Intelligence vs Happiness

[gcol]

Memory is surely as important as intelligence, academically.

 

I seem to remember often having brilliant ideas and insights, but a week later, I have forgotten them....

 

I have heard that intelligence, as measured by standard tests, increases with age. Does that mean you do your best work on the day you die?

 

At my place of work, many years ago, the whole workforce was tested. All the techies beat the management. The results were, unsurprisingly, suppressed. We were smart and happy, they were dumb and miserable.

 

My IQ I believe to be in the mid 120's. Probably average for this forum. That begs the question, when the poll requires it, should that be vs average population?

[cosmic-chris]

I think intelligence is in the eye of the beholder, no one can know everything i think that this is a lesson to us all,also it is a complicated subject.All i have left to say is our brains are wired to pick up on a certain area or many and excell at that but who am i to say my brain has not excelled on this subject.And Remember some of the greteast thinkers were depressives.

[YT2095]

I have heard that intelligence, as measured by standard tests, increases with age. Does that mean you do your best work on the day you die?

 

in your case...

[Klaynos]

I have heard that intelligence, as measured by standard tests, increases with age. Does that mean you do your best work on the day you die?

 

I'd call that a flawed test.

 

IQ's as an example (a poor one I know) are supposed to be mental age / actual age *100 and are supposed to stay the same throughout life...

[drochaid]

I'd call that a flawed test.

 

IQ's as an example (a poor one I know) are supposed to be mental age / actual age *100 and are supposed to stay the same throughout life...

 

..well that depends who you talk to.

 

IQ test results vary by the time of day you sit the test, day of the week, how you're feeling, the ambiance of the room ffs! It's one of the biggest recognised problems with IQ/psychometric testing and I'm not aware of anyone having come up with a way to control the confounding variables.

 

I think intelligence is in the eye of the beholder, no one can know everything

 

You're confusing intelligence with knowledge, but they're different things.

[iNow]

I think intelligence is in the eye of the beholder,

A comment I used to say a lot was,

 

"Everybody is a genius in their own way. You just have to take your time and try to find out what that way is."

[DrDNA]

How come no I'm a lot smarter than everyone else and everyone is out to get me?

[cosmic-chris]

..well that depends who you talk to.

 

IQ test results vary by the time of day you sit the test, day of the week, how you're feeling, the ambiance of the room ffs! It's one of the biggest recognised problems with IQ/psychometric testing and I'm not aware of anyone having come up with a way to control the confounding variables.

 

 

 

You're confusing intelligence with knowledge, but they're different things.

 

Well if you didn't have knowledge you wouldn't have intelligence and vice a versa.

[drochaid]

Well if you didn't have knowledge you wouldn't have intelligence and vice a versa.

 

Well..... no.

 

The whole point of IQ testing in particular, is that it's testing ability, not knowledge. Having a phenomenal memory does not make you intelligent, it just gives you the ability to recall facts. Intelligence is the ability to interpret facts, however you come across them.

 

Yes, I know that's incredibly basic and far from entirely accurate, but intelligence and knowledge need to be kept quite seperate .. all I've tried to do is show the utter basics of where each is relevant.

[Mr Skeptic]

Well, intelligence and knowledge have a positive correlation. Having some knowledge can help you solve certain problems, and having more intelligence can help you acquire more knowledge. However, they are somewhat separate, with intelligence being closer to raw calculating power (like a cpu), and knowledge closer to raw data (like a hard drive). Then you also have working memory (which is like ram), which is also related to intelligence.

[Psyber]

I have an IQ above the 99th percentile and am generally very happy with my life, but it is never quite that simple. I do have times when I am frustrated and unhappy, and times when I would say I am average in mood.

 

And I am on antidepressant medication for a genetic predisposition that runs in the family, but that has been well controlled for 10 years after a bad two year patch. However, it recurs when I try to ease them out so I am staying on them, as so long as I do I am fine.

 

To look at any causal relationship between IQ and happiness you would need to eliminate from your sample all those with other genetic factors - that on Chromosome 6 carried by 8% predisposing to depression/OCD, and that on 11 linked to Bipolar Spectrum Disorders in possibly 2%. [i quote the Chromosome numbers from memory and I may not be absolutely correct.]

 

There has been a recent study suggesting that Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder may have a common genetic root.

 

Reference: Shao, L. Vawter, M. et al. 2008, ‘Shared gene expression alterations in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder’ Biological Psychiatry; doi.org /10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.11.010.

