Why do ppl base intelligence on IQ scores?

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People who don't know who they are will have problems with this!

Maybe I'm stating the obvious here, however, what I keep seeing is that people are confusing IQ with common sense. Take for instance, my son, who is off the charts in math IQ. But doesn't have enough common sense to put on his coat when it's 10 below outside. Especially if he's distracted by something else.

Is he stupid? By no stretch of the imagine. Just lacking in common sense, i.e. "maybe I should check the temperature before I actually expose myself to it". Same goes for others in other areas. For instance some people lack "street smarts" which covers a huge array of possiblilities for what fits into that category. Depending on which side of the street you frequent could depend on what qualifies as "street smarts" in that venue. For instance, if you live in an urban area, your street smarts may qualify as keeping your eyes on your shoes and never talking to anyone.

I think it's all relative. Flashing your IQ around is the same as boys looking at each other's dicks in the bathroom and thinking that their ability with women has something to do with the size. Or looking at the size of a woman's breasts and thinking her brain must by some demented ratio be exactly as much smaller.

People are people. You have to take each one on it's own merit in relationship to yourself. I don't like everyone on here although we all have a common ground. Does what they post on WP have anything to do with what kind of people they are in real life? No. You may get little glimpses of personality, but it is the entire make up of the person in general and how that meshes with yourself that counts and decides whether or not you will be able to get along.

I think I went off an a tangent, but the basic plot remains the same. IQ, as most other things, is commonly what the majority makes of it. So, as Inventor so eloquently phrased it, do you follow the herd for the sake of following the herd, or do you branch off and become the nerd herd. There is a certain quantity of conforming that must take place in most things social.

I'm also going to add, that IQ tests are a kind of standardized test. Take enough of them, learn the pattern and even the local village idiot could do well.

Yeah, because I guess that since I smoke pot, I couldn't possibly want to hear about your views on the matter or the reasons for your views. Who said it was about "agreeing"? I like a good debate. There are no need for smartass comments like "just for kicks".

And who can forget Sherlock Holmes and his "seven percent solution?" (cocaine)

Of course they are standardized tests- probably the first standardized tests to exist in fact. Otherwise you couldn't assign an IQ score. Standardized tests are those which have been "standardized" on a certain population- i.e. a mean and standard deviation has been calculated. Every formal test you would be given in a neuropsychological battery (ex. tests of visual-motor integration, language, even grip strength, etc.) are standardized tests. And of course if you take the same IQ test more than once (I'm talking about real IQ tests here by the way, not online ones), you'll do better simply because you'll have heard the questions before, will have had more time to think about them (some subtests are time dependent) and may have looked them up. There aren't enough *real* IQ tests out there for you to take enough to "learn the pattern" (e.g. practice the specific reasoning skills which are tested), however if you took a course or something designed to target specific types of reasoning skills, you could probably increase your score. That defeats the point of the IQ however. Barring certain mitigating factors, such as disability, ethnicity (in some cases), etc., IQ tests do provide a reasonable estimate of your ability to perform certain types of reasoning tasks, and have some correlation with academic potential. Not academic success necessarily, since the person may not be motivated, or may have ADHD or something like that, but the person's potential to do well in school. And if you tested the kids who seem "smart" in school, chances are they would have a high IQ. Now, how does this relate to success after school? Not so much, except in certain professions (ex. university professor perhaps).

Haha, touché!!

EXACTLY!

I told them on my MMPI that any idiot could manipulate the scores by just remembeing what they put down when they asked the question in a different way the time before!

then it was pointed out to me that 'it would have never occurred to an idiot' that the test could be manipulated in that way, and ALSO, no 'idiot' would have been able to detect the question was asked in a different way AND remember what they answered before.
This alone, showed my high intelligence.

and I thought, well, get a grip because any one could do it.

Merle

Look at how we are communicating with each other- Do you honestly think that either one of us is going to change his/her opinion?

I learned long ago the limitations between communicating with other people online(Especially in an argumentative sort of way.)

It usually just ends up with people lashing out at each other; like it is now.

Because people like quantitative data.

That's why.

I've never had a formal IQ test, but I've had a few informal guesses from people with knowledge about that kind of thing who have put me in the 130's range.

As far as I considered it, there are lots of stuff that could be put in quantitative data that isn't and other stuff that are put into numbers but shouldn't.

First, I think that most people haven't taken a real IQ test (administered under strict conditions), so that their cited "scores" are ambiguous at best. That being said, I scored SUBSTANTIALLY (more than a standard deviation) higher on an actual IQ test than on the "IQ tests" offered online.

That being said, I think that IQ's effect on everyday activities is marginal at best. Once you start getting far from the 100 mean is where you start to see some noticeable differences.

Personally, my high IQ hardly makes me infallible. I am naive by nature, and that often plays into "stupid" decisions I make. However, I don't take any notes in any of my classes, nor do I need to study for tests. I make generally high A's with the occasional B (this is my last semester in university).

I'm not sure if you were constructively asking a question, or if you just came to rant, but take this for what it's worth...

I have taken online IQ tests and always scored above average on them. However I dont really take them seriously at all because I dont know where these tests are coming from. I also think that IQ tests are biased (example: one question asked what states boarder nebraska, I think someone from that part of the US would know better then someone in china). My IQ scores from these various tests are sooo spread statistically I refuse to accept any as a true score.

Aspringers = average to above average intelligence from what I read. Many people I have contact with daily say I am a rather intelligent person, and real smart when it comes to my special interests (desert storm, astronomy, WW2, history to name a few) but I have done completly stupid stuff in my life, sometimes wayyy dumber then others. I dont even want to go into some of the stuff I did that is sooo stupidif makes me wonder if I am really intelligent at all.

I think their is a difference between book smart and street smart, I have no common sence at all and I think that has alot to do with it. I honestly dont beleive that their is an accurate universal measure of intelligence at all, IQ tests are sooooo faulty and bias that I dont bother at all accepting peoples scores and if someone has a higher IQ then I do (and on one post on here many claimed to have IQ's in the 130,140,150 and 160 range, quite funny cause really anywhere online you go the average IQ of people seems to be around the genius level ) I dont take it seriously much.

Its not about one person or the other changing their opinion.

Debate isn't argumentative until someone gets offended. I don't think she was offended all that much, brian.

aspies are not automatically...what is considered intelligent-aspergers requires an IQ above 75,one well known example of being exactly on the border of that is Barry George [man who killed Jill Dando] who has professionally tested IQ of 76 and diagnosis of AS.

Am agree with some of what Brian003 has said,but haven't answered before now as he wanted only certain type to reply.
Am think people get obsessed with IQ score way too much,rather than what they can actually do.
Being able to do the test doesn't show how well the person functions in society,how successful they are,how good they are with non academic things for example.
Am think it was last year or year before, a man in the UK killed himself because he did a intelligence test with his girlfriend [from that BBC intelligence game show,don't know what it was called but it's on every year] and she got a better score than him.
What a person does with their life is more important than some score.

Explain...