them ***even though they may be wrong***! So you see, they can come up with an answer that may be incorrect, and have unfounded confidence in this incorrect answer that perhaps an "F" type may question and be uncertain about an answer, therefore checking and re-checking until they stumble upon the solution. This kind of thing can even up the playing field. The corrolary to this follows from this situation: "For a million dollars Mr. ENTp, who are your REAL friends?" ( ) I would NOT say that the average ENTp would have a disadvantage in this circumstance, because they would be VERY sure that their answers were correct to the best of thier ability. See how it is? It is kind of like a football team that is good on paper, and has a better chance of winning, but they are so sure they will win that they get blown out. (See: Tortoise and Hare) A great example of this is the "Alpha Quadra reasoning", of which examples are very easy to find.... -- Some Random xNTx
A5 With respect to Andre's comment, it is probably true that most INTj's often have quite high IQ's-even though some might score lower than their true IQ due to a flawed test or a bad day, but I would venture a guess that most N types are in the higher IQ ranges due to their comfort with abstraction. In particular, many dominant intuitive feelers (ENFp and INFp)are often brilliant due to their super strong intution even though their feeling is probably not much of a benefit. An example is the actor James Woods who is supposedly an ENFP with a reported IQ of 180 (though that # seems rather high). Perhaps when dealing with the NTs, dominant intution/secondary logic is not an advantage over the dominant logic/secondary intuition types because the intellectual power of both functions. Thus, it's more likely that NT's and dominant intuitive NF's are most represented among those with high IQ's, but INFjs and ENFj's are often among the elite as well. I would say that on average the dominant thinkers with sensing as a secondary function would likely make up the second smartest group (in terms of IQ), because they have the logic, but weak intuition. Since Intuition with the emphasis on abstraction probably contributes more to a high IQ than thinking, these guys make up the second boat. Of course, this is just a guess, and I've met some pretty damn quick ESTp's and ESFj's, though I would guess that very few of them have IQ's over 130. -- Sam the INTj
A6 I.Q. measures all types of intelligence, including spatial reasoning and abstract thinking. The functions it tests are probably Ne, Te, and Ti predominately, however just as thinking types can have "deep emotions" or whatever, feeling types can have strong logical abilities that they normally don't use in day to day situations..... If by I.Q. you mean intelligence then i think it would be safe to say that there is no connection between I.Q. and type, after all socionics is based on the idea that there are many types of intelligence. Are INTX's doomed to be social retards? No, with proper training they can become very socially comfortable. It works both ways, ESFX's can be very good at math; there are smart people and dumb people of every type. The main difference is that an INTJ for example is a lot more likeley to build an identity off of his or her intelligence, while an ENFJ is a lot more likely to build an identity around his/her people skills. -- Woodrow
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A7 I know some ISTp who are capable of abstract thinking. Same about some ISFp`s, they can take never taken paths. I am considering as a very strong intelectual function. But is not intelectual. is semi-intelectual. Dont know about (I dont understand this;). -- f. - ENTp
Moderator's comment
cannot be considered as an intellectual function since its main purpose is to monitor the processes in the body and not the mental activity.
A8 The only proper answer to the original question in this discussion would be to submit experimental evidence demonstrating a correlation between IQ and Myers-Briggs type. I have not been able to uncover any in the literature. Working from theory and trying to predict how IQ would correlate on that basis is okay as a hypothesis. But if no one has done the research, then speculation remains speculation! The practical validity of Myers-Briggs is in much less dispute than its theoretical underpinnings in Jungian psychology -- and with good reason. -- Mark
A9 IQ is not dependent on personality type. This is a false relationship. IQ, in purist terms, is a measure of how efficiently one processes information within their cognitive structure. Socionics is simply the topography of that structure. I see no evidence either in theory or observation to suggest the terrain of some types is more treacherous than others. One may have a generally efficient or inefficient mind regardless of how their Ni, Ne, Ti, Te, Si, Se, Fi, and Fe functions are related to one another (i.e., their type). That being said, some personality types may score higher on IQ tests - thus appearing to have a higher IQ - depending on how the test was constructed. Developing accurate IQ tests is an ongoing challenge for scientists, especially as they continue delineating various kinds of intelligence. Cognitive efficiency is probably related to genetic neurological characteristics, whereas cognitive type is not related to inheritance. -- anonymous
A10 Since there is some conceptual wrestling going on I make it clear than when I say "I.Q." I mean result of a current Mensa test not a result of some hypotethical "perfect" I.Q. test that measures "real" intelligence. Hypothesis: - "Thinking" types on the average have higher I.Q. than "Feeling" types. If this doesn't hold I will eat my hat. This is because the I.Q. tests I have tried don't seem to measure anything related to Feeling function but many things related to Thinking function. I suck at Feeling but I shine at Thinking and I do pretty well on these tests. My inferior Feeling function is sometimes a real problem in life but I don't notice any problems when doing the test. Hypothesis: - "Intuitive" types on the average have higher I.Q. than "Sensing" types. I will not eat my hat if this is wrong but I will eat something which I don't like. Intuition is not the defining function in these tests but it certainly helps a lot by reducing the amount of thinking you have to do. A great intuition would probably make it possible for a Feeling type to achieve good result. My intuition is not comparable to "real" intuitive types and this, I think, prevents me from achieving a truly high I.Q. from the test. Hypothesis: - "Introvert" types on the average have higher I.Q. than "Extrovert" types. Introverted types are probably better at concentrating on these kind of tests and appreciate the results more so they are more motivated to achieve good results. May not have much to do with actual intelligence but Introverts most probably get better I.Q. from the test. Extroverts tend to think life itself is the "test" where you show your intelligence and the real measure is the amount of money/friends/babies/whatever you have. I won't make a hypothesis on Judging/Perceiving difference. It was suggested that j is better than p but my personal gut feeling is that p is better than j. You don't have to set any goals or make any plans or do any j type of things. You just have to solve ready made problems as quick as you can which suits p types very well especially introverted and thinking p types. Thus my personal favourite in I.Q. test would be INTp and I would make a small bet on this. Sorry for all INTjs out there who might get annoyed It almost seems like the current test is designed to encourage INTp self confidence which may sometimes be lacking One interesting thing about the I.Q. test is that the questions are not hard at all. Actually they are quite trivial. It is the time pressure that makes the test hard. -- ISTP who loves I.Q. tests
Moderator's comment
Well put...
A11 I agree for the most part with the previous answer. I believe that for the ENxP types, thinking or feeling relate more to how we make life decisions and relate to people than how we approach a problem. I have well-developed intuition and thinking, though given the choice I'll use my intuition every time. Interestingly, I believe my strong intuition has been a major help in my testing. Although I've never taken an official IQ test (I question the validity of online tests, which generally give me a score in the mid-130s) I scored a 1420 (720 verbal, 700 math) on the SAT and above 700 on both of the SAT 2 exams that I took in high school. My N and P functions likely helped me to go complete the tests quickly without much hesitation or need for my tertiary thinking function. -- Chris - ENFP
*Please note that the opinions expressed are not necessarily those of socionics.com*
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