William Cope
Pinakini Shah
Nadia Ayub
Miquel Colobran.png "Samuel Chukwuemeka Obasi")
Samuel Chukwuemeka Obasi
Sara RichterLearning, Knowledge and Human Development MOOC’s Updates
What are the dangers and uses of intelligence tests?
We learnt how to separate emotional intelligence to logical intelligence, while IQ tests mainly focus on the second one. It is good to know one person's potential, but we need also to extend the study to other aspects that are as important in the social interaction.
An IQ test basically measures someone's mental agility, whichincludes things like:
logical ability
mathematical skills
memory
language capabilities
problem solving
spatial relations abilities
So why IQ tests are so popular nowadays?
Psychologists help people to better interact in the society. Sometimes people are able to relate with others successfully, either at the school or at the workplace. An IQ test is used to make a initial assessment, together with other tools.
I see your point of view and while IQ tests are popular these days it is definitely worthwhile to note that it does only test one part of intelligence at the present state of mind of the subject. It also does not take into consideration the past mental states of the subject or the environment. Rather it focuses all it's attention to logical intelligence as you've mentioned.
Results are thereafter compared with children of the same age on an average level. Seeing to which are above or below the average levels of other children of the same age. These tests tend to limit the results to natural intelligence only, placing the candidates at a “blank” level of intelligence at the beginning of the test.
On the other hand, these same tests have helped diagnose many individuals with learning, development and cognitive disabilities.