IQ Test or Personality Test?
We live in world where we are consistently and continuously being critiqued, tested and measured against varying scales. The two main attributes that are said to contribute largely to a person’s success and outcome in life are their personality and IQ. However when these two elements are tested there are a few main distinct differences between them. The two methods of testing will be discussed in further detail below, and later further discussion on the very differences between them will be assessed.
The Personality Test
A personality test has a descriptive attribute, in the sense that it aims to describe aspects of a person’s character that remain constant throughout a person’s lifespan. When referring to character we mean the thoughts, behavior and feelings of that person. There was large interest in defining separate personality types in the early 20th century which was fueled by the interest in the topic of psychology, and with this interest, several tests emerged. To date there are many different types of personality tests. Frequently used personality tests contain a large number of items, in which the person being tested must rate the applicability of each item and relate it to themselves.
The IQ Test
An IQ (intelligence quotient) does not contain the descriptive attribute and is more objective in its purpose and its findings. An IQ test consists of a range of standardized tests, and which at the end of results in a score which represents your level of intelligence. IQ scores are used in various contexts, but largely as a means to predict educational or academic achievement, to predict level of income and job/task performance, and finally they are continually being used by social scientists who revise the allocation of IQ scores in populations and draw conclusions between the relationships of someone’s IQ score against a myriad of other variables.
The IQ Test, the Personality Test and the Differences
The most notable difference between the two tests is that they aim to measure two completely different things. However regardless of this from many corporate perspectives both personality and intelligence elements are significant in predicting someone’s future success and contribution.
Another big difference between personality and IQ tests is that the IQ tests are largely standardized so it becomes a lot easier to draw comparisons between large groups of people from varying geographical regions based on them, their quantitative nature makes them more measurable which aids this comparison factor greatly.
Arguably the biggest difference is depicted clearly by the phrase “the respondents must rate” which was used above when defining personality tests, the phrase shows that this type of test gives the respondent the power and the open choice to rate their own personality how they perceive it. This opens the tests up to large levels of bias and manipulation, hence the tests trustworthiness is questioned more so than IQ tests which have a more objective and measurable result, suggesting greater reliability and validity in comparison to the qualitative personality tests. Furthermore although in both test types the respondent has an incentive to present him or herself in a positive manner. In the case of personality tests they can lie and distort the information to display themselves in a positive manner where as in the case of the IQ test they cannot, so the difference is not just the emphasis on the respondent in one test in comparison to another, but the very fact that one test makes it possible for the respondent to positively distort where as the other does not.
On the topic of the qualitative nature of personality testing, we see that due to this the meanings of the test scores are hard to interpret and draw direct conclusions from. This results in the second big difference between the two tests, and that is that personality tests have “norms”, which are produced by the creators of personality tests as a means of creating a basis to interpret and contrast the respondents personality test scores, the IQ doesn’t require such norms so comparisons are a lot more transparent and directly measurable.
It can be seen that both personality and IQ tests hold great importance, however they are very different methods, and therefore have very different uses. The main differences being the aims of the tests, difference in the level of standardization between the tests, the varying threat of manipulation and bias between them, and finally the difference in perceived validity due to the nature of their results.