Psychology Week 7 Discussion Board 1-2

Written by P. A. Owens on October 3, 2018

Week 7 DB 1-2

DB 1: Please take the provided online IQ test after watching the video and reading your text.  After completing the quiz, please respond that you have done so in the DB forum, and relate the test to what you have learned in your text and through other resources this week. Please do not indicate your score or allow your score to affect you in any way, as this is not a formally administrated test.

A)    What are your thoughts on the test and the process?

I personally love taking online quizzes and tests, I do them all the time for fun, so taking this IQ test was pretty fun for me. I thought it was a great test. I really liked the setup and each question. The process of tests online are always entertaining for me because, maybe I’m weird, I like taking them. Although this one was a little different than most I take, because there were two questions on one page before you could go to the next two. Whereas most online tests have either one question then you go to the next page, or they are all on one long page. This one was set up with mainly mathematical related questions, but maybe that’s how all IQ tests are, I’m not sure. Mathematics is definitely my Achilles heel so, it was a little bit challenging for me. Overall, I enjoyed the process and the challenge of the quiz. As our text states, all tests are not equally good tests… some may fail to actually test what they are designed for (Ciccarelli and White 2017). But I think this one did the job quite well. It gave me the score that I was expecting.

B)    What types of credentialed IQ tests are there?  How are these utilized?  Please be thorough in your response.

There are a ton of IQ tests all around the web, but the very first credited one was the Stanford-Binet Test. Another good, and popular, example would be the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, there are different tests pertaining to the person’s age, i.e. adult, children, preschool. As Sackett states, IQ tests are generally valid for predicting academic success and job performance (qtd. in Ciccarelli and White, 2017). Although they are not always accurate, they are a great place to start one’s academic or career success. They can tell a parent or teacher which grade a child should be in, or a potential boss if their aspiring employee is able to do the tasks expected of them if they are hired. IQ tests can come in quite handy for a number of reasons.

DB 2:

A)    Do you feel there is a difference in being intelligent and being smart?  Please develop this thought.

Yes, I do, very much so. I know a number of very smart people. They excel in classes such as calculus, physics, and even calculus-based physics. (I didn’t even know that was a thing.) But, they aren’t the greatest at making important or personal decisions. Even little ones, like what to say to comfort someone, or to compliment someone. What comes so easily to people who don’t always excel in calculus and physics often comes so much easier to them. When people think, they are not only aware of the information in the brain but are also making decisions about it, comparing it to other information, and using it to solve problems (Ciccarelli and White 2017). Often these very smart people are the ones who most easily give in to peer pressure, or they are the most easily swayed into doing things that are, to put it quite simply, stupid. Of course not all intelligent people are like this, there are lots of intelligently smart people around the world.

B)    How do you feel intelligence plays a role in an individual's life?

  Intelligence can be defined as the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. The people who are lucky enough to have exceeding amounts of intelligence are the ones who usually go on to get higher level college degrees and continue through life with great jobs and steady incomes.

C)    What do you believe determines or affects intelligence?  Can this be altered for good or bad?  If so, how?  If not, why not?

I believe that ones upbringing can, not always does, but can determine how intelligent a person ends up throughout life. For example, several studies have shown that if a parent reads a certain amount to their child per day, that child will excel more in their academic studies as they grow up. But of course that isn’t always the case. On the other hand, if a child is unexplainably intelligent, the whole reading everyday thing might not affect their intelligence level at all. Every person is incredibly different and each person’s needs are different from the other’s.

References:

Ciccarelli, Saundra K., & J. Noland White.  Psychology (REVEL with e-text/access code), 5th Edition.  Person 2017.  ISBN:  978-0134715305