What is human intelligence and could it be measured?
That is the question to puzzle humankind since past and even the smartest ones have not come to exact conclusion.
IQ Score testing is one of the ways to ‘calculate’ and ‘systematize’ human intelligence, but it still does not answer all the questions.
IQ testing could be useful, especially in terms of selecting candidates for specific positions of employment, in educational terms and so on.
However, IQ scores do not reveal one’s actual full potential for success in life.
After all, IQ tests are used as predictors of lie success and that is how and why they were invented in the first place.
Let us talk about the history of IQ testing, since it would help us better understand the scores and meaning of the each one, with an accent on the range of IQ Score between 130 and 139, where your IQ 132 Score is to be found.
IQ Testing development summary
Since old times people have been trying somehow to measure human intelligence and determine its abilities and potentials.
However, it was a long road and we finally ended up with modern IQ tests that still have their holes and flaws.
The French psychologist Alfred Binet, along with his colleague Theodore Simon, created the very first IQ test in the beginning of the twentieth century.
Binet-Simon Intelligence Testing
Alfred Binet first created the test to provide sufficient information regarding children’s education in France.
At the time, the French government declared all children had to attend school.
However, it was logical to assume that not all kids have the same capacities, so they needed a determinant that would make it easier to select kids who would need special assistance in education.
Binet created the test based upon criteria that had not much to do with the educational content on its own.
He rather tested learning abilities, in terms of problem solving skills, memory capacities and attention. He soon discovered how some younger kids could show better results than some older ones, so he excluded the parameter of physical age and proposed that of mental age.
Binet’s test was meant as a predictor of success in life, based upon the educational capacity. It is what IQ test all show, but they do have many holes. Binet himself claimed that one factor is not enough to decide upon someone’s actual intellectual capacity.
Social context, personal background, experience and all of it could influence one’s intelligence, he thought.
This test could not actually measure the level of inborn permanent intelligence, since the intelligence itself is a very large and rich field, with too many sides to be all expressed only in an IQ standardized results.
Binet’s test was standardized in USA in 1916 and became a norm. The standardization was done by Stanford University.
Stanford-Binet and Army Alpha and Beta Test
Stanford University standardized Binet’s test for citizens of America, after applying it on American participants. This test became the standard IQ test in the USA. The results were expressed by the single number we all call an IQ Score.
During the First World War and for the purpose of selecting a great number of army recruits, USA invented two different army tests, Alpha and beta.
The first test was written and applicable on English speakers who knew how to read, of course, while the second one was in pictorial for, for those non-English speakers and recruits who did not know how to read.
Although those Alpha and Beta tests served the purpose of selecting candidates for specific army positions, its later use was questionable.
The thing is that these tests were later used, but not as a part of military practice. They were used by the government and applied on immigrant population.
The problem was that these allowed for making all sorts of sets of generalized opinions about certain nationalities, made excuse for great sweepings, restrictions and else amongst the population of immigrants.
WAIS – Wechsler Intelligence Test
Other experts shared Binet’s thoughts on incompleteness of IQ test criteria. One of them was David Wechsler, the American psychologist, who thought of Stanford- Binet IQ test as restrictive and not particularly reliable, since limited in results.
Wechsler invented special test for adults, WAIS or Wechsler Adult Intelligence scale test. He also created ones for children intelligence testing.
WAIS test was consisted of more than one criteria and it tests working memory, perceptual reasoning, processing speed and verbal comprehension. All these elements play an important role in human intelligence.
Moreover, this concept scored results comparing scores within the same age group. WAIS test was revised several times and this test is the most widely used one.
The problem with IQ tests is that they always open additional questions and potential problems.
For example, the question of race and nation, females and males and other potential parameters that could possibly affect the results and challenge its standardized application.
All IQ test have always been subject of debates and controversies.
An Average IQ and What Does It Reveal
Now, what is an average IQ? It is about 100 units of the scale. What does it tell about an individual’s intelligence? Honestly, not much. The problem is that IQ test does not tell about all the capacities of one human being.
For example, you could label one as not a particularly smart person; you could even think of him or her as simple or even dumb, but then this person shows up with incredible musical talent.
In other words, having an average IQ score does not mean you are an average person. You could definitely be a more than an average artist, a sportsman or else. It seems intelligence is far more complex category than we commonly think.
