THE EQ MATTERS JUST AS MUCH AS THE IQ DOES

Nowadays virtually everyone has heard about a psychological measurement called the IQ (or Intelligence Quotient) score. This assesses a person’s strengths and weaknesses in areas including logic, spatial awareness, working memory, mathematical reasoning, general knowledge and certain kinds of literacy skills. Many of us are curious to know what our IQ scores are for self-knowledge and receive excitement or disappointment once a number is given for how intelligent we are determined to be. Yet when IQ tests were first developed in the early 20th Century, it wasn’t merely to create competition between highly intelligent people.

Over a century ago a French psychologist called Alfred Binet and his colleague Theodore Simon created the precursor to modern IQ tests for the purpose of assessing children with intellectual disabilities. The results from their IQ assessment were intended to be used to help educators tailor their instructions to the student’s individual needs.

In the present day, this is still more or less being done in quite a similar way. I and most of my siblings have had to sit a medical IQ test to assess our strengths, weaknesses and capabilities. Our results do give some clear indications of where we most need support, however in other aspects IQ tests alone can be very misleading.

The main reason for this is because extreme strengths (or even weaknesses) in one particular area can create an overall score which causes people to overestimate or underestimate our abilities. For instance, my (general) IQ score was assessed as being 121, and that causes many to falsely assume that I don’t need any support whatsoever with living independently. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The only reason why my overall IQ score jumped that high was because I received results in the high 130s/140s for tests that involved coding, working memory and word definitions.

However, in more recent years another psychological measurement is becoming
increasingly used in medical assessments. This measurement is called an Emotional Quotient (or an EQ). Generally, the EQ assesses a person’s ability to recognise, understand, manage and express their emotions. This also includes one’s ability to recognise and influence the emotions of other people. There are several reasons why the EQ matters just as much as the IQ does, and if there is a deficiency in just one of them (regardless of how high the other score is) it always significantly impacts a person’s life.

Areas of which an IQ test doesn’t assess are one’s ability to form/maintain personal relationships, to do jobs that require teamwork, to make decisions, to perform self-reflection, and (especially in today’s day and age) to handle one’s emotions and anxiety levels.

Assessing a person’s EQ as well as their IQ has now gained much more importance. This is mainly because many people with autism (including myself) don’t have a weak IQ yet still have a large number of support needs in emotional areas, and our current society's stress (and even anxiety) is impacting majorly upon people’s lives. That doesn’t solely include people with autism either.

In conclusion, I personally feel very pleased that EQ assessments are now being used medically and legally. As mentioned before, I have no deficiencies in my IQ, and all areas were considered to be above average. That was very worrisome because many people would downplay my support needs, and falsely assume that I didn’t need the mandatory care that I do need. Yet the EQ assessment which I recently sat saved me a lot. Just like it is for the IQ, an average EQ score is typically around 100. However, in all areas, I scored well below 50, which does indicate high support needs in my life.

Many don’t realise that there are so many times in our daily lives when we cannot get by with a high IQ alone. However, more needs to be understood.