 

Well if you didn't have knowledge you wouldn't have intelligence and vice a versa.

Ravens Progressive Matrices tend to eliminate education and knowledge as a factor in testing. One could argue about whether they do so totally.

[Psycho]

Happiness is rather hard to quantify anyone because one might think they are above average happiness but if another person was in there mental state they may think they are only averagely happy.

 

There's an old saying: Ignorance is bliss. Those who know more tend to have less reasons for being optimistic.

You presume that being pessimistic makes them unhappy and they aren't just happy accepting that option, then of course if they are always pessimistic when things go there way surely that would be a better outcome than they expected, whereas if you are an optimist you leave yourself open to disappointment, however have the content feeling before the event occurs.

 

Then there is the rating of average intelligence, in the UK for instance if you take performance in exams as a sign of intelligence, which in most cases doesn't take into account many useful skills, then last year old 46% of people got more than 5 A* to C grades and realistically, 95% (if not more) of the people on this forum will have achieved that and further qualifications and therefore it is a greatly misrepresented sample.

 

I personally put above average intelligence and averagely happy, whether that be true is rather subjective, you need a set of test questions which there is an even distribution across to actually show it.

 

Recent studies also show that having a high income doesn't make you any happier and as long as you have enough for the basic necessities and aren't in any financial trouble then your happiness doesn't increase vastly, this maybe due to having to work longer to gain the money or not thinking you are reaching your full potential or the job causing you more stress amongst other reasons.

[Mag]

 

At my place of work, many years ago, the whole workforce was tested. All the techies beat the management. The results were, unsurprisingly, suppressed. We were smart and happy, they were dumb and miserable.

 

 

thats awesome!

I wish places where I worked would do that

 

anyways, I also agree, memory has much to do, but also not to do with intelligence.

For example, one kid in High School (Im a Soph and Uni now) and a GREAT memory. However, he seldomly thought of anything new or different, but he did remember everything.

[CrazCo]

Average intelligence + Uber dee duper happiness

[Severian]

I am awesomely intelligent, but the cool thing about me is that I am a nice guy with it. Not arrogant at all, and very modest and unassuming.

[Reaper]

Well, I take it that this thread has now become a haven for people with super inflated egos.

 

 

Of course, it is much easier to be a bullshitter online than it is in real life .

 

You know, it would be nice to see who voted for what.... can it be changed to reveal the shameless ones among us?

[falcon9393]

this reminds me of Vincent van Gogh he was a genius but was depressed and eventually went insane and cut off his own ear! i hope that doesnt happen to anyone else no one wants to talk to a crazy person!

 

"I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process." -vincent van gogh

[Zelos]

My IQ is 129 last I took a test. I'm pretty frequently depressed, because of humans mostly, and how foolish they are in most things. And kinda depressed sometimes about the futility of life. I suppose I could make myself happy if I wanted to, but seems kinda cheap to brainwash myself into being happy.

[SkepticLance]

To Zelos.

 

Recipe for happy.

 

Get together with your friends. Drink lots of wine. Get seriously lubricated. If that don't make you happy I do not know what will.

 

And I never claimed that happiness was continuous.

[Zelos]

I have no friends :\ Everyone I talk to can't comprehend whatever I talk about. Everyone in my area is a bit stupid IMHO. Plus all this high school stuff is annoying. And me liking DnD might cause them to reject me as well. But I don't really care. Oh, and underaged drinking isn't really my thang.

[klinka]

ppl are approaching this all wrong.

the only meaningful form of intelligence is happiness.

[SkepticLance]

klinka

Am I permitted to disagree?

If I take a big dose of heroine, I will be VERY happy.

Is that meaningful?

[Donut.Hole]

I don't think there's any correlation between intelligence and happiness. Sure, intelligence may put more strain on you because you may have more obligations, but does that mean you can't be a happy, intelligent person? Can a person of lower intelligence not feel depressed?

[thedarkshade]

I don't think there's any correlation between intelligence and happiness.

Have you never felt irritated how people just can't see things you do? Ever felt sad why people don't understand you?

[Donut.Hole]

Have you never felt irritated how people just can't see things you do? Ever felt sad why people don't understand you?

 

Sometimes. But I naturally keep my thoughts to myself in public (not the forums!). If they don't get it, I'm not too irritated about it.

 

Maybe I'm just weird, or I'm not intelligent enough to feel too much of a difference?