Emotional intelligence is another extremely important thing to consider. In fact, some psychologists claim it is even more important than IQ.
Although IQ is meant to be a predictor of success, based on one’s intellectual or, more likely, educational capacity, what does it matter to have a high IQ if you cannot process your emotions.
Emotional intelligence is more than being sensitive or not, but being capable of processing your emotions in relation with the world around you and everything in it.
In addition, other individual traits and characteristics determine the actual manifestation of one’s IQ in reality. A person of an average IQ could be perfectly successful with enough effort, patience, dedication and all.
A desperate and melancholic genius could be doomed to failure, as well. There is no guarantee for any of these options.
IQ Scores and Real Life Functioning
Some would say that even these individual traits and characteristics actually have to do with his or her level of intelligence. But then again, which criteria should be used then to measure these levels?
Since we have no answers to everything, we stick to what we accepted as standardized classification. Let us see what certain IQ ranges mean in real life, in order to get better idea about the very 132 IQ score.
The lowest of the scale is range below 20, which stands for ‘profoundly retarded’, with visible physical deformities usually, of short life expectancy, completely dependable on other people.
The next is ‘severely ‘retarded, within the range of 20 to 34; still dependant on others and usually not employable ones. Both of these low ranges are considered to be caused by brain damage in pregnancy or very early in life.
The next IQ score stands for ‘moderately retarded’, within the range of 35 to 49. These individuals could learn some very basic life hacks, but still have difficulties in everyday functioning and it would be best that they have supervised setting.
They could be employed, also in specific conditions. They could develop self-awareness, but still remain in the range that would be normal for childhood age.
IQ scores between 50 and 69 stand for ‘mildly retarded’. These individuals are capable of living alone, but it would be better that they have assistance. This level of retardation, as well as the previous one, is not acquired by any damage, but inherited.
The range 70 to 79 stands for ‘borderline retarded’. These people could be employed, with supervision, in doing simple tasks.
Range between 80 and 89 is labeled as ‘below average’. Below average intelligence quotient allows normal functioning without others’ support, but it is best they work in environment that does not open up the question of decision making considering multiple choices.
In addition, below average IQ range is one most commonly associated with violent behavior.
Average IQ is within the range 90 to 99. They could do task that require decision-making and from this range, theoretical studies are possible. Range 100 to 109 is also average; opens up ability of learning through written sources and some senior positions are perfectly fit for them.
Ranges of 110 to 119 and up to 129 are above average, equivalent to Bachelor and Master’s degrees.
Ranges above these, from 130 and up are considered high. The next range is labeled as ‘gifted’ and this is where your 132 IQ falls in.
Above these are 140 to 149, labeled as ‘intelligent’, 150 to 159, standing for ‘highly intelligent’, 160 to 169, ‘very highly intelligent’ and 170 to 179, ‘pervasively intelligent’.
So called ‘genius’ IQ score is 160 and up. Range between 180 and 185 is labeled as ‘exceptionally intelligent’.
IQ 132 Score Meaning
Range between 130 and 139 stands for those who are ‘gifted’. What does it mean to be gifted, in terms of Intelligence quotient scale?
This range, to which IQ 132 falls under, corresponds with PhD degree in so-called soft sciences.
People above IQ 130 are capable of extensive studies, have excellent logical abilities, are capable of writing legible text works and usually have great imagination and capability practically to apply their ideas.
We would commonly label them as ‘intellectual minds’. Regular psychology stops at this range, from which only high-range tests could be applied.
It is considered that further results are not particularly reliable in terms of whether they have to do with hereditary or something else. Anyway, IQ score of 132 is considered that of a ‘gifted’ person.
However, the actual manifestation of the score varies from person to person. Other factors, personality traits and else would affect the real lie functioning of a person with the IQ 132.
For example, it could be a person of amazing mathematical skills, quick minded and capable to offer instant and accurate solutions to complex tasks.
On the other hand, a person with this high IQ does not have to be so quick at all, but could be highly intuitive and extremely good logician, but needs more time to process it all and come up with some ingenious conclusion or solution to a problem.
This proves that parameters other than those included in a standardized IQ test play a great role upon actual manifestation of someone’s Intelligence Quotient.