The Role of Intelligence in Occupational Success: Exploring Social, Cultural, and General Factors

Abstract

Intelligence can have many different variations of definitions, however Garrett & Hough (2018) defined intelligence as "the ability to reason, to understand, and to profit from experience," (page 374). Intelligence is measured by the intelligence quotient, or IQ test. These tests are designed to produce a score for the individual of a mental age. This mental age score is then divided by the individual's age and multiplied by 100. If a child was performing average for their age, they would produce a score of 100. Typically, most people fall average or near average. There are only about 2% of the population who will score higher than 130 points or lower than 70 points (Garrett & Hough, 2018).  Alfred Binet developed the first intelligence test back in 1905. His reasoning behind the test was to identify children who were in need of special instruction (Garrett & Hough, 2018). To this day, the IQ test is still used in schools for this reason, however it can also relate to a person's job performance, income, and socioeconomic level. Because the test relates to socioeconomic level, critics of the IQ test believe that they are also relating academic performance and higher socioeconomic levels specifically because the tests were ultimately designed to reflect that success (Garrett & Hough, 2018.  Garrett & Hough (2018) go on to describe the structures of intelligence in that intelligence theorists fall into two groups: lumpers or splitters (2018). Splitters believe that intelligence is make up of many mental abilities that are independent of each other while lumpers believe that intelligence is "a single, unitary capability, called the general factor," (page 375).  In the journal titled Social Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence and Occupational Success: A Review of Literature, the author Dimpy Handa reviews many different literatures as it relates to intelligence